“Joyaux” (and “Joyeux”) at l’Opéra Garnier – Thursday, 12 November

Tonight I finally had the astonishing good fortune of attending a performance, actually a ballet, at l’Opéra Garnier.

There are two primary opera houses in Paris – Palais Garnier and Bastille. The Palais Garnier was built from 1862 to 1875 and is almost overwhelmingly ornate. I’ve never been inside the Opéra Bastille, which opened in 1989, but it strikes me as much more, well, um, functional.

Here are some photos of the building, my “box” - it contained a door, a vestibule with a bench and coat hooks and a mirror, and six fancy (and fairly comfortable) chairs) - and the view from my box.


























The ballet was called “Joyaux,” which means “jewels.” I had mistranslated it in my head, thinking it meant “joyful,” but that word is “joyeux.” But, by happy coincidence, it turned out to be both!

This elegant, joyful, graceful, tender, noble and even humorous ballet was choreographed by George Balanchine in 1967 and brought into the repertoire of the Paris Opera in 2000. The GORGEOUS new costumes were designed for this production by Christian Lacroix. Two guest dancers from the New York City Ballet (Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia) joined Ballet de l'Opéra. In the pit was Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris, directed by Kevin Rhodes. The ballet consists of three sections: the very romantic “Emeraudes” (emeralds) danced to excerpts from Fauré’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” and “Shylock”, the more modern and almost Broadway-style “Rubis” (rubies) danced to Stravinsky’s “Capriccio” for piano and orchestra, and the classical-style “Diamants” (diamonds) danced to excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #3. It was an experience of a lifetime. Of course, I couldn’t take photos during the performance, so these shots of pages from my program book will have to suffice!