Opéra de Paris, palais Garnier/1:250/ L'Instant Durable [FERTIG]

Thank you Zaphod. I usually enjoy building domes. I fondly remember the domes of Berlin Cathedral and Frauenkirche Dresden. This one had a mind of its own.

Anyway, the dome is finished ... and so may my camera be finished. With this picture taken today, undulating bands of light are playing across the image on the screen and the colours are way off. You can see the bands of interference and the odd colour rendering.

With the completion of the dome, the interior of the auditorium can now be worked. It is modelled very well, but the prototype photos show much distortion, twisting and misalignment.

I am very pleased to announce that the curving auditorium wall fell right into line with its mating, vertical walls inside the model. After some rough work on the dome, this is very encouraging.

The upper seating in the auditorium is represented by three curving ramps (there are five floors) . A light strip of card is glued behind the triangular tabs to ensure a sweet curve that will conform to the curve of the auditorium wall. The ramps are reinforced as well.

The Members' Rotunda is located right underneath the auditorium. All ticket-holders had to pass through this rotunda in order to enter the Opera. Sixteen fluted columns accentuated the round room.

"The mirrors that cover the walls multiply the number of columns and lamps and arcatures, creating a strange atmosphere. What should have been nothing more than a basic underground room, has become something of an Aladdin's cave, whose mystery is set off further by the enigmatic faces that decorate it."

Bénédicte Tézenas du Montcel, Opera de Paris A Century of / Palais Garnier, Éditions L'Instant Durable, 2000

The rotunda and the auditorium were joined together on the model. I found that they deformed and twisted badly when dry fitted. By cutting them apart, the auditorium section will rest nicely on the rotunda below.

Garnier chose the painter Jules Lenepveu to decorate the ceiling of the auditorium. It measured 20 metres in diameter and was covered with 24 primed copper plates. The theme for the artistic work was classical mythology.

In 1964, his work was covered up with the work of Chagall.

The seven segments of the ceiling do not close properly. You will see a cover strip of white behind them in the photo. I do not understand why this detail escaped the designer. Perhaps I misunderstood its placement.

Good morning Fred,
Yes, there have been moments with this model. You will notice in the last photo that there are two bands of frieze running around the bottom edge of the ceiling. In my trial fits too much gap was left between the ceiling and the galleries.

And finally, the seats are in place. The hall was designed in the shape of a horseshoe. Originally there was a seating capacity of 2 156 spectators. It is now 1 991. The booklet accompanying the model gives interesting facts about how the social class system determined the seating arrangements. I did not know that the stalls, located in the centre of the horseshoe, accommodated standing room only. Today, that's the orchestra section.

And so we find the auditorium finished. What a struggle, but a rewarding one. The three elements are in place; the rotunda, the auditorium hall with the floor seating and galleries and the ceiling.

The next section of the opera house in the marble great staircase. The stairwell cavity and space for the Anti Hall are shown in this photo.

The stairwell was thirty metres high. The double set of stairs, beginning down in the Members' Rotunda and splitting at the auditorium level to lead up to the boxes, were breathtaking. It is well worth searching out photographs of this staircase on the Internet.

The staircase assembly is ready to be placed into the east half of the model.

The stairs are in. Note that some of the edges of the partitions are still brown. They will have to be painted white.

The Ante Hall is a gallery twenty metres in length whose large arches open onto both the stairwell on the left and the Great Hall yet to be assembled on the right.

Garnier was very proud of the bright, bold artwork and the mosaics of Curzon that adorned two halls at each end of this gallery. (The Sun Lounge and the Moon Lounge)

The partition between the Anti Hall and the Great Hall is in place.

Now the Great Hall. This is perhaps the most magnificent room in the opera house. You see the beginnings of it here in this photo where stairs lead down from the Anti Hall to its lower level.

The hall measures 54 metres in length, 13 metres in width and 18 metres in height.

