Intimately linked to a century, the nineteenth ^e , and a city, Paris, the French grand opera is characterized by a lavish set design and the presence of a ballet. Under the First Empire, Medea Cherubini and The Vestal of Spontini are pioneering works. In 1828, Auber, with La Muette de Portici , truly bears the great French opera on the baptismal font. Rossini tries it too, with William Tell . But it is Meyerbeer who gives him his letters of nobility with Robert the Devil , the Huguenots and the Prophetwhich are so many triumphs. Privileging the historical subjects, the grand opera is also the expression of the passions of time: the France of Louis-Philippe, under the impulse of personalities such as Mérimée, Guizot or Viollet-le-Duc, leaves to discover its past and its heritage. Music and dance will magnify it. Paintings, models of sets, musical manuscripts propose a spectacular crossing of these years of lyrical and choreographic creation. The year 2019 is a double anniversary for the Opéra national de Paris, which celebrates 350 years of the institution and the 30th anniversary of the Opéra Bastille.

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