A popular opera is one where there are more people than seats, quality too. With an inclusive repertoire of Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, Italian and French composers. Pierre Bergé, 1989

That which strikes you about the genesis of the Bastille Opera House, is the absence of any artistic project, be it the popular opera slogan or the utopic ambition of self-abstraction by a revolutionary technological tool, by which the economic constraints which accompany the exploitation of an opera house could be obviously commuted. Rapport Gall, 1993