Eugène Carpezat

Eugène Louis Carpezat (Paris, 4 November 1833 – Paris, 26 February 1912) was an acclaimed French scenographer in the Belle Époque.

Carpezat was the son of lemonade makers Claude François Carpezat and Jacqueline Caniou. After considering a career in the fine and decorative arts (e.g., Sabre d'honneur designed with Henry Hayez, 1857; the sculpture Enfants sur un bouc, Trouville, 1866), Carpezat studied with the famous scenic designer Charles-Antoine Cambon, whose speciality in architecture sets he inherited.

In 1875, Carpezat set up a professional association with fellow scenographer (Joseph-)Antoine Lavastre in order to take over Cambon's workshop at the latter's death. Together, Carpezat and Lavastre would design some of the defining Parisian productions – or parts thereof, as was customary – of the late 1870s and early 1880s: the world premieres of Delibes' Lakmé (1883), Gounod's Polyeucte (1878) and Le tribut de Zamora (1881), Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore (1877), Saint-Saëns' Henri VIII (1883), Verdi's Aida (Opéra premiere, 1880), and Verne's Michel Strogoff (theatrical adaptation, 1880). The duo also designed a number of revival productions for the Parisian Opéra the scenery of which had perished in the fire of the Salle Le Peletier (1873) – examples include Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (1876), L'Africaine (1877) and Le prophète (1883). Also by Carpezat and Lavastre l'aîné were the interior decorations of the Opera-Comique's (second) Salle Favart (1879).

Upon Lavastre's death, in 1883, Carpezat briefly joined hands with Lavastre's younger brother, Jean-Baptiste, to design the premieres of a.o. Bruneau's Le rêve (1891), Massenet's Esclarmonde (1889) and Le mage (1891), and Saint-Saëns' Ascanio (1890). Carpezat worked independently from Lavastre's death (1891) onwards. Named the latter's successor as the Opéra's chef du service des décorations, Carpezat contributed to an immense number of stagings at the Palais Garnier: Gluck's Armide (revival, 1905), Gounod's Sapho (new production, 1884) and Faust (complete redesign, 1908), Leroux' Astarté (premiere, 1901), Massenet's Le Cid (world premiere, 1885) and Thaïs (world premiere, 1894), Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (modern premiere, 1908), Reyer's Salammbô (Parisian premiere, 1892), Rossini's Guillaume Tell (new production, 1899), Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila (Parisian premiere, 1892) and Henri VIII (new production, 1909), Verdi's Otello (Parisian premiere, 1894), and Wagner's Die Walküre (Parisian premiere, as La Valkyrie, 1893), Tannhäuser (new production, 1895) and Götterdämmerung (Opéra premiere, as Le crépuscule des dieux, 1908). In addition, Carpezat became a household name at the Comédie-Française (Sardou's Thermidor, 1891), Théâtre du Châtelet, Gaîté (Massenet's Hérodiade, 1903), Opéra-Comique (Delibes' Lakmé, 1898; Gounod's Mireille, 1901; Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys, 1888; Massenet's Manon, 1884 and 1898, Cendrillon, 1899 and Werther, 1903), Théâtre des Nations, Porte Saint-Martin (Sardou's Fédora, 1882 and Théodora, 1884, both starring Sarah Bernhardt; Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, 1897), and Variétés. Carpezat also accepted commissions abroad, for instance from Madrid's Zarzuela and Belém's Theatro da Paz. Carpezat received a diplôme d'honneur at the Exposition Universelle of 1878. He was awarded a grand prix and named Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur at the Exposition Universelle of 1889. He sat in the commission organizing the conference L'art théâtral at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Numerous scenic designers of note were taught by Carpezat at his workshop at 50 Boulevard de la Villette: Ambroise Belluot, Léon Bouchet, François Carpezat (his son and successor), Demoget, Albert Dubosq, Oleguer Junyent i Sans, Lucien Jusseaume, Olivier Maréchal, Mouveau, Eugène Martial Simas and Victor Lamorte. Carpezat died at the age of 79, reportedly "aged, sad and discouraged due to no longer having any commissions from the larger theatres". He was interred in his family tomb at Montparnasse Cemetery.

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