Notre-Dame de Paris at Opéra Bastille

Created in 1965, Roland Petit's first production for the Opera Ballet, Notre Dame de Paris,is an intense work. With his highly developed sense of theatricality and his taste for dramatic stories, Roland Petit took up Victor Hugo's classic masterpiece: around the four principal characters, Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Frollo and Phoebus, a tragic story of love and death is played out, in which beauty rubs shoulders with the grotesque, and humanity and innocence come up against hatred and jealousy. Yves Saint Laurent's first ever costume designs with their vivid colours like so many stained glass windows; the imposing backdrop of the majestic cathedral, and Maurice Jarre's original music all contribute to the success of this grand Medieval fresco.