Lyon Presqu'Ile, Opéra

The Opera on your right is on the spot of the original theatre built by Jacques-Germain Soufflot in 1756 and renovated by A.-M. Chenavard between 1825 and 1831. An extension was completed in 1990 by the architect Jean Nouvel. Of neoclassical architecture, the facade has a ground floor arcade, a main floor and a penthouse strip with sphinx heads which are connected by garlands of foliage and antique theatre masks. The whole is surmounted by eight statues of muses. They are traditionally nine, but the need for a symmetric span meant the exclusion of Urania, the muse of astronomy.