The Music Season Opens in Paris
In Paris, September is the month of return from vacation, the start of school, and the opening of the arts season. This week I sampled two offerings of the Paris opera, one at the Beaux-Arts Palais Garnier (1875), and the other at the newer (1989) Opera Bastille. The experience at the older venue was incomparably better. The Palais Garnier, like much of Paris, was built during the reign of Napoleon III. It is to him (and his architects like Charles Garnier and Haussmann) that we owe the characteristic Parisian broad avenues radiating from spokes (eg the Arc de Triumphe) lined with 5-story apartment buildings with similar architecture. The Palais Garnier is large for a19th C. opera house, seating almost 2000. It is magnificently decorated and provides a real sense of occasion when attending an event there. A painting by Marc Chagall surmounts the ceiling. It's the most spectacular place in the world to see ballet or opera, and you should go sometime. Because the newer Opera B...