"Its novel conception, perfect fitness, and rare splendor of material,

make the grand stairway unquestionably one of the most remarkable

features of the building. It presents to the spectator, who has just

passed through the subscribers' pavilion, a gorgeous picture. From

this point he beholds the ceiling formed by the central landing; this

and the columns sustaining it, built of Echaillon stone, are

honeycombed with arabesques and heavy with ornaments; the steps are of

white marble, and antique red marble balusters rest on green marble

sockets and support a balustrade of onyx. To the right and to the left

of this landing are stairways to the floor, on a plane with the first

row of boxes. On this floor stand thirty monolith columns of

Sarrancolin marble, with white marble bases and capitals. Pilasters of

peach-blossom and violet stone are against the corresponding walls.

More than fifty blocks had to be extracted from the quarry to find

thirty perfect monoliths.

"The foyer de la danse has particular interest for the habitues of the

Opera. It is a place of reunion to which subscribers to three

performances a week are admitted between the acts in accordance with a

usage established in 1870. Three immense looking-glasses cover the

back wall of the FOYER, and a chandelier with one hundred and seven

burners supplies it with light. The paintings include twenty oval

medallions, in which are portrayed the twenty danseuses of most

celebrity since the opera has existed in France, and four panels by M.

Boulanger, typifying 'The War Dance', 'The Rustic Dance', 'The Dance of

Love' and 'The Bacchic Dance.' While the ladies of the ballet receive

their admirers in this foyer, they can practise their steps.

Velvet-cushioned bars have to this end been secured at convenient

points, and the floor has been given the same slope as that of the

stage, so that the labor expended may be thoroughly profitable to the

performance. The singers' foyer, on the same floor, is a much less

lively resort than the foyer de la danse, as vocalists rarely leave

their dressing-rooms before they are summoned to the stage. Thirty

panels with portraits of the artists of repute in the annals of the

Opera adorn this foyer.

"Some estimate ... may be arrived at by sitting before the concierge an

hour or so before the representation commences. First appear the stage

carpenters, who are always seventy, and sometimes, when L'Africaine,

for example, with its ship scene, is the opera, one hundred and ten

strong. Then come stage upholsterers, whose sole duty is to lay

carpets, hang curtains, etc.; gas-men, and a squad of firemen.

Claqueurs, call-boys, property-men, dressers, coiffeurs,

supernumeraries, and artists, follow. The supernumeraries number about

one hundred; some are hired by the year, but the 'masses' are generally

recruited at the last minute and are generally working-men who seek to

add to their meagre earnings. There are about a hundred choristers,

and about eighty musicians.




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