Hearing La Valkyrie at the Palais Garnier

On Monday, November 14, 1904, Parisians could dial up the Paris Opéra to listen to Richard Wagner's music drama La Valkyrie (a French translation of the 1870 Die Walküre). How familiar and accepting were Parisians of Wagner—a provocative German composer—in the early aughts? Who were the singers involved in the performance? What did the voices that streamed across the city's telephone wires that night sound like? And what visual imagery might have filled théâtrophone users' minds, familiar as many may have been with performances inside the opera house? This exhibit seeks to answer these questions by drawing together a wide range of documents including press clippings, audio recordings, and more.