Opéra de Lille
The Opera de Lille is a majestic neoclassical opera house, built after fire destroyed its predecessor in 1903 and finally inaugurated in 1923. Its pediment shows Apollo surrounded by the muses, and inside an Italian style horseshoe auditorium seats well over a thousand.
Sobre este lugar
When fire gutted Lille's theatre in 1903, the city held a competition to design its replacement and chose the Flemish regionalist architect Louis Marie Cordonnier. He delivered a stately neoclassical palace of music clearly inspired by the Palais Garnier in Paris, built between 1907 and 1913. War then interrupted its debut, for in 1914 German troops occupied Lille and stripped the almost finished building of its furnishings, so the opera was not formally inaugurated until 1923. The triangular pediment above the columns, carved by Hippolyte Lefebvre, shows Apollo, god of music and poetry, surrounded by the muses, while sculpted panels to either side represent Music and Tragedy. Behind the grand staircase and gilded foyer lies an Italian style horseshoe auditorium with four tiers of balconies and around eleven hundred seats. The opera was lovingly restored for Lille's year as European Capital of Culture, reopening in 2004.
Datos clave
- 1923 year — The opera house was finally inaugurated after wartime delays
- 1903 year — A fire destroyed the previous theatre on this site
- 1138 seats — Fill the Italian style horseshoe auditorium inside
📍 Rue des Bons Enfants 2, 59800, Lille