THE BACKERS WHO FINANCE PERFORMANCES

THE ABONNÉS FINANCED THE SHOWS BY RESERVING THE MOST EXPENSIVE SEATS 

Those magnates might use them for their families or visitors from the provinces, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Fridays for a year.

By Honoré Daumier

But the main attraction was dinner on those nights in a private salon next to the now sealed-off door. They reached it through an entrance created for them alone, after leaving their carriages in the huge space next to the edifice. 

The arrow points to coverings over tables of what is now a restaurant. Odd as it may seem, this view,  from a window of the passage the last page shows, is the only way to perceive the area's size: more later.

There the leaders of industry, commerce and culture connected, and met the most venerable nobility in a context as intimate and exclusive as that of a salon.

The dinners took place while awaiting the end of the ballet that took place after the opera's second act.

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Next,
 Detour: ballet, an art of the French court