Located in the heart of the Opéra Garnier, in the 9th district of Paris, the Museum-Library of the Opera is now part of the music department of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The official creation of this service dates from 1866, and is the work of the librettist Charles Nuitter. It takes its current name in 1875, before joining a few years later the flag of the emperor of the opera Garnier. If a large part of the archives are then passed to the National Archives, the site keeps no less than 600,000 documents of extreme value.
It is thus possible to discover 100,000 books, 16,000 original scores, or programs, photographs, periodicals, autograph letters, documentary records, orchestral materials or prints.
The museum itself consists of five rooms unveiling paintings, models or costumes. At the top of the stairs, you can admire the bronze of the star dancer Alexander Kalioujny seized in a jump of the Polovtsian Dances of Prince Igor in 1990 by the famous sculptor Jacques Gestalder.
