CENL Event

4th November 2019

The Grand Opera, The Spectacle of History

Oct. 24th, 2019 – Feb. 2nd 2020

The result of a partnership between the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Opéra national de Paris, this exhibition is part of the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the institution founded by Louis XIV. She discusses her evolution to the romantic period, from many documents drawn mainly from the collections of the BnF.

Intimately linked to a century, the nineteenth e , and a city, Paris, the French grand opera is characterized by a lavish set design and the presence of a ballet. Under the First Empire, Medea Cherubini and The Vestal of Spontini are pioneering works. In 1828, Auber, with La Muette de Portici , truly bears the great French opera on the baptismal font. Rossini tries it too, with William Tell . But it is Meyerbeer who gives him his letters of nobility with Robert the Devil , the Huguenots and the Prophetwhich are so many triumphs. Privileging the historical subjects, the grand opera is also the expression of the passions of time: the France of Louis-Philippe, under the impulse of personalities such as Mérimée, Guizot or Viollet-le-Duc, leaves to discover its past and its heritage. Music and dance will magnify it. Paintings, models of sets, musical manuscripts propose a spectacular crossing of these years of lyrical and choreographic creation. The year 2019 is a double anniversary for the Opéra national de Paris, which celebrates 350 years of the institution and the 30th anniversary of the Opéra Bastille.
For further information, please visit The BnF.