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Opera

Nixon in China

John Adams

Opéra Bastille

from 24 February to 20 March 2026

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Ballet
New

Impressions

Morgann Runacre-Temple, Jessica‎ Wright / Marcos Morau

Palais Garnier

from 11 to 28 March 2026

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PARIS OPERA PLAY

New streaming releases this month

Médée, Aida, Behind the scenes at the Opera

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Opera

Carmen

Georges Bizet

Opéra Bastille
from 07 February to 19 March 2026
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Concerts and Recitals

Entre Ardenne et Bretagne

Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen
on 04 March 2026 at 8 pm
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Opera

Tosca

Giacomo Puccini

Opéra Bastille
from 12 March to 18 April 2026
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Life at the Opera

  • Revisiting the imagery of ballet
    Video

    Revisiting the imagery of ballet

    Watch the video

  • Rusalka: the true/false story
    aria

    Rusalka: the true/false story

    Discover

  • NIXON IN CHINA : Is sport political?
    Video

    NIXON IN CHINA : Is sport political?

    Watch the video

  • In the spotlight - Arena in rehearsal
    Video

    In the spotlight - Arena in rehearsal

    Watch the video

  • About the choreography of Empreintes
    Article

    About the choreography of Empreintes

    Read the article

  • 5 questions about John Adams
    aria

    5 questions about John Adams

    Discover

  • Nixon in China: the true/false story
    aria

    Nixon in China: the true/false story

    Discover

  • 5 questions about: Carmen
    aria

    5 questions about: Carmen

    Discover

  • Tosca’s Cross
    Article

    Tosca’s Cross

    Read the article

  • Draw-me Carmen
    Video

    Draw-me Carmen

    Watch the video

Revisiting the imagery of ballet

Watch the video

Étude in rehearsal

5:15 min

Revisiting the imagery of ballet

By Antony Desvaux

For the Empreintes show at the Palais Garnier, Marcos Morau creates Étude for the Paris Opera Ballet. The Spanish choreographer draws inspiration from elements of the world of classical dance, such as tiaras, tutus, and flowers during curtain calls, but revisits them in a new light. Marcos Morau explains how the different moments that lead from the studio to the stage, such as warm-ups, barre work, exercises in the middle, then backstage, are used, sometimes not in the usual order, to explore the imagery specific to the world of ballet. Finally, Marcos Morau discusses his work in the studio with the Opera dancers.  

Impressions

Ballet

Impressions

Morgann Runacre-Temple, Jessica‎ Wright / Marcos Morau

Palais Garnier
from 11 to 28 Mar 2026

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© Guergana Damianova / OnP

Rusalka: the true/false story

Discover

01 min

Rusalka: the true/false story

By aria

An enchanted lake under the moon, some fantastic creatures, unfaithfulness. Will you untangle this complex synopsis of Rusalka? You’re up!  

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Rusalka

Opera

Rusalka

Antonín Dvořák

Opéra Bastille
from 02 to 20 May 2026

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NIXON IN CHINA : Is sport political?

Watch the video

1:57 min

NIXON IN CHINA : Is sport political?

By Théo Schornstein, Valentine Boidron

Before President Nixon's visit to Beijing, a gesture between two table tennis players opened a rift between China and the United States. How did ping-pong pave the way for a major geopolitical shift?

Discover all the secrets of John Adams' Nixon in China in this episode of À l'affiche, new format!

Nixon in China

Opera

Nixon in China

John Adams

Opéra Bastille
from 24 Feb to 20 Mar 2026

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In the spotlight - Arena in rehearsal

Watch the video

Interview with Ida Viikinkoski

4:22 min

In the spotlight - Arena in rehearsal

By Antony Desvaux

For the Impressions show scheduled at the Palais Garnier, Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple are creating Arena for the Paris Opera Ballet. 

Dancer Ida Viikinkoski discusses her work in the studio with the two British choreographers, particularly the use of live video in Arena. She also details the different methods used by Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple to create and develop their choreographic material. 

