The Salle Favart, officially the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, is a Paris

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

and theatre, the current home of the Opéra-Comique. It was built from 1893 to 1898 in a

neo-Baroque style The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture and architectural sculptur ...

to the designs of the French architect Louis Bernier and is located on the Place Boïeldieu just south of the

Boulevard des Italiens The boulevard des Italiens is a boulevard in Paris. It is one of the 'Grands Boulevards' in Paris, a chain of boulevards built through the former course of the Wall of Charles V and the Louis XIII Wall, which were destroyed by the orders of Loui ...

Background

The Salle Favart is the third theatre with this name on this site. The first Salle Favart, built to the designs of

Jean-François Heurtier Jean-François Heurtier (6 March 1739, Paris - 16 April 1822, Versailles) was a French architect. Biography He studied at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1765. He was received as a membe ...

, opened on 28 April 1783.

Charles Simon Favart Charles Simon Favart (13 November 1710 – 12 May 1792) was a French playwright and theatre director. The Salle Favart in Paris is named after him. Biography Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, a ...

was the company's director at the time. It was destroyed by fire on the night of 14 or 15 January 1838. The second Salle Favart, built to the designs of , opened on 16 May 1840. It was destroyed by fire on 25 May 1887.Wild 1989, pp. 135–138.

Competition

After long deliberation following the second fire, a decision was finally reached to rebuild on the same constricted site. A competition was held, judged by five winners of the Grand

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

(including Charles Garnier, the architect of the

Opéra This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

), which ensured the design would reflect academic and official tastes. Because of disputes within the profession, more avant-garde architects did not participate. The winner of the competition was Louis Bernier (a former student of Honoré Daumet at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

), who had won the Prix de Rome in 1872.Mead 1996.

Construction and design

The new Salle Favart, built from 1893 to 1898, is typical of

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...

. The neo-Baroque facade is an adaptation of Garnier's design for the

, and the elaborate exterior and interior decoration shows the influence of both Garnier and Daumet. The auditorium has a horseshoe shape with four galleries, a traditional design with roots reaching as far back as the 17th century. The structure has iron framework for reasons of fire resistance (the use of iron in theatre construction began in the 1780s), but unlike more forward-looking architects, Bernier concealed the frame with heavy stone. In keeping with the neo-Baroque design, nearly

photo-realistic Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

allegorical paintings were commissioned to decorate the theatre's foyers, and in spite of budgetary constraints, the decorators "managed to produce an interior of overbearing opulence, especially in the lavishly histrionic, gilt-dripping stuccowork of the auditorium." The critical reception was quite varied, with the

rationalists In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy ...

attacking the "delirious frivolity" of the design, and the traditionalists defending it as appropriate for the

operettas Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

to be performed inside.

Photographs of the interior

File:Opéra Comique-Foyer-2.jpg, Grand Foyer File:Salle Favart auditorium.jpg, Galleries File:Coupole de l'Opéra Comique.jpg, Auditorium ceiling File:Salle Favart stage 1.jpg, Proscenium and curtain File:Favart-marche2018 (1).jpg, Decorative stuccowork File:Monogramme OC.jpg, Opéra-Comique monogram

Architectural drawings by Bernier

File:Third Salle Favart, elevation of the principal facade, drawing by Louis Bernier – Gallica 2017.jpg, Principal facade File:Third Salle Favart, plan at the level of the orchestra, drawing by Louis Bernier – Gallica 2017.jpg, Plan at orchestra level File:Third Salle Favart, elevation of the lateral facade, drawing by Louis Bernier – Gallica 2017.jpg, Lateral facade File:Third Salle Favart, long section, drawing by Louis Bernier – Gallica 2017.jpg, Long section of the auditorium File:Third Salle Favart, elevation of the rear galleries, drawing by Louis Bernier – Gallica 2017.jpg, Elevation of the rear galleries

Notable premieres

* '' Louise'' by Charpentier (2 February 1900) * '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' by Debussy (30 April 1902) * '' Ariane et Barbe-Bleue'' by Dukas (10 May 1907) * ''

L'heure espagnole ''L'heure espagnole'' is a French one-act opera from 1911, described as a ''comédie musicale'', with music by Maurice Ravel to a French libretto by Franc-Nohain, based on Franc-Nohain's 1904 play ('comédie-bouffe') of the same nameStoullig E. '' ...

'' by Ravel (19 May 1911) * '' Le pauvre matelot'' by Milhaud (16 December 1927)

Notes

Bibliography

* Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. . * Mead, Christopher Curtis (1996). "Bernier, Stanislas-Louis", vol. 3, , in ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan. . Also a
Oxford Art Online
(subscription required). * Simeone, Nigel (2000). ''Paris: A Musical Gazetteer''. Yale University Press. . * Wild, Nicole ( 989. ''Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: les théâtres et la musique''. Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres. . (paperback)
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WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

. {{authority control Opera houses in Paris Buildings and structures in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris Music venues completed in 1898 Theatres completed in 1898