Opera Garnier

Dear Reader,

I spent a day at the Opera Garnier. The dimly lit interior and the intricate design and decoration of the main entrance area, as well as the opera house's famous staircases merely emphasizes the dramatic nature of the opera house. This is the very opera house that played such an important role in Gaston Leroux's novel, The Phantom of the Opera, later inspiring a broadway musical and movie. It was so easy to imagine scenes from the Phantom of the Opera musical at the Opera Garnier-- a masquerade ball on the famed stairscases; numerous theater-goers conducting conversations in the grand hall beside the beautiful balcony overlooking Paris. The opera house is even situated over a small river, a segment travelling from the Seine river itself, just as the novel and the musical present.

The stage itself was extremely impressive, as well as the theater boxes and plush, red-velvet seats. My favorite part of the interior was Chagall's ceiling painting, filled with scenes of Paris and certain opera pieces-- it was soo vibrant and colorful and full of movement. While taking the guided tour of the opera house, we were shown the box used by the emperor and the famed box that was rumored to belong to the phantom, as angry voices were sometimes heard coming from that box in the past.

I bought a music box at the Opera Garnier. It is small and old fashioned and plays me a tune from Mozart's Magic Flute when I wind the tiny device. It makes me soo happy.