In terms of the number of seats that they can actually put on sale for any given evening, around 1,750, this is only the third largest opera house in Paris (assuming you still count the Châtelet as an opera house). But when you consider the amount of high-quality space that Read More …
This historic theater, the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, was built in the 1890s and has been a subsidized public theater since 1982. It has a small orchestra pit for musical productions, and is also used for spoken drama and concerts. La Carmencita, which I saw there in 2006, is an adapted Read More …
With seats for 570 spectators in its main auditorium, the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet is the smallest lyric theater in Paris. The nearby Garnier Opera seats three times as many people, and the Bastille Opera seats well over four times as many. Though the entrance to the Athénée is tucked away Read More …
The two department stores Au Printemps and the Galeries Lafayette are both on the same street, Boulevard Haussmann. They are both in large historic buildings with Art Deco cupolas. And they both sell the same fashionable products with prestigious brand names that everybody except me has heard of. It turns Read More …
Most of you are too young to remember this, but back in the twentieth century it was customary for department stores to consist of — departments. If you were looking for, say, men’s trousers, all you had to do was take a deep breath, enter the store, find your way Read More …
Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is a funny opera that is full of lovely music and also serves as a timely reminder to all us older men that we shouldn’t get any stupid ideas about marrying women who are half a century younger than we are. It’s just not a good idea, Read More …
The Théâtre des Nouveautés (Theater of Novelties or News or Innovations) is one of the many theaters along the Grands Boulevards in Paris. Most of these theaters specialize in contemporary French comedies, which are notoriously difficult for us poor foreigners to understand, even those of us who have some acquaintance Read More …
The opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) by Georg Friedrich Händel takes place in Egypt in the year 48 B.C. and has to do with Caesar’s Egyptian war and his love affair with Cleopatra. As it was staged at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, however, the opera took place in the Read More …
The library-museum in the Opéra Garnier is one of the public sites of the French National Library (Bibliothèque National de France or BnF). It is located in the Rotonde de l’Empereur, the west pavilion adjoining the main façade, which as the name implies was originally intended for the use of Read More …
Even for those of us who are not particularly fascinated by Symbolist painting in general or Gustave Moreau in particular, his house in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, now the Musée National Gustave Moreau, is well worth a visit. I especially liked the moment when I walked up the stairs Read More …