January 5, 1875: The Palais Garnier Opens In Paris

January 5, 1875: The Palais Garnier opens in Paris, France. Although not the world's most famous opera house -- it trails La Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan in New York -- it's close. And, while it was built for the Paris Opera, it becomes the home of the Paris Opera Ballet, making it the world's most famous ballet venue.

It was built from 1861 to 1875, at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III. Despite his fall, and that of the Second Empire, in 1870, France is a country that has always cared about the arts, and so construction continued. Initially referred to as le nouvel Opéra de Paris (the new Paris Opera), it soon became known as the Palais Garnier, "in acknowledgment of its extraordinary opulence" and the architect, Charles Garnier, who built it in "the Second Empire style," with which Napoleon III transformed Paris into the modern city known throughout the world today.

The Palais Garnier has been a symbol of Paris, like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre. This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, and its adaptations, including the 1925 silent film and the 1986 musical. My grandmother had a painting of it in her living room, and my sister now has it in her dining room.

It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened at the Place de la Bastille. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet.

Charles Garnier died in 1898.

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January 5, 1875 was a Tuesday. The only major organized sport in North America at the time was baseball, and this was the off-season. So there were no scores on this historic day.