A Wave Of The Baton.(Interview)

In the first five years after it opened in 1989, the Bastille Opera House went through two conductors and an artistic boycott. It became known for staging mediocre performances by an uneven orchestra in a hall with terrible acoustics. So when James Conlon, a 51-year-old native New Yorker who broke in his baton at the Metropolitan Opera, arrived as principal conductor in 1995, he faced a daunting task: to turn the ridiculed company into a world-class institution. And he has succeeded. One critic recently wrote, "These days France's No. 1 orchestra is to be found in the pit at the Bastille." Conlon spoke with NEWSWEEK's Dana Thomas in his office. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: After a rocky start, the Bastille seems to be doing well.

CONLON: The Bastille was conceived to make opera available to more people. We are able to sell operas here that you can't sell [elsewhere], and many are at 100 percent attendance. The Palais Garnier, the 19th-century opera house that was originally meant to be replaced by the Bastille, is also open and full. This shows that Paris was always a city that could house an international opera company.

What's changed?

We've changed the tradition of the Paris Opera. Before, there was a lot of variability: sometimes there was quality, sometimes there was no quality, but there was never quantity. [But] to run an international house like New York, Vienna or London, you have to have a company that is functioning all the time.

How did you do it?

We give more performances than almost any other opera company. And we try to keep our artistic level as high as possible. Sure we have bad nights. You can't stop a tenor from getting sick and canceling at 5 in the afternoon. But we are staying abreast without pandering to stars. We try to get the up-and-coming talents and show them off before others do. And we have been able to present a ...