Toulon Opera

The Toulon Opera (L'opéra de Toulon), inaugurated on 1 October 1862, is the second-largest opera house in France, after the Palais Garnier in Paris, although it opened thirteen years before the Garnier. The inaugural performance was Les Mouquetaires de la reine, a comic opera by Fromental Halévy, followed a few days later by La Juive, the same composer's most famous opera. Today, the opera house is one of the country's national historic monuments. It is currently the home of the Opéra Toulon Provence Méditerranée, under the direction of Claude-Henri Bonnet. The opera company performs about eight operas a season in the opera houses of Toulon, Avignon, Nice and Marseille. The house seats 1,797 people on five levels. The theatre sits on 2,000 square metres of foundation and has a stage width of 22 metres 80 centimetres and a depth of 12 metres (39 ft). The permanent opera staff consists of over 200 people. Less