For the first time on such a scale, the exhibition “Opera World” offers an in-depth examination of the history of opera in the 20th and 21st centuries from the angle of its relationship with the visual arts. Exploring these often fruitful and sometimes impassioned dialogues, the project shows how artists – some totally unfamiliar with the world of the stage – have influenced the course of opera history through scenographic creations as spectacular as they are varied. Revealing a lesser known aspect of these interactions, it will also shed light on opera’s impact on the creations of visual artists: the sensorial, aesthetic and sometimes political power that this total art inspires in numerous contemporary artists. From Ernest Klausz’s stage design for Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in 1933 to the legendary Tristan und Isolde by Bill Viola in 2005, the exhibition spotlights some of the emblematic productions that have marked the history of the Paris Opera.