TYCOONS EQUAL TO AN EMPEROR

EXCEPT FOR THE MESSAGE ON THE FACADE, THE IMPORTANCE GIVEN EMPEROR AND SUBSCRIBERS IS THE SAME

The rotunda and surrounding voids are the same, on the city's most expensive land:

      Claude Abron

The difference is in the extras that make the voids stand out:

• At the Emperor's entrance, a ramp for horses:  

• At that of the subscribers, a colonnade: 

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Contrasting caryatides:

• For the Emperor,  layers of drapery clothe a pair.  

•  For subscribers, they are nude, sensual and 14 of them surround the void.  

Nudity, the clothing of gods, in official art represents the Republic, Justice etc., cold abstractions that do not incite desire. 

But before their restoration (please read on) these nudes radiated eroticism. 

Félix Sinpraseuth

Before restoration (in 2016)

Alex Varenne

"Coming, chéri?"

They allude to the ballerinas.

# # #

The colonnade highlights the void's immensity, as lit by the caryatids' lanterns subscribers strolled toward their entrance...

Roland Halbe-Yatzer

...feeling themselves masters of the universe.

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Next,
Masking the Opéra's purpose