The document provides details about the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, France. Some key points: - It was designed by architect Charles Garnier and constructed between 1861 and 1875 as part of Napoleon III's renovations of Paris. - The building combines elements of Renaissance and Baroque styles with lavish decoration including multiple materials and statues. - Construction faced issues including discovering the site was on swampy ground and delays from the Franco-Prussian War. - The Palais Garnier has since become a famous architectural landmark and is known as the setting for Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera.

1. NAME: PRAJAKTA PATIL

2. PARIS OPERA
FRANCE

3. o A Parisian architectural jewel, the Palais
Garnier is an example of Napoleon III
architectural style, which ornately
combines elements of the Renaissance
and Baroque styles.
o The building, considered one of the
masterpieces of the second empire style.
o Its is the most famous auditorium in the
world.
o With 2,200 seats, this opera house
designed by Charles Garnier is admired as
one of the most prominent architectural
masterpieces of its time.
o It was constructed between 1861 and
1875.

4. o The Paris Opera was designed as part of the great Parisian reconstruction, which was initiated by Emperor
Napoleon III of the Second Empire.
o The emperor chose Baron Haussmann to supervise the reconstruction, first ordering that he clear 12,000 square
meters of land on which the theatre was to be built. This would be the second theatre for the world renowned
Parisian Opera and Ballet companies.
o An open competition was announced in 1861, which was won by Charles Garnier who was an unknown 32-year-
old architect at the time.

5. o Although the design of the building seemed to be just what Emperor Napoleon III had in mind, the setbacks
and natural disasters were not what the builders needed.
o Once construction had begun in 1862, it didn't take long before the workers realized a critical error in the
location on which the opera would be built; the ground of the lot was extremely swampy, under which flowed a
subterranean lake.
o This delayed the pouring of the concrete foundation, as the water had to be continuously pumped out, lasting
eight months.
o More setbacks troubled the builders, including the Franco-Prussian War, the subsequent fall of the Second
French Empire, and the Paris Commune.
o A fire raged for 27 hours straight in late October 1873, burning down the current theater known as the Salle Le
Peltier. This added extra pressure to complete the new theatre, and the massive workforce was able to finish
building the Palais Garnier by late 1874.

6. o It's inauguration followed soon after, in January of
1875, opening with a lavish gala.
o As the home of the original Phantom of the Opera, it
is said that the opera is haunted as a person was
killed in 1896 by a falling counterweight of the
grand chandelier. This incident inspired Gaston
Leroux in the original writing of the play, as did the
underground lake and cellars.

7. o Palais Garnier is of the Neo-Baroque style, a
term used to describe architecture that
encompasses the key characteristics of
Baroque style although built after the proper
time period.
o The monumental style can also be classified as
Beaux-Arts, with its use of axial symmetry in
plan, and its exterior ornamentation.
o One of the major urban implications of
the Paris Opera is it's location at the northern
end of Avenue de l’ Opera in France.
o It's role as the terminal axial point suggests
that as a public space, it should hold much
importance in the community.
o The façade and the interior followed the Napoleon III style principle of leaving no space without decoration.

8. o Garnier used variety of colors, for
theatrical effect, achieved different
varieties of marble and stone, porphyry,
and gilded bronze.
o The façade of the Opera used seventeen
different kinds of material, arranged in
very elaborate multicolored marble friezes,
columns, and lavish statuary, many of
which portray deities of Greek mythology.
o The structural system is made of masonry
walls; concealed iron floors, vaults, and
roofs.
o The Palais Garnier is 56 meters (184 ft)
from ground level to the apex of the stage
Fly-tower ; 32 meters (105 ft) to the top of
the facade.
o The building is 154.9 meters (508 ft) long;
70.2 meters (230 ft) wide at the lateral
galleries; 101.2 meters (332 ft) wide at the
east and west pavilions; 10.13 meters
(33.2 ft) from ground level to bottom of
the cistern under the stage.

