Grand Theatre de Geneve
Geneva's opera house on Place Neuve, opened in 1879 and extensively renovated in 2019.
The Grand Theatre opened on Place Neuve on 2 October 1879 with Rossini's Guillaume Tell. Jacques-Elisee Goss designed it in a Beaux-Arts manner clearly indebted to Charles Garnier's Paris opera house, completed four years earlier, and the building was raised on ground once occupied by the city's fortifications. Its sculpted pediment, colonnaded loggia and grand staircase established it as one of the principal lyric theatres of continental Europe from the outset.
A fire during a rehearsal in 1951 destroyed the stage and auditorium, leaving the outer walls standing; the hall was rebuilt behind the historic facade and reopened in 1962. A further programme of works between 2016 and 2019 restored the foyers and marble floors, added around a thousand square metres of public space and modernised the stage machinery and workshops. The house presents opera, ballet and recitals, and is the main venue of the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve.
Highlights
- Beaux-Arts facade and sculpted pediment facing Place Neuve
- Auditorium rebuilt after the 1951 fire and reopened in 1962
- Restored foyers and enlarged public spaces unveiled in 2019
- Home stage of the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve
