1861-1875 : The construction of Charles Garnier's Opéra

Résumé du document

I do not engage politics with monuments, I have quite enough to do with architecture', said Charles Garnier, the architect of Garnier's Opéra in Paris. The construction of Garnier's Opéra was launched by Napoléon III and represents one of the most sumptuous buildings of the 19th century. Between the creation of the Académie Royale de Musique by Louis XIV in 1669, and the completion of Garnier's Opéra in 1875, opera had not a specific building in Paris. In 1869, Napoléon III decided the construction of a new opera. He knew that it would be a political symbol of the Second Empire's power. A competition was launched to find an architect and the winner was Charles Garnier, a young architect of 36 years old. In 1861, he started the construction of this prestigious monument that was part of Haussmann's renovation plan. The building of the new Opéra took fifteen years. It was interrupted by many incidents as the war against Prussia, the fall of the Second Empire (1870) and the Commune (1871). The construction of Garnier's Opéra is very interesting because political events interact with the completion of this architectural masterpiece. If Charles Garnier used to say that politics were not represented in its design, the influence of the Second Empire is obvious. In fact, political decisions were so important in the building's construction that one could ask if Garnier's Opéra was just a political symbol, used differently by two distinct regimes.

Extraits

[...] Yet, the construction restarted because of the fire of 1873 that ravaged the Opéra of the street Le Peletier. Moreover, the Third Republic turned the Opera into a political symbol, a republican symbol. If the Third Republic financed the Opéra's completion, it also redefined the Opéra as a symbol of the republican rebirth. The night opening of the Opéra, on January the 5th 1875, which was also the opening day of the Chamber, is a manifestation of a new national pride. [...]

[...] Even the construction of the Opéra Bastille, which began in 1984, Garnier's Opéra remains the Parisian's favorite Opéra. In 1994, it became the “Opéra national of Paris” to express its influence beyond the capital. Bibliography Books in English Specialized books - Christopher Curtis Mead, Charles Garnier's Paris Opera, Architectural Empathy and the Renaissance of French classicism, The MIT Press - Charles Garnier's Opéra, Architecture and exterior decor, Opéra National de Paris, Centre des monuments nationaux/Editions du Patrimoine, Paris 2000 Guides - Renzo Salvadori builings to see in Paris, Icon editions - André Gabriel, Guide to the Architecture of monuments in Paris Editions alternatives, Paris - Michel Poisson, Paris, buildings and monuments, Editions Minerva Books in French - L'ouverture du Nouvel Opéra janvier 1875, Catalogue établie et rédigé par Martine Kahane, Conservateur de la Bibliothèque et du musée de l'Opéra, ministère de la culture et de la communication, editions de la réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1986 - Jean-Philippe Saint-Geours, Le théâtre national de l'Opéra de Paris, QSJ, Paris Websites - http://www.mairie9.paris.fr/ - http://www.napoleontrois.fr/ Charles Garnier, as quoted in Paul Roche, aigles de l'Opéra”, Le Gaulois, October 23th Journalist Ernest Chesneau in 1875, Pourquoi, par qui et comment le nouvel Opéra ? [...]

[...] Yet, in his piece of writing, Charles Garnier never described his work as a “style of Napoléon III”. On the contrary, he wrote: style is use is my own”[10]. Indeed, his architecture corresponds to a time, the one of Napoléon II, but the unity of his realization is due to the fact that of is the work of a single man. He allowed the link between Ancient, which corresponds to architecture of beauty, pleasures and perfection, and Baroque because the Opéra announces the creative and liberal jubilation of Art Nouveau, with a search of new materials, colors, decorations. [...]

[...] Garnier's façade with the letters ‘N' and ‘E'. The inauguration of the Opéra: Lord-Mayor of London's arrival Source: The library of Congress of the United States The ‘Grand foyer', a game of lights and mirrors inspired from the ‘Galerie des Glaces' Scale model representing the architecture of Garnier's Opéra interiors, exposed in the Orsay museum. [...]

[...] According to Henry-Russel Hitchcock “Garnier, the best known and the most highly reconsidered of the Imperial group, provided in the Opera a focus to the splendid city-planning of the baron Haussmann.”[4] During the transitional period of 1861-1862, the minister state Comte de Walewski instructed Haussmann to clear the site. It was one of the biggest building sites of Paris. The tenants were evicted and most of the Chaussée d'Antin's district was razed to begin the building of this showcase of the 2nd Empire. Charles Garnier's Opéra is indeed a symbol of the Emperor's power. [...]