Opera Bastille in Paris

Of the two main opera houses in Paris, the Opera Bastille is the newer one that was built in the year 1989. Designed by an unknown Canadian architect, Carlos Ott, the Opera Bastille of Paris was built under the initative of the then president of France, François Mitterrand and was named after the place, de La Bastille.

On the 200th anniversary of the 'storming of the Bastille', the building of Opera Bastille was inaugurated on July13, 1989 by a grand concert featuring renowned singers like Teresa Berganza and Placido Domingo. The program was conducted by Georges Pretre and gathered a large crowd.

With the first performance being staged on March 17, 1990 , the L'Opéra de la Bastille has fast become a very popular opera house in Paris. Today, Opera Bastille is a modern opera house and the home base of the famous Opéra National de Paris. Berlioz's Opera called the Les Trovens was the first opera that was staged in Opera Bastille.

Situated at de La Bastille, the Opera Bastille in Paris is an enormous structure spreading over an entire city block and rising as high as 30 stories. The building is so huge in size that just the corridor measures well over 45 kilometers. While the auditorium and the stage is just four percent of the total volume of the building, the size of L'Opéra de la Bastille's auditorium is way larger than any of the normal opera houses in France. The house can seat as many as over 2,700 audience at a time and there are over 22,000 square meters on each level of the structure. In the large backstage area of Opera Bastille, there are all infrastructures that are required to support a world-class grand-opera production. Several workshops are also held in this part of the house.

Easily accessible by metro, the Opera Bastille in Paris is an impressive structure and one of the largest and the best opera houses in Paris and a must see for all tourists who come to the beautiful city of France.