Editing Palais Garnier (section)

===Design competition===
On 30 December 1860 the Second Empire of Emperor [[Napoleon III]] officially announced an architectural design competition for the design of the new opera house.

Applicants were given a month to submit entries. There were two phases to the competition. [[Charles Garnier (architect)|Charles Garnier]]'s project was one of about 170 submitted in the first phase.<ref>Mead 1991, p. 60 ("170 projects"); Kirkland 2013, p. 192 ("171 designs").</ref> Each of the entrants was required to submit a motto that summarised their design. Garnier's was the quote "Bramo assai, poco spero" ("Hope for much, expect little") from the Italian poet [[Torquato Tasso]].
Garnier's project was awarded the fifth-place prize, and he became one of seven finalists selected for the second phase.<ref>Mead 1991, pp. 60–62. Only five projects were awarded prizes, but two were the result of collaborations.</ref> In addition to Garnier, among the others were his friend [[Leon Ginain]], {{ill|Alphonse-Nicolas Crépinet|fr}} and [[Joseph-Louis Duc]] (who subsequently withdrew due to other commitments).<ref>Kirkland 2013, p. 192.</ref> To the surprise of many, both Viollet-le-Duc and Charles Rohault de Fleury missed out.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180" caption="Viollet-de-Duc's losing Opera Competition project of 1861">
File:Perspective view of Viollet-de-Duc's Opera Competition project, 1861 - Mead 1991 p66.jpg|Perspective view
File:Plan of Viollet-de-Duc's Opera Competition project, 1861 - Mead 1991 p74.jpg|Plan
File:Long section of Viollet-de-Duc's Opera Competition project, 1861 - Mead 1991 p75.jpg|Long section
</gallery>

The second phase required the contestants to revise their original projects and was more rigorous, with a 58-page program, written by the director of the Opéra, [[Alphonse Royer]], which the contestants received on 18 April. The new submissions were sent to the jury in the middle of May, and on 29 May 1861 Garnier's project was selected for its "rare and superior qualities in the beautiful distribution of the plans, the monumental and characteristic aspect of the façades and sections".<ref name=Mead76>Quoted and translated in Mead 1991, pp. 76, 290.</ref>

Garnier's wife Louise later wrote that the French architect [[Alphonse de Gisors]], who was on the jury, had commented to them that Garnier's project was "remarkable in its simplicity, clarity, logic, grandeur, and because of the exterior dispositions which distinguish the plan in three distinct parts—the public spaces, auditorium, and stage ... 'you have greatly improved your project since the first competition; whereas Ginain [the first-place winner in the first phase] has ruined his.'"<ref name=Mead76/>

Legend has it that the Emperor's wife, the [[Eugénie de Montijo|Empress Eugénie]], who was likely irritated that her own favoured candidate, Viollet-le-Duc, had not been selected, asked the relatively unknown Garnier: "What is this? It's not a style; it's neither Louis Quatorze, nor Louis Quinze, nor Louis Seize!" "Why Ma'am, it's Napoléon Trois" replied Garnier "and you're complaining!"<ref>Translated and quoted by Ayers 2004, pp. 172–174. The architectural styles mentioned by the empress were those which prevailed during the reigns of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. For more information, see the sections on Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassicism in [[French architecture#Baroque|French architecture]].</ref> Andrew Ayers has written that Garnier's definition "remains undisputed, so much does the Palais Garnier seem emblematic of its time and of the Second Empire that created it. A giddy mixture of up-to-the-minute technology, rather prescriptive rationalism, exuberant eclecticism and astonishing opulence, Garnier's opera encapsulated the divergent tendencies and political and social ambitions of its era."<ref name=Ayers>Ayers 2004, pp. 172–174.</ref> Ayers goes on to say that the judges of the competition in particular admired Garnier's design for "the clarity of his plan, which was a brilliant example of the [[Beaux-Arts architecture|''beaux-arts'']] design methods in which both he and they were thoroughly versed".<ref name=Ayers/>