The original opera house was re-designed by the distinguished French architect, Jean Nouvel between 1985 and 1993 in association with the agency of scenography dUCKS scéno and the acoustician Peutz.

In 1756, one of the first opera houses created inside an existing freestanding building was opened in Lyon.

By early in the following century it was found to be too small, and Antoine-Marie Chenavard and Jean-Marie Pollet erected the new Lyon theatre which opened on July 1, 1831.

It was not until 1985 that the City decided to once again re-build the opera house, but this time it was to be within the shell of the existing 1831 building.

It has been noted that this achievement was "an architectural tour de force, in which the past has been successfully wedded to the future..",[1] albeit with the limited backstage space of the 19th-century theatre still remaining.