9. o The Paris Opera was meant to be a social gathering space for the people, which is reflected in the interweaving
corridors, stairwells, landings and alcoves which allow movement of large masses of people while also
permitting socializing during intermission.
o Palais Garnier became an influential architectural prototype for many theaters built around the world.

10. o The principal façade is on the south side of the building.
o Fourteen painters, mosaicists and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its
ornamentation.

11. Front view, 1890
East façade and the Pavilion
The facade in November 1866 The facade on 15 August 1867

12. o The interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells, alcoves and landings, allowing the movement of large
numbers of people and space for socializing during intermission.
o Rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness.
o The dome sits above the audience and orchestra, the high roof over the stage. Behind the stage are the rehearsal
rooms where Degas often sketched.
interior

13. o The building features a large ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble,
which divides into two divergent flights of stairs that lead to the Grand Foyer. Its design was inspired by Victor
Louis’s grand staircase for the Theatre de Bordeaux.
o The pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse.
o No space is left undecorated: the Grand Staircase seemingly stolen from a storybook, the Salon de la Lune’s and
Salon du Soleil’s lamps reflected in facing mirrors to infinity. And the Grand Foyer’s Baroque furnishings - ornate
columns, multitiered chandeliers, a painted ceiling - are enough to make oneself faint or feel, for one night, like
the star of your own fairy tale.
THE GRAND STAIRCASE

14. Engraving from Garnier's Nouvel Opéra, 1880Photograph from Musee Carnavalet Paris,1877

15. For the 350th anniversary — the company commissioned a series of installations, “Saturnales,” by the French artist
Claude Lévêque. One of them, created with the Paris Opera’s workshop, is a pair of gilded tires that blend
seamlessly with, and even add rhythm to, the Garnier’s Grand Staircase.

16. o This hall, 18 meters (59 ft) high, 54 meters (177 ft) long and 13 meters (43 ft) wide, was designed to act as a
drawing room for Paris society. It was restored in 2004.
GRAND FOYER

17. o Its ceiling represents various moments in the history of music.

18. o The foyer opens onto an outside loggia and is flanked by two octagonal salons with ceilings in the eastern salon
and on the western salon.
o The octagonal salons open to the north into the Salon de la Lune at the western end of the Avant-Foyer and the
Salon du Soleil at its eastern end.

19. o The audience sits centered around a hanging chandelier, weighing over six tons, and the large stage was built to
accommodate up to 450 artists. The stage is the largest in Europe.
o It is opulently decorated with marble friezes, columns, and statuary, many of which are used to portray deities from
Greek mythology.
AUDITORIUM

20. o The auditorium has a traditional Italian horseshoe shape and can seat 1,979.
o The canvas house curtain was painted to represent a draped curtain, complete with tassels and braid.

21. Auditorium
Postcard from 1909

22. CHANDELIER

23. o Originally the chandelier was raised up through the ceiling into the cupola over the auditorium for cleaning,
but now it is lowered. The space in the cupola was used in the 1960s for opera rehearsals, and in the 1980s
was remodeled into two floors of dance rehearsal space.
o The seven-ton bronze and crystal chandelier was designed by
Garnier.
o Jules Corboz prepared the model.
o The total cost came to 30,000 gold francs.
o The use of a central chandelier aroused controversy, and it was
criticized for obstructing views of the stage by patrons in the
fourth level boxes and views of the ceiling painted by Eugène
Lenepveu.
o Garnier had anticipated these disadvantages but provided a
lively defence in his 1871 book Le Théâtre: "What else could fill
the theatre with such joyous life? What else could offer the
variety of forms that we have in the pattern of the flames, in
these groups and tiers of points of light, these wild hues of
gold flecked with bright spots, and these crystalline
highlights.”
o On 20 May 1896, one of the
chandelier’s counterweight’s broke free and burst through the
ceiling into the auditorium, killing a concierge.

24. THANK YOU…