Background and construction The idea of a new "popular and modern"
opera house in Paris first arose in the 1880s, only years after the opening of the
Palais Garnier. It would remain virtual for a century and reemerge periodically due to the recurrent "crisis at the Opera" and to the limitations imposed on modern opera production by the palais Garnier. It was notably promoted in 1965–1968 by stage director
Jean Vilar, the most prominent figure in "popular theatre" at the time, who had been commissioned a reform project for the
National Opera Theatre and echoed composer
Pierre Boulez’ provocative appeal to "blow up opera houses", as well as by senior civil servant
François Bloch-Lainé in a 1977 report on the Opera's management and perspectives. In 1981, the newly elected President
François Mitterrand included a new opera house in his large monument-building programme known as the "
Grands Travaux". The project was originally part of the
Cité de la musique, a complex of musical institutions in North-Eastern Paris. It was quickly decided to separate it and to build it in the
Bastille area of Paris, a relatively working-class district that also evoked the
French Revolution and was a traditional starting or ending point for
demonstrations. The following year, an
international competition was launched, under supervision of the Opéra Bastille Public Corporation (EPOB), to select an architect. 756 entries were received, and, in November 1983, the competition was won by little-known architect
Carlos Ott, an
Uruguayan living in Canada. It was said that the jury, who—as it is common with architectural competitions—did not know the names or track-records of the entrants, mistakenly assumed the design was by the distinguished American architect
Richard Meier. Construction began in 1984 with the demolition of the
gare de la Bastille train station, which had opened in 1859 and closed in 1969, and where art expositions had been held thereafter. In 1986, the new right-wing government led by
Jacques Chirac considered canceling the project, but eventually decided it was too advanced and gave it the green light again. President Mitterrand remained personally involved throughout the building process, to the point that the planning team referred to him to decide on the seats’ colour following internal disagreement. (He chose black.) In the original project, the house also included a small
concert hall and a multi-purpose hall ("
salle modulable"). The latter was a public request by Pierre Boulez, who had long been publicly lamenting the lack of a proper venue for
contemporary music and
experimental performances in Paris. However, due to the
construction delays, it was eventually shelved, much to Boulez’ irritation, and a similar facility was eventually built as part of the Cité de la musique. The concert hall, known as the Bastille Amphitheatre (
amphithéâtre Bastille), was maintained and built. After massive
budget overruns, the final construction cost was at 2.8 billion
French francs. The building was inaugurated by François Mitterrand on 13 July 1989, on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the
storming of the Bastille, in the presence of thirty-three foreign heads of state or heads of government. A semi-staged gala concert, directed by
Robert Wilson under the title
la Nuit avant le jour (
The Night Before the Day), was conducted by
Georges Prêtre and featured singers such as
Teresa Berganza and
Plácido Domingo. The Paris Opera's traditional
Bastille Day free concert was given there the following day. The opera house was unfinished at the time of the official inauguration, and did not see its first opera performance until 17 March 1990, with
Hector Berlioz’
les Troyens, directed by
Pier Luigi Pizzi.
Troubles and controversies The Opéra Bastille's management and reputation were marred by a number of controversies and scandals in the house's first decade, from before its opening. In 1987, conductor
Daniel Barenboim, who had previously led the
orchestre de Paris, was hired to become the house's first Artistic Director, and began planning the first seasons. In January 1989, six months before inauguration, the company's board chairman
Pierre Bergé, otherwise head of the
Yves Saint Laurent fashion house, fired Barenboim, reportedly after the conductor's refusal to cut his pay by half as well as due to his modernist stance, which Bergé deemed unfit for a "popular" opera house. It was also noted that Barenboim had been hired by a right-wing government, while Bergé was a prominent supporter and donor of the
Socialist Party. This decision proved extremely controversial in the artistic field:
Patrice Chéreau backed off the staging of the inaugural gala, composer
Pierre Boulez resigned from the Board of Directors, and
Herbert von Karajan and
Georg Solti, along with several other prominent conductors, signed a letter of protest and called for a
boycott of the opéra Bastille, canceling their own concerts there. This made the search for a new artistic director difficult; in May, Bergé was finally able to announce the appointment of Korean pianist and conductor
Myung-whun Chung, then young and practically unknown in France. Chung took the pit for the first opera performance in May 1990. Although his term was later extended to last until 2000, Chung was fired in 1994 after the right-wing coalition's election victory, the end of Pierre Bergé's board tenure and a power play with the company's Director designate,
Hugues Gall, who cancelled his contract; at the height of the conflict, Chung was physically prevented from entering the building despite a judicial ruling in his favour. The building was as much a source of trouble as the leadership conflicts. As early as 1991, a few of the 36,000 Burgundy limestone panels covering the facade began to fall, which led to the installation of
safety nets over some external walls in 1996; they were dubbed "condoms with holes" by the disgruntled Director. Several major alterations had to be carried out in the following years, including that of the
soundproofing structure and adjusting the
orchestra pit's acoustics; each change proved complex and sometimes involved court proceedings to determine who was responsible. The facade problems were not solved until 2009 with the installation of new tiles made of composite material and attached differently. However, as of 2022 many nets were still in place on the facades.
Operations The Opéra Bastille was originally expected to become the company's sole opera venue, with the Palais Garnier turned into a dedicated
ballet venue. However, this strict division was abandoned in the 1990s when some operas were performed at the Palais Garnier and the company's ballet also danced at the Bastille. Since then, most opera performances take place at the modern house with some ballet performances and a few symphony concerts every season, while the traditional house presents a mix of opera and ballet performances. Hugues Gall, who took over as the Paris National Opera's Director in 1995, was originally an opponent of the Bastille project, famously quipping that the new opera house was "the wrong answer to a problem that did not exist". In his nine-year term, he is however credited with stabilising the company's administrative, artistic and financial situation, partly due to the possibilities offered by the modern theatre: higher revenues due to the larger
seating capacity, wider range of technical means for stage directors, better working environment, higher scheduling flexibility. == Design ==