MUSIC

Teething problems notwithstanding, the $386-million Space Age Opera Bastille opens in Paris this week, with supporters describing it as the world’s most sophisticated temple of music while critics call it is an eyesore, an artistic disaster and a waste of the taxpayers’ money. Constructed on the square where the Paris mob stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, its inauguration concert Thursday will be part of a 3-day celebration marking the bicentennial of the French Revolution. The state-of-the-art opera house--computer-designed to produce perfect acoustics and equipped with nine alternative quick-change stages--has 2,700 seats, each with a perfect view of the stage. However, the plan to put on 250 performances a year will be temporarily on hold. After Thursday’s opening concert (featuring Teresa Berganza, Barbara Hendricks and Placido Domingo), the doors of the massive Opera Bastille will close for technical fine-tuning. It will reopen in February.