Place des Arts
Montreal's performing arts complex, home to the city's opera, ballet and symphony companies.
Place des Arts opened in September 1963 with the inauguration of what is now the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, a 2,982-seat hall designed by the Montreal practice ARCOP under Fred Lebensold. The complex grew through the 1960s and 1990s to take in the Théâtre Maisonneuve, Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, Cinquième Salle and Studio-Théâtre, all gathered around an esplanade at the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles. Most of the buildings are linked below ground to the Underground City and the Place-des-Arts metro station.
The complex is the resident home of the Opéra de Montréal, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the last of which moved into the adjoining Maison symphonique when it opened in 2011. Across its halls Place des Arts presents opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber concerts, theatre in French, comedy and variety, and it is a principal site for the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and the Francos de Montréal each summer.
Highlights
- Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, the complex's 2,982-seat main hall
- Resident home of Opéra de Montréal and Les Grands Ballets
- Esplanade at the centre of the Quartier des Spectacles
- Direct connection to the metro and the Underground City
