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The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens () is a
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
ian theatre founded in 1855 by the composer
Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''T ...
for the performance of opéra bouffe and operetta. The current theatre is located in the 2nd arrondissement at 4 rue Monsigny with an entrance at the back at 65 Passage Choiseul. In the 19th century the theatre was often referred to as the Salle Choiseul. With the decline in popularity of operetta after 1870, the theatre expanded its repertory to include comedies.Bouffes-Parisien website
.
Lamb, Andrew. "Offenbach, Jacques" in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, pp. 653–658.Levin 2009, pp. 401–402.


History


Salle Lacaze

In February 1855, Offenbach successfully requested a license from the Parisian authorities for the performance of what he described as a "new and original" genre of musical theatre. He justified his proposed endeavour by saying that these works would have mass appeal and would provide opportunities for young French composers. The company gave its first performances during the summer of 1855 at the Salle Lacaze. This theatre was unusually small with a capacity of only 300 spectators, but was located on the
Carré Marigny The Carré Marigny ("Marigny Square"), in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, is the site of an open-air market where postage stamps are bought and sold by hobbyists and serious philately, philatelists. The Carré Marigny was featured as a location ...
, near the crowds attending the
Exposition Universelle Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair *Expository writing **Exposition (narrative) *Exposition (music) *Trade fair * ''Exposition'' (album), the debut album by the band Wax on Radio *Exposi ...
. The inaugural performance was on 5 July with Offenbach conducting four of his own works: a prologue called ''Entrez, messieurs, mesdames'', a one-act ''pièce d'occasion'' written by
Joseph Méry Joseph Méry (21 January 179717 June 1866) was a French writer, journalist, novelist, poet, playwright and librettist. Career An ardent romanticist, he collaborated with Auguste Barthélemy in many of his satires and wrote a great number of s ...
and "Jules Servières" (a
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...
of
Ludovic Halévy Ludovic Halévy (1 January 1834 – 7 May 1908) was a French author and playwright, best known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach. Biography Ludovic Halévy was born in ...
, who worked as a government official and needed to protect his reputation); ''Une nuit blanche'', a one-act ''opéra-comique'' on a pastoral theme; ''Arlequin barbier'', a pantomime utilizing themes from Rossini's ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was bas ...
'' arranged by "Alfred Lange" (Offenbach); and ''
Les deux aveugles ''Les deux aveugles'' (, ''The Two Blind Men'' or ''The Blind Beggars'') is an 1855 one-act French ''bouffonerie musicale'' (operetta) by Jacques Offenbach.Lamb 1992, p. 1143. The libretto