The red-and-gold interior
Four tiers of boxes beneath a great chandelier.
Qjafcc — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lamiot — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GFreihalter — CC BY-SA 4.0 · KRaikkonen01 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Check the season's programme on the house's site and book online — prices are reasonable next to the major opera houses, and upper-tier seats are relatively cheap. The season runs mainly October to May and thins in summer, so a July or August visit may find nothing playing. Smart dress is customary rather than required.
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The Opéra de Nice is an 1885 building on the edge of the old town, with an Italianate façade and a red-and-gold interior of four tiers of boxes beneath a great chandelier — an elegant regional opera house in the classic Italian manner. Its story began in tragedy: a wooden theatre on the site burned down in **1881** during a performance, killing dozens in the audience, and the city resolved to build a safe stone house in its place. François Aune designed it and it opened in 1885. It runs a season today of opera, ballet and symphony concerts (mainly autumn to spring, thinning in summer). For a visitor not attending a performance: the façade is free to see from the street and is part of the old town's scene, but **the interior can only be entered with a ticket to a performance** or on rare limited tours — do not go expecting a daytime sight.
Four tiers of boxes beneath a great chandelier.
A stone house built after the wooden theatre disaster.
4-6 Rue Saint-François-de-Paule, 06300 Nice