Facade on the Place du Châtelet
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Former names |
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Address | 2 Place du Châtelet, 4th arrondissement Paris |
Coordinates | 48°51′26″N 2°20′53″E / 48.857212°N 2.348118°E |
Capacity | 1,750 (1868) 1,600 (1874) |
Construction | |
Opened | 30 October 1862 21 May 1871 (destroyed by fire) 6 November 1874 (reopened) |
Architect | Gabriel Davioud |
Website | |
www.theatredelaville-paris.com |
The Théâtre de la Ville (meaning the City Theatre) is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris, the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet. It is located at 2, place du Châtelet in the 4th arrondissement.
Included among its many previous names are Théâtre Lyrique, Théâtre des Nations, and Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt.
The theatre, which until the fall of Napoleon III in 1870 was officially known at the Théâtre Lyrique Impérial, was designed by the architect Gabriel Davioud for Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862 for the opera company more commonly known simply as the Théâtre Lyrique. That company's earlier theatre, the Théâtre Historique on the Boulevard du Temple, where it had performed since 1851, was slated for demolition as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. During the company's initial period on the Place du Châtelet, it was under the direction of Léon Carvalho and gave the premieres of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles (1863), Berlioz's Les Troyens à Carthage (1863), Gounod's Mireille (1864), Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth (1867), and Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (1867). Carvalho also presented the first performance of Verdi's revised and expanded version of Macbeth (in French) in 1865.Jules Pasdeloup took over as director in 1868 and gave the first Paris performances of Wagner's Rienzi in 1869. The Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet was nearly completely destroyed by fire on 21 May 1871 during the recapturing of Paris by the forces of the Adolphe Thiers at the end of Paris Commune, and the Théâtre Lyrique opera company went bankrupt not long after.