Finally, she explains the meaning of the piece and its title: the idea of an arena where everyone, like in today's society, is competing with others to take center stage and dominate the screens.

Impressions

Ballet

Impressions

Morgann Runacre-Temple, Jessica‎ Wright / Marcos Morau

Palais Garnier
from 11 to 28 Mar 2026

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© Alexander Massek

About the choreography of Empreintes

Read the article

02 min

About the choreography of Empreintes

By Octave

Our collaboration began 15 years ago with the creation of dance films. Together, we developed a choreographic cinematic language rooted in visual storytelling, creating detailed worlds governed by specific rules. Arena is our new stage and film experience, in which we continue to explore the relationships between our live film and choreographic practices.

The story follows an imaginary community of people thrust into a high-stakes competition where there can only be one winner. The group retreats and oscillates, allegiances shift, individuals lose and gain ground. All this in a race to find a place in the spotlight.

Arena approaches technology as both a theme and a means of expression. Confronted with our own image staring back at us, the work poses the question: “Where does my identity stabilize, where do I find myself?” It draws inspiration from our unease with the implications of being everywhere at once.

For us, cinema has always been a playful means of expression, and our work consists of creating illusions, using post-production to enhance, distort, and subvert reality. Although much of the cinematographic work in Arena consists of broadcasting live what is happening on stage, some more traditional elements of cinema are also used to tell the story.

Live cinema on stage involves a significant amount of risk, and we invite the audience to witness this. And even more so to participate in it, by choosing where to focus their gaze: on the bodies or on the film. The real, or the replica.

Impressions

Ballet

Impressions

Morgann Runacre-Temple, Jessica‎ Wright / Marcos Morau

Palais Garnier
from 11 to 28 Mar 2026

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© Deborah O’Grady

5 questions about John Adams

Discover

01 min

5 questions about John Adams

By aria

Have you ever heard of American composer John Adams? He’s one of the most-performed contemporary music composers. Although his style is usually classified ‘minimalist’, Adams thinks big. Let’s have a look.  

Discover
Nixon in China

Opera

Nixon in China

John Adams

Opéra Bastille
from 24 Feb to 20 Mar 2026

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© Elena Bauer / OnP

Nixon in China: the true/false story

Discover

01 min

Nixon in China: the true/false story

By aria

A Sino-American meeting right in the middle of the Cold War… Will you spot the wrong facts from the truth in this John Adams’ opera Nixon in China quiz? It’s go time!  

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Nixon in China

Opera

Nixon in China

John Adams

Opéra Bastille
from 24 Feb to 20 Mar 2026

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© Emilie Brouchon - OnP

5 questions about: Carmen

Discover

01 min

5 questions about: Carmen

By aria

With Carmen, in 1845, Mérimée painted the portrait of a rebellious and cruel gypsy, inspired by the profiles of the women he had encountered during his many trips to Spain. While the character in the opera is somewhat toned‑down, she nonetheless remains passionate and profoundly Latin. Extremely popular with 19th century audiences, Carmen was also a figure fondly embraced by artists and depicted from a variety of different angles: the pernicious femme fatale, the fortune‑teller, the free spirited, emancipated woman…

Carmen

Opera

Carmen

Georges Bizet

Opéra Bastille
from 07 Feb to 19 Mar 2026

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© Eléna Bauer/OnP

Tosca’s Cross

Read the article

Memories of a production

04 min

Tosca’s Cross

By Alexandre Gaillard

In 2014, Pierre Audi signed a new production of Tosca. Together with set designer Christof Hetzer, he imagined a set with the shadow of a cross hovering above it, thus making the political and dramatic implications of the libretto tangible.

Alexandre Gaillard, head of the Set Design Department at the Paris Opera, reveals the genesis of the production's set, which proved to be an adventure worthy of the work.  

Alexandre Gaillard is Head of the Set Design Workshops in the Technical Department.

The set for Tosca underwent several adjustments between the initial presentation of the drawings and its final realisation at the time of its creation in 2014. When the models were submitted, the design consisted of just a single cross: in Act I it was on the stage. 

