Paris Opera

The Paris Opera (French: Opéra de Paris) is the main opera and ballet company of France. It was started in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra. Soon after, it was led by Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique, but it was still called the Opéra by most people. The style of dance known as classical ballet began within the Paris Opera, and the Paris Opera Ballet has always been a big part of the company.

Today, the Paris Opera is called the Opéra national de Paris. It mainly puts on operas at its modern theatre, Opéra Bastille, which has 2,723 seats and opened in 1989. It also performs ballets and some older operas at the famous Palais Garnier, which opened in 1875 and has 1,979 seats. Smaller and newer shows are held in a 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille.

Each year, the Paris Opera gives about 380 shows of opera, ballet, and concerts to around 800,000 people. About 17% of the audience comes from other countries. The company has a big team, including an orchestra of 170 musicians, a chorus of 110 singers, and a corps de ballet of 150 dancers. It also has training programs for young artists.

History

See also: French opera

The Opera under Louis XIV

Pierre Perrin

The poet Pierre Perrin started thinking about French opera in 1655, long before the Paris Opera was officially created. He thought the idea that French was not good for music was wrong. In 1666, he asked the minister Colbert to let the king start an "Academy of Poetry and Music" to mix French words and music into a new kind of show.

In 1669, Louis XIV gave Perrin a special right to create opera houses in France for 12 years. Perrin could pick his partners and set ticket prices. No one else could start a similar place, not even rich people. Perrin turned a old tennis court into a theater for about 1200 people.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

The Opera was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and became known simply as the Opéra. Lully quickly got the king to change the rules so that other performers could only use fewer singers and musicians. Because of legal problems, Lully could not use Perrin’s theater, so a new one was built. During Lully’s time, only his own works were performed. The first shows were Les fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus in 1672 and Cadmus et Hermione in 1673.

After Molière died in 1673, his group joined another theater group. Lully wanted a better theater and got to use a nice one for free. The first show there was Alceste in 1674. Lully’s operas were sometimes criticized, so the king let some shows be performed for special groups to help. During Lully’s time, shows happened almost every year, except for three weeks at Easter. Performances were on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

After Lully

After Lully died in 1687, almost twice as many new shows were made each year because his successors had a harder time keeping the audience interested. Lully’s works were often performed again. French composers usually wrote new music for new stories, while Italian composers often used the same stories with new music. One important new show from this time was L'Europe galante by Campra in 1697.

Ballet

In 1661, Louis XIV, who loved dancing, started the Académie Royale de Danse to teach proper dancing. From 1680 until Lully died, a famous dancer named Pierre Beauchamp led it. When Lully took over the Opera in 1672, he and Beauchamp made dancing a big part of the shows. Over time, this dancing part became known as the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1713, a dance school was opened, which is now called the Paris Opera Ballet School. The Académie Royale de Danse went away after the monarchy ended in 1789.

The company after the Revolution and in the 19th century

After the French Revolution, the Opera changed names many times and moved to a new theater in 1794. In 1802, Napoleon took control and gave it a new name. After Napoleon, it changed names again. In 1821, it moved to a theater that could hold 1900 people, but it burned down in 1873. In 1875, the Opera moved to a new building called the Palais Garnier.

20th century

From 1908 to 1914, Henri Benjamin Rabaud led the music at Palais Garnier. In 1939, the Opera joined with another theater group. In 1990, the Opera moved to a new home called Opéra-Bastille, but still used Palais Garnier for some shows. In 1994, it became the Opéra National de Paris. People still usually called it the Opéra.

21st century

The current leader of the Opera is Alexander Neef, who started in September 2020. In April 2021, Gustavo Dudamel was chosen to lead the music, but he left in 2023. In January 2026, Semyon Bychkov was picked to be the next music leader, starting in August 2028.

Video streaming service

On 7 April 2023, the Opera started a video streaming service called Paris Opera Play (or POP). It began with 80 shows, including operas, ballets, and documentaries. People can watch live shows too. The videos work on computers using browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge Chromium, and Safari. Subtitles in French and English are available for most videos. Viewers can use Chromecast or AirPlay to watch on a TV, but AirPlay does not show subtitles. An alternative is to connect a computer to a TV with an HDMI cable. In March 2025, Paris Opera Play added apps for Apple TV and Android TV.

List of official company names

List of venues

List of managing directors

Other Parisian opera companies and theatres

From 1725 to 1791, Paris had four main public theatres: the Opéra de Paris, the Comédie-Française, the Comédie-Italienne, and the Opéra-Comique. In 1762, the Opéra-Comique joined with the Comédie-Italienne.

By 1791, laws changed, letting many more theatres open. This caused lots of new theatres to appear, and names changed often as buildings burned down and reopened. Some new theatres included the Théâtre Feydeau, Théâtre Italien, Théâtre Lyrique, and others.

After 1870, things calmed down, and mainly the Opéra and Opéra-Comique stayed active. When the Opéra-Comique’s theatre burned in 1887, the company moved to other places. Other groups also performed operas in different theatres around this time.