Théâtre de la Gaîté (rue Papin)
| Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique Théâtre National Lyrique (1876–7) Opéra Populaire (1879) |
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The Théâtre de la Gaîté on the rue Papin in 1862
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| Address | 3–5 rue Papin,3rd arrondissement Paris |
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| Capacity | 1800 seats |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1862 |
| Demolished | 1989 except for the facade, entrance and foyer |
Coordinates: 48°51′59.5″N 2°21′12″E / 48.866528°N 2.35333°E
In 1862 during Haussmann's modernization of Paris the Théâtre de la Gaîté of the boulevard du Temple was relocated to the rue Papin across from the Square des Arts et Métiers. The new theatre, built in an Italian style to designs of the architects Jacques-Ignace Hittorff and Alphonse Cusin, opened on 3 September.
Within a decade the focus began to shift from melodrama to operetta and opera, so the theatre also came to be known as the Gaîté-Lyrique. In the early 1920s Diaghilev's Ballets Russes danced here, and after World War II it was used for musical comedy. In the 1970s attendance decreased, and there were several attempts to find new uses for the building, culminating in 1989 in the construction of a short-lived amusement park, that resulted in the demolition of most of the theatre, except for the facade, entrance and foyer. The latter were restored during a 2004 reconstruction that converted the building into an arts centre, La Gaîté Lyrique, completed in November 2010.
Jacques Offenbach was the director of the Théâtre de la Gaîté from 1873 to 1874. His opéra-bouffe-féerie Le roi Carotte was first performed here in 1872 and his opéra-féerie Le voyage dans la lune in 1875. The opera Le timbre d'argent by Camille Saint-Saëns was premiered here in 1877, at which time the theatre was briefly known as the Théâtre National Lyrique.
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