Le Palais Garnier

Melly wrote:Mmm for example, in english you would say: a blue chair, in french we would say: une chaise bleue (almost the same even if instead of "A" we have "un" or "une" for male/female - first example.)

In english you would say: A nice day, but we would not say Une journée bonne (wich litteraly means for you: a day nice), the adjective comes after the word. We would say: une bonne journée, with bonne/nice before journée/day. WHY?! I don't know!

In english when you have a rule it generally works for everything... in France the adjective can be before or after the word, it depends, there's no specific rule but "knowing the language"

Oh and another example:

Je fais
Tu fais
Il/Elle fait
Nous faisons
Vous faites
Ils/Elles font

when in english you'd have:

I do
You do
He/She does (OGM this one is different! XD)
We do
You do
They do

So simple O_O

I still don't understand why my boyfriend keeps saying english is difficult to learn!

Sorry for the digression

Melly wrote:If you need help with french, then, don't hesitate

Melly wrote:I've got 2 different versions of the Phantom in french in my playlists (because of the canadian and french translation of the 2004 movie), and Yes I know the Robert Marien's version

In France we have somme musicals, sometimes good but... it's rare. Les misérables is a french musical which has been translated. I'm really sad to see that we don't have it anymore in France since it keeps playings all over the world...

It would be wonderful to have a Phtanom here. But frenchs don't have the taste for good musical maybe? What a shame! T_T
Even if the phantom came here, it would be better to have it in original version (even if french translations are not bad at all )

I can't imagine the Phantom at the real Opera Garnier with the 8 tons chandelier falling down on the crowd haha!

Melly wrote:I'm not fond of the Marien's version since he uses some strange words! For example "Chantez comme moi ma Mie" means sing like me "ma mie", ma mie is a medieval word to say ma dame during the middle age O_o Very strange.

I don't even speak about some words that Christine pronounces in the Phantom of the Opera. "Sans cesse ce nom qu'il dit glisse t-il en moi"... Means almost nothing... It just rhymes... and as this phrase is almost stifled (not sure of the word in english, well, I mean we don't understand it very well) I first heard... something else which was PG18 ^^' VERY STRANGE... I was not the only one, my sister understood the same thing first... I won't say what but we were very surprised!

Oh so many books about the Opera Garnier! Now that I'm not a student anymore, I should go back to the Opera Store and buy all the books which were forbidden to my little purse

Scorp wrote:

Now if only they would make such a book about the interior!

They already have; I highly recommend it:



It's by Gérard Fontaine and called L'Opéra de Charles Garnier : Architecture et décor intérieur. The photography is absolutely gorgeous. I own the French edition, but the Opera House does sell an English translation. You can buy the French one on Amazon.fr, not sure about the English one though.

Gérard Fontaine also wrote a book which is perhaps for relevant for Phantom enthusiasts called Le Fantasme de l'Opéra. In it, he includes an account of the chandelier counterweight incident (it's the same account that Le Figaro ran the day after in 1896), talks about the lake and how it was formed and also theorises that Erik was at least partly based on Charles Garnier (I'm not too convinced by his reasoning though -- e.g. Erik wrote Don Juan, and the subtitle of Molière's Dom Juan and I think Mozart's Don Giovanni is Le Festin de pierre, which Fontaine thinks hints at Garnier/architecture since "pierre" means stone). The Opera sells this book too.



What the Opera now sells that it didn't before is Charles Garnier's Le Nouvel Opéra. I haven't read it yet, but it's a must-read because it is written by Charles Garnier himself and apparently Leroux lifted whole passages from it in his descriptions of the Opera House.



I also really recommend this book:



It's called Opéra de Paris : un siècle au Palais Garnier. I bought my copy at the Opera House years ago, not sure if they still sell it. If you don't speak French, definitely buy it because it's dual language and is in English too. It contains several pages about the possible real-life basis of Leroux's story, including stuff about Nilsson and even rare stuff that I never see mentioned -- e.g. apparently the description of Buquet's death is taken from a real-life memoir of one of the managers which I keep meaning to get hold of but have not got round to doing.

Also, I like this book for its illustrations, it's for children but it's fun and the protagonist in this little story ends up going to the lake:



http://www.lesilencedelopera.com/ <-- you can see extracts from the book here.

There are more I like, but those are my favourites.

I recall reading somewhere that the gift shop's selection has been broadened considerably. Can anyone who has recently been there tell me what kind of merchandise they're selling? My sister will be in Paris early next month and I was going to ask her to swing by if something sparked my interest.

Yeah, they changed everything over the last year. I think it was last summer they did this. The entrance to the building is no longer via the front, which I think is unfortunate as you lose the impact of seeing the Grand Escalier in front of you (although I imagine they would still use this entrance for performances), but via the rue Scribe near the Charles Garnier monument. The gift shop has extended from where it was into another room on the side and it sells way more interesting things. There's a cool set of merchandise that features the Opéra de Paris logo and the names of several well-known operas, composers and even 'Le Fantôme de l'Opéra' -- pens, mugs, pads, bags etc. I bought the mug. Lots of expensive masks and if you are really rich you can pay almost 1000 € for a bust of Garnier!! Sadly a lot of the stuff is overpriced like this. But some interesting items, almost all theatre/ballet related, including a toy theatre for kids, but a bit too expensive I think. They were doing a promotion this summer that you'd get a free pack of Opéra de Paris playing cards with any purchase you make. Some Phantom novels are stocked too, including Leroux's (the current Livre de Poche edition with the awful Gerard and Emmy cover), The Canary Trainer and La Douleur du Fantôme. You can also buy the double CD of the phonographic records that Leroux mentions in his novel and which were recovered in 2007. I've bought it but haven't given it a listen yet.

This thread is for any and all discussion of the Palais Garnier: stories and pics of your visits to the Mecca of the Phandom, questions, etc.

Can't be bothered to post any pics right now but my most memorable experiences there were a) breaking into Box Five and, after 15 minutes, being joined by two English 'Phans' who turned out to be people I knew online (!) and b) seeing an opera there...I bought a cheap seat up in the gods and all I could see was the huge chandelier and hardly anything on the stage, but I didn't care! Alas, it wasn't Faust. I've broken into the upper levels a few times to take pics. I keep wanting to go down to the cellars -- every fan's dream -- but I've not managed it yet. Insanely jealous of those who have been down there though.

Melly wrote:I've got "Un siècle au palais Garnier" too. It's a short book but it's a good summary of the Opera in General. Constructon, Life at the Opera, the great singers, the legend of the Phantom, etc. It is easy and funny to read (there are many illustrations, which is very important for me, as an illustrator haha )

Phantom's angel wrote:Thank you, NightRachel,

Is a tour expensive? and are you able to wander around without a tour? If you can wander without a tour, do you have to pay to get into the building? I'd like to spend as much time as possible, seeing as I will be writing about the building. I may be making multiple visits if necessary too.

Scorp wrote:You can now explore the Opéra virtually, including the rooftop and the underground lake! Link.

NightRachel wrote: In the summer of 2002 I got to visit the Paris Opera House, but I was not fortunate enough to be able to attend a performance there, let alone get a chance to be inside Box Five. How very lucky you are -- I'm a bit envious!

Jennie wrote: but the box feels very "lush", what with the red velvet... did you do any column-tapping to see whether it was hollow?

Jennie wrote: what would you call the section at the front of the box, the top of the "wall" that has a little shelf just beneath the edge.

NightRachel wrote:Mary, I too got to do the guided tour (in English) of the Opera House when I was there, and it was well worth it! We had a very nice lady tour guide who was understanding of any Phantom-related questions that were asked by some of our group members (including me).