Paris - The head of Milan's La Scala, Frenchman Stephane Lissner, is to take over the Paris National Opera in August 2014, a year earlier than expected, the French opera said on Tuesday.

Lissner, who is taking over from current director Nicolas Joel after he said he was leaving over budget cuts, will be able to move earlier than expected after La Scala picked his successor, Austrian Alexander Pereira, in June.

Lissner was named as the head of the partially state-funded Paris National Opera in October last year, after Joel said he would not seek a new mandate in 2015 because of budget cuts that he said will have "very bad consequences" for the opera.

Lissner has promised to seek patronage funds, cut ticket prices and take major productions to the provinces when he takes over the Paris National Opera, which runs both the French capital's operas: the Garnier Palace, inaugurated in 1875, and the Bastille opera that opened in 1989.