The Phantom of the Opera
traverse a large circular vestibule located exactly beneath it. The
ceiling of this portion of the building is upheld by sixteen fluted
columns of Jura stone, with white marble capitals, forming a portico.
Here servants are to await their masters, and spectators may remain
until their carriages are summoned. The third entrance, which is quite
distinct from the others, is reserved for the Executive. The section
of the building set aside for the use of the Emperor Napoleon was to
have included an antechamber for the bodyguards; a salon for the
aides-de-camp; a large salon and a smaller one for the Empress; hat and
cloak rooms, etc. Moreover, there were to be in close proximity to the
entrance, stables for three coaches, for the outriders' horses, and for
the twenty-one horsemen acting as an escort; a station for a squad of
infantry of thirty-one men and ten cent-gardes, and a stable for the
horses of the latter; and, besides, a salon for fifteen or twenty
domestics. Thus arrangements had to be made to accommodate in this
part of the building about one hundred persons, fifty horses, and
half-a-dozen carriages. The fall of the Empire suggested some changes,
but ample provision still exists for emergencies.
"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.
"Next we behold equeries, whose horses are hoisted on the stage by
means of an elevator; electricians who manage the light-producing
batteries; hydrauliciens to take charge of the water-works in ballets
like La Source; artificers who prepare the conflagration in Le Profeta;
florists who make ready Margarita's garden, and a host of minor
employees. This personnel is provided for as follows: Eighty
dressing-rooms are reserved for the artists, each including a small
antechamber, the dressing-room proper, and a little closet. Besides
these apartments, the Opera has a dressing-room for sixty male, and
another for fifty female choristers; a third for thirty-four male
dancers; four dressing-rooms for twenty female dancers of different
grades; a dressing-room for one hundred and ninety supernumeraries,
etc."
A few figures taken from the article will suggest the enormous capacity
and the perfect convenience of the house. "There are 2,531 doors and
7,593 keys; 14 furnaces and grates heat the house; the gaspipes if
connected would form a pipe almost 16 miles long; 9 reservoirs, and two
tanks hold 22,222 gallons of water and distribute their contents
through 22,829 2-5 feet of piping; 538 persons have places assigned
wherein to change their attire. The musicians have a foyer with 100
closets for their instruments."
The author remarks of his visit to the Opera House that it "was almost
as bewildering as it was agreeable. Giant stairways and colossal
halls, huge frescoes and enormous mirrors, gold and marble, satin and
velvet, met the eye at every turn."
In a recent letter Mr. Andre Castaigne, whose remarkable pictures
illustrate the text, speaks of a river or lake under the Opera House
and mentions the fact that there are now also three metropolitan
railway tunnels, one on top of the other.