Flappers & Fiction

Behind the illustrious reputation of the Paris Conservatoire lies a surprising history of grim discipline and drafty corridors. This detailed chronicle takes us from the institution’s severe Italian origins to the bustling, slightly dingy halls of 19th-century Paris. You will sit in on Monsieur Massenet’s rapturously attended classes and peek inside the solitary “loges” where nervous students remain locked away to compose their cantatas. It offers a vivid portrait of the rigorous, sometimes eccentric world that turns anxious pupils into the celebrated laureates of the Grand Opéra.