On the eve of the Opéra Bastille’s thirtieth anniversary, the Paris Opera is presenting a selection of original photographs drawn from three news reports conducted between 1984 and 1989 during the construction phase on the site of the former railway station, from when the building first began to take shape up to its final inauguration.
Since its inauguration on July 13 1989, the Opéra Bastille has never ceased to provoke opinions from critics and admirers alike. Indeed, nothing goes unnoticed: the architectural aesthetics, the acoustics— considered less than satisfactory before unanimously recognised improvements were made, a seating capacity without precedent in Europe and offering optimal visibility from all seats, stage and technical areas unequalled in the world—which nonetheless required a long period of fine-tuning…
For 30 years, the theatre has stood at a strategic site in the capital where history and modernity meet, boasting 2,750 seats and able to stage as many as 300 performances a year thanks to its technical features and systems. On the eve of the Opéra Bastille’s thirtieth anniversary, the Paris Opera is presenting a selection of original photographs drawn from three news reports conducted between 1984 and 1989 during the construction phase on the site of the former railway station, from when the building first began to take shape up to its final inauguration.