Opera of the Palace of Versailles

The Opera Royal is the Royal Opera in the north wing of the Palace of Versailles, completed in 1770 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel just in time for the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The oval auditorium is built entirely of wood for the sake of acoustics and to speed construction during the strained finances of Louis XV's last years. The hall is decorated with trompe-l'oeil marbling and lavish gilding, a calculated statement of royal prestige on the eve of the Revolution. It was one of the final great building projects of the Ancien Regime and survives almost unchanged. Today, period ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants perform regularly in the hall within the UNESCO-listed palace complex.