Opéra National de Paris /

Opéra National de Paris is the leading opera company of France. It stages performances at the Opéra Bastille and Opéra Garnier in Paris. Other opera houses in Paris are the Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra-Comique and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. King Louis XIV gave a patent to Jean-Baptiste Lully to establish the Académie Royale de Musique in 1672, the great institution of French theatrical art comprising opera, ballet, and music. Although the opera held its own company upon its founding in 1669, the ballet of that time was merely an extension of it, having yet to evolve into an independent form of theatrical art. However Louis XIV, one of the great architects of baroque ballet (the artform which would one day evolve into classical ballet), established the ballet school in 1661 as the Académie Royale de Danse. From 1671 until Lully's death in 1687, the school was under the direction of the great dancing master Pierre Beauchamp, the man who set down the five positions of the feet. In 1713 King Louis XIV made the Opera company a state institution, including a resident company of professional dancers known as Le Ballet de l'Opéra.