To show us its position in Act II, Christof Hetzer took hold of it, put two strings round it and there it was suspended above his set. To the problems of a cross on the stage were therefore added the difficulty of suspending it. For us, these problems required completely different technical solutions prompting us straightaway to envisage two different crosses. However, the illusion that the cross is the same before and after the interval remains intact for the audience.   

Scène finale de « Tosca »
Scène finale de « Tosca » © Christian Leiber/OnP

The hanging cross is the one that required most thought. First of all, we reconsidered its shape and dimensions with the scenographer. It required three motors to suspend it and it had to be mobile which provided an additional challenge.

We had to consider how to construct a metallic skeleton for the cross as well as the best way of covering it, that is to say, its exterior panels and their decoration. We had to recalculate the dimensions three times before we found the best structural solution: a framework in aluminium tubing reinforced at strategic points with steel elements.

Next, we had to find the best solution for the exterior: it was made mostly out of a composite of polystyrene, carbon fibre and resin which allowed for very rigid but also very light panels.

The Scenery Workshop had one last challenge to face: making the material as light as possible. When the first samples were shown to the scenographer, the decorative layer weighed 1.5kg per m2. After a series of tests, the decorators managed to reduce the weight by half and still produce the same visual effect.

Our combined efforts resulted in an overall weight of 2.7 tons and a maximum of 960kg at the leverage points (the limit was 1 ton per motor). Rarely had a set demanded such an investment on the part of the technical and artistic workshops and the Design Department.

The first time we suspended the cross in the workshop it looked so intimidating that we hardly dared walk underneath it. It’s a marvellous piece of opera scenery in that it is full of paradoxes: it’s a highly monolithic object, the rock-like appearance of its outer covering reinforces the impression of density and contributes to the oppressive quality of its presence on stage, although in fact it was made as light as possible and is largely hollow, composed of emptiness.

I was trained as an engineer and have a diploma from the Arts & Métiers school. For me, working at the opera really is “engineering” in the fullest sense of the term. Over and above technical realism, it requires creativity, ingenuity and perseverance to go the extra mile and come up with the bright ideas that will allow you to bring the artist’s vision to life on stage.   

Tosca
Tosca 3 images

Interview by Milena Mc Closkey

Tosca

Opera

Tosca

Giacomo Puccini

Opéra Bastille
from 12 Mar to 18 Apr 2026

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Draw-me Carmen

Watch the video

Understand the plot in 1 minute

1:09 min

Draw-me Carmen

By Octave

“Carmen will never surrender, born free, free will she die”cries Bizet’s heroine to Don José at the end of the opera. This irrepressible freedom, coupled with a need to live ever more intensely on a knife-edge, is present in Calixto Bieito’s production as in no other.

Of Mérimée’s character, Bieito’s Carmen retains her thoroughly Iberian contours and the burning temperament of a woman who lives by small-time trafficking. However, the rebel bird is essentially a creature of our own times. A brazen and indomitable seductress and a product of social and masculine brutality, she lives life in the fast lane, avid for existence.

Carmen

Opera

Carmen

Georges Bizet

Opéra Bastille
from 15 Nov 2022 to 25 Feb 2023

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News

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  • Learn more

    19 février 2026

    New

    Paris Opera’s Tribute to José Van Dam

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    06 janvier 2026

    Appointment of Semyon Bychkov as Music Director of the Opéra national de Paris

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    11 février 2026

    Carmen: cast change

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    14 janvier 2026

    Siegfried: cast change

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    31 décembre 2025

    Tribute to Robert Massard

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    22 décembre 2025

    The Paris Opera unveils its Trivial Pursuit

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    21 décembre 2025

    Message to the audience

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    11 décembre 2025

    Siegfried: cast change

  • Learn more

    02 décembre 2025

    Giving Tuesday: The Paris Opera for all

  • Learn more

    01 décembre 2025

    Eugene Onegin: cast change

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Place de la Bastille
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