Opéra de la Bastille
Place de la Bastille
Paris 12e
France
The result of a gigantic international
competition, this building is one of the more maligned of the Grands Projets
(Mitterrand’s 15 billion franc program to provide a series of modern monuments to
symbolize France’s central role in art, politics, and world economy at the end of the
twentieth century).
Though not nearly as controversial as Pei’s
pyramid at the Louvre, or as flashy as La Défense, after the dust settled, it was the
design’s deliberate anonymity that leaves this building wanting. A bulky and
unadventurous composition of gridded glass and stone reminiscent of so many 1980s office
buidings, the only controversy was the choice of the design in the first place; it was by
no means a unanimous choice out of a field of 700 entries. Its auditorium is very large
(2,700 seats) and has been hailed as the hall to bring opera to the masses.
