(Photo stolen from the Internet)
So Educo took us on a field trip last week! The tour guide was very interesting and told us a lot about how Garnier (the architect) created a new style- Napoleon III- and hid references to himself everywhere, but since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some:
The grand staircase
This was the place to see and be seen before the show, during intermission, and after. If you weren't sneaking off for some romancing with one of the ballerinas, that is.
(Sorry about the low quality, my camera had a nervous breakdown over the romantic lighting.)
There are stills from old productions on the walls:
The theater itself is gorgeous, and huge! Notice all the curtains- it seems no one ever actually watched the shows until a Russian director came in and banned closing them, talking, and sexy time with the dancers during performances.
A mural on the ceiling of the theater by Marc Chagall. He made it a gift to France, charging only the cost of production. Thematically, it deals with classic subjects similar to the mural on the grand staircase- the glory of Paris, Swan Lake, etc - but in a more modern style. Of course, it was widely disliked when it was first unveiled. It certainly is happy to look at though, and less oppressive than the gold-leaf-red-velvet-and-six-kinds-of-marble look everywhere else.
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