Paris Opera House Exhibitions 2026 and 2027
Two exhibitions bracket the autumn of 2026 at the Palais Garnier, one included in a visit ticket and one free in the public rooms. The Library-Museum runs its own programme in the Emperor's pavilion on the same ticket. Paris Opera House tickets include the entrance that opens all of it.
On now: Creative Challenges — Decorating Costumes at the Paris Opera
Creative Challenges — Decorating Costumes at the Paris Opera
Défis de création — Décorer le costume à l'Opéra de Paris
Dates: 1 April to 30 September 2026
Where: Palais Garnier
Cost: Included in a visit ticket.
Costume decoration — embroidery, dye, feather and paint work — shown through pieces from the Opera's own wardrobe.
It is shown in the public rooms, so you meet it on the ordinary route through the building rather than making a separate trip. Costume work is the part of an opera house that visitors almost never see, which is what makes this one worth slowing down for.
Opening 27 October: Richard Wagner: Les Révolutions du Ring
Richard Wagner: Les Révolutions du Ring
Richard Wagner : Les Révolutions du Ring
Dates: 27 October 2026 to 20 February 2027
Where: Palais Garnier
Cost: Free, in the public areas.
The Ring cycle at 150, drawn from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, museum collections and private lenders, and curated by Marion Mirande for the Opera with Olivier Mabille for the BnF. It runs alongside the company's new Ring at the Opéra Bastille.
This is the larger of the two and it is free, which is unusual. It runs alongside the company's new production of the Ring at the Opéra Bastille and the festival built around it, and it marks 150 years since the cycle's first complete performance at Bayreuth in 1876. The company page explains why a show about one house is staged in the other.
Just finished
Dating a page like this properly means saying what has closed as well as what is open. Reviews written in the last year may mention a show you cannot now see.
| Exhibition | Ran | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The Palais Garnier: 150 years of a legendary theatre | 15 October 2025 to 15 February 2026 | Library-Museum |
| Creative Challenges — Decorating Costumes at the Paris Opera | 1 April to 30 September 2026 | Palais Garnier, public rooms |
The Library-Museum, which is open whether or not a show is
The Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra sits in the Emperor's pavilion on the west side of the building and is run by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It holds close to 600,000 items — around 100,000 books, 1,680 periodicals, 10,000 programmes, 100,000 photographs, plus costume drawings, set models and the company's own administrative record back to the eighteenth century.
It is included on a visit ticket and it is the part of the building most visitors walk past, because it is a door off the route rather than a room on it. It also hosts its own rotating exhibitions, which is where the 150th-anniversary show ran. The rooms page puts it in the sequence.
What an exhibition does to the visit itself
Nothing, in practice, and that is worth saying because a show is easy to mistake for a separate ticket. Both of these sit in rooms you walk through anyway, so an exhibition adds ten or fifteen minutes to a ninety-minute visit rather than an extra stop. Neither costs more than the admission you already hold.
The one thing a show does change is crowding. A free exhibition in the public rooms draws people who would not otherwise have bought a ticket, and the reviewers who complain about the rooms filling up after mid-morning were writing in an ordinary month. Between 27 October and 20 February, being through the door at ten matters more than usual.
Where to check before you travel
Exhibition dates and closure days are published by the Opera and by nobody else with any authority. These are the pages we check, and you should check them too within a week of travelling.
- Opéra national de Paris — exhibitions, the programme with dates.
- Opéra national de Paris — visiting the Palais Garnier, which carries admission prices and the calendar of occasional closures.
- Opéra national de Paris — access and opening times, for the hours and the entrance.
Book the visit the exhibitions come with
The self-guided ticket and six guided tours, with what each fare covers set out in full.
Paris Opera House Tours compares them all, and the FAQ page answers whether the shows cost extra. They do not.