Opéra National de Lyon

This guide to the Opera National de Lyon explains how a nineteenth-century opera facade on this square hides an entirely new building behind it, gutted and rebuilt over six years by architect Jean Nouvel while keeping only the outer stone skin. It follows the double-glazed steel vault crowning the structure, built like a thermos to hold warmth and repel summer sun, and the suspended black auditorium hanging clear of the surrounding walls inside. Listen for how Lyon residents reacted to the bill for rebuilding a building they thought they already had.