In the 1850s, there was a design competition for a new opera house. An unknown Beaux-Arts trained architect, Charles Garnier, won, and his Neo-Baroque, lavish building was completed in 1875. When we think of the Paris opera, we tend to think of this building, but there were originally two opera societies in Paris: the Academie Nationale de Musique (the Opera) and the Theatre National de L'Opera-Comique. The Opera served the monarchy, often expressing aristocratic views and nationalistic attitudes. It was this society who performed in Garnier's opera house. The Opera-Comique attracted more of a bourgeois republican crowd. Entry to both was exclusive, and the lower class wanted a venue they could afford. Eventually, less expensive boulevard theaters and cafe-concerts popped up. Unlike today's performances, ballet was an integral part of the opera. Ballet lost its favor, however, in teh late 19th century with the work of German composer Robert Wagner. His controversial anti-bourgeois pieces demanded the audience's attention. Rather than the social club it once was, opera became a serious art form bathed in intellectual contemplation. At their beginning, the Opera and the Opera-Comique were exclusive to men, but they later allowed women. Often, however, women were restricted to balcony stalls. As a social institution, the opera was a place to see and be seen, but as liberalism took hold at the fin-de-siecle, the vibrance of bohemian life overshadowed its opulence.

 

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