Opéra-Comique, Paris

Often known as the Salle Favart, after the great librettist Charles-Simon Favart, whose works formed much of the early repertory, the range of works performed at the Opéra Comique is wide, and its history involves premieres of some of the greatest works in opera. This includes Bizet’s Carmen, which was first performed at the Opéra Comique in 1875, and has since been performed there over 2,500 times. The repertory is by no means limited to comic opera. In the 20th-century, it showed a diverse range of wonderfully innovative works, like Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande.

The style of the Opéra Comique, a genre which takes its name from the theatre, used to be taught in French music schools, but this is sadly no longer the case. For the sake of its heritage, and indeed its future, the theatre has set up an academy, where young singers can learn the prosody and characteristics of its style, in return for contracts of a season or more.

The building has been rebuilt a few times, and the current edifice followed a fire in 1887 that destroyed the building and killed 84 people. It was closed again in the 70s, but re-opened again in 1990, now putting on a small but perfect selection of opera and concerts each year.