We will be visiting Paris in late September and are interested in attending a performance at the Opera Garnier, (the oldest Opera House in Paris). Can we wait until we arrive in Paris to purchase tickets, or should we buy tickets online now? If now, what URL do you recommend? What is the average price per ticket? Is there an advantage to waiting and buying them in Paris?
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10227 posts
Laurie, You should get your tickets as soon as possible, as they sell out quickly at both opera houses, Bastille and Garnier. However, if you are an opera lover, the Bastille opera house is better for seeing the stage. The Garnier is in the tight-horseshoe Italian style where only those directly facing the stage can see everything. The theater was designed for the important people in the audience to be seen by those sitting on the sides. I'd buy tickets for a performance at Bastille but go on a guided tour of the beautiful Garnier.
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6552 posts
Yes, there's an English-speaking tour of the Garnier a couple of times a week, I recall. Great old building. Whether you can go into the main auditorium depends on rehearsal and performance schedule, but we were able to, and even if not the rest of the building is great.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4051 posts
If you are interested in opera as well as the opera house, it's worth watching the attractions at Theatre Chatelet where occasionally an opera will sneak in among the variety of concerts, recitals and variety shows. Four years ago I caught Placido Domingo appearing almost unannounced in Cyrano, which even my opera-loving friends living a kilometre away in Place Bastille had overlooked. The theatre itself is very easy on the eyes, in the standard old style of a stack of loges circling around the main floor. It has been restored recently. http://chatelet-theatre.com/2013-2014/shows
Tickets for Opera Garnier and Bastille can sell out the instant they are available, whether in person or on the Internet. Other, less familiar or less star-laden, performances may have tickets available when you arrive. I don't know whether last-minute rush tickets are sold at either house. Years ago I toured the Bastille backstage, an astoundingly complicated modern theatrical machine. But the tour was in French and the availability of either English or French tours seems to come and go. Lots of advice on the official site for both opera houses http://www.operadeparis.fr/en/pratique/ Note, under the practical pull-down menu, advice about returned tickets going back on sale.
Posted by
Kansas
1175 posts
Go NOW to operadeparis.fr, sign up to be a member on the website, and grab the first tickets available, if there are any decent ones left. If you lose out, be sure and take a tour of the Le Palais Garnier opera house. Click on EN on the top of the page to get it mostly in English.
A quick look reveals only Alceste by a relative unknown is available. Operas such as Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, Aida, La Traviata, and others by Verdi, Wagner, Handel, Mozart and Strauss are long sold out. There are some at Bastille, also listed on this website. You might get lucky and show up to wait and see if any cancellations are forthcoming but that line is very long.