The Great Hall provided a rich pallet for the many artisans Garnier commissioned to decorate the room. They all worked in harmony. The fireplaces at each end of the hall are decorated with caryatids and are the work of Carrier-Belleuse and Cordler; all of the adornments (the frieze, lyres etc.) are by Davant.

Statuary abounded everywhere. The booklet describes some details well:

"All of the heads were modelled by Chabauld, most notably Neptune (with the features of Charles Garnier) and Amphitrite (Mrs. Garnier), at the centre of the arches. He also created the bronze candleabras, which are decorated with the heads of women whose hairstyles represent the different types of lighting used in the 19th Century candles, oil, gas, electricity)."
Bénédicte Tézenas du Montcel, Opera de Paris A Century of / Palais Garnier, Éditions L'Instant Durable, 2000

Twenty fluted columns line the room; each one topped with golden statues. Each statue is the work of a different sculptor.

On the Ante Hall side of the room, the wall is covered with mirrors, and opposite, five picture windows, surrounded by golden embroidered drapes from Lyon, open onto the loggia.

This was a room in which to be seen. Young ladies of marriageable age would walk up the hall on one side of the loggia, and then return on the other side - passing the mirrors.

The most striking thing about this and other rooms in the opera house is the overwhelming amount of gold used to decorate surfaces. However, I read that the administration actually tried to keep costs down.
Garnier applied gilt only onto surfaces that came into contact with the light, the rest of the surfaces were simply covered with gold-coloured oil based paints.

The vault of the Great Hall was painted by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry. He spent eight years creating a masterpiece inspired by the masters Rafael and Michael-Angelo. History, music and dance form the themes of this major classical work.

All the internal details of the east side of the palais are now in place. It has been quite a ride.

Now it's time to close the model and finish exterior construction on the east side.

The model closed with views of the finished west side.

The artwork on the aisles of the opera house is outstanding. The crisp line work and the soft water colours make them very attractive.

Yes, Fred, the interior modelling is something special on this build.

When I built the west aisle, I was not that happy with the support partitions. They got in the way of the reinforcing material. They prevented card from running uninterrupted from one end of the wall to the other. The distance is 47 cm in scale or 117.5 metres. Often when a run that long gets broken up, the effect of reinforcement is lost. Breaks are created that compromises the integrity of a straight run.

On this east side, I discarded the partitions.

The dry fit of the aisle is seen in the second photo.

Not exactly the exposure I was looking for with this shot, but I find it dark and intriguing. I do like the curved roof on the corner of the aisle.

Now this was the goal with the setup. With proper camera settings, we see a straight, long wall.

Now we come to the last major construct on the model; the east pavilion or Ice Rotunda.

This dome has been patiently waiting to be mounted on the pavilion since July 3, when it was built with its mate on the west side. Things will be a little different however, here on the east side.

The public arrived on the rue Halévy side (east side) of the opera house where a covered entrance opened into the Member's Rotunda.

When I first saw the arched openings in the sides of the east pavilion, I thought that this was the entrance where the Head of State could safely enter the building in his carriage.

Apparently that was on the rue Scribe or west side. A double horseshoe-shaped ramp allowed the Head of State to enter directly into the pavilion and thus limit the risk of assassination. A small apartment was made available also on that side linked directly to his box.

The pavilion is in place.

The ID package included a postcard showing the cross section of the building. It will be handy to pull this drawer open when explaining the various parts of the house.

Shots of the east pavilion...

The statues have been rendered very nicely. The back sides are not simply reversed versions of the front side. They truly reflect the backs of the figures.

Apollo adorns the top of the stage house pediment. He's surrounded by Dance and Music. The work is made of bronze and measures 5 metres in height. Apollo is holding up a golden lyre. There is a lightning rod cleverly placed at its center.

The horse (middle) is Pegasus.

C'est fini.

This has been a challenging, but rewarding build.

The build has provided an opportunity to learn much about the architecture, history and culture of France represented by this marvellous building.

Jean Louis Charles Garnier
Architect
1825 - 1881