The Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille to be closed for renovation
The Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera and Paris Opera Ballet, will close from mid-2027 for a two-year renovation.
The 2,000-seat opera house opened in 1875 and has become a Paris landmark. Its sister theatre, the Opéra Bastille, which opened in 1989, is scheduled for closure in mid-2030, also for two years.
France’s Court of Accounts estimated that the cost of these two renovation projects would be at least 200 million euros. It also said that both buildings had suffered from years of underfunding. Some of the most urgent modernisations are for the structure of the stage and its machinery.
Staggering the work means that one stage can remain fully operational while other productions will be seen at various Paris theatres and cities throughout France.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
