The Palais Garnier (pronounced: [palɛ ɡaʁnje]) is a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. The theatre is also often referred to as the Opéra Garnier, and historically was known as the Opéra de Paris or simply the Opéra, as it was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened at the Place de la Bastille. The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet. The Palais Garnier is "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica." This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank." This opinion is far from unanimous however: the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as "a lying art" and contended that the "Garnier movement is a décor of the grave". The Palais Garnier is a building of exceptional opulence. The style is monumental and considered typically Beaux-Arts, with use of axial symmetry in plan, and its exterior ornamentation. It is decorated with very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology. The two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumery's L'Harmonie (Harmony) and La Poésie (Poetry), crown the apexes of the principal facade's left and right avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype. The bases of the two avant-corps are decorated (from left to right) with four major multi-figure groups sculpted by: François Jouffroy (Poetry, also known as Harmony), Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume (Instrumental Music), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (The Dance, criticized for indecency), and Jean-Joseph Perraud (Lyrical Drama). The facade also incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière, and others. Gilded galvanoplastic bronze busts of many of the great composers are located between the columns of the theatre's front façade and depict from left to right: Rossini, Auber, Beethoven, Mozart, Spontini, Meyerbeer, and Halévy. On the left and right lateral returns of the front facade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, respectively. On 30 December 1860 the Second Empire of Emperor Napoleon III officially announced an architectural design competition for the design of the new opera house. Applicants were given a month to submit entries. There were two phases to the competition. Charles Garnier (1825–1898) was one of 171 entrants in the first phase. Each of the entrants were required to submit a motto that summarised their design. Garnier's was the quote "Bramo assai, poco spero" ( meaning "desire for much, hope for little") from the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. Garnier was awarded the fifth-place prize and became one of five finalists selected for the second phase. In addition to Garnier, the others were his friend Leon Ginain, Alphonse-Nicolas Crépinet and Joseph-Louis Duc (who subsequently withdrew due to other commitments). To the surprise of many, both Viollet-le-Duc and Charles Rohault de Fleury missed out. The second phase required the contestants to revise their original projects and was more rigorous, with a 58-page program, written by the director of the Opéra, Alphonse Royer, which the contestants received on 18 April. The new submissions were sent to the jury in the middle of May, and on 29 May 1861 Garnier's project was selected for its "rare and superior qualities in the beautiful distribution of the plans, the monumental and characteristic aspect of the facades and sections".[31] Garnier's wife Louise later wrote that the French architect Alphonse de Gisors, who was on the jury, had commented to them that Garnier's project was "remarkable in its simplicity, clarity, logic, grandeur, and because of the exterior dispositions which distinguish the plan in three distinct parts—the public spaces, auditorium, and stage ... 'you have greatly improved your project since the first competition; whereas Ginain [the first-place winner in the first phase] has ruined his.'" Legend has it that the Emperor's wife, the Empress Eugénie, who was likely irritated that her own favored candidate, Viollet-le-Duc, had not been selected, asked the relatively unknown Garnier: "What is this? It's not a style; it's neither Louis Quatorze, nor Louis Quinze, nor Louis Seize!" "Why Ma'am, it's Napoléon Trois" replied Garnier "and you're complaining!" Andrew Ayers has written that Garnier's definition "remains undisputed, so much does the Palais Garnier seem emblematic of its time and of the Second Empire that created it. A giddy mixture of up-to-the-minute technology, rather prescriptive rationalism, exuberant eclecticism and astonishing opulence, Garnier's opera encapsulated the divergent tendencies and political and social ambitions of its era." Ayers goes on to say that the judges of the competition in particular admired Garnier's design for "the clarity of his plan, which was a brilliant example of the beaux-arts design methods in which both he and they were thoroughly versed." via 500px http://j.mp/1yJBoZY
No comments:
Post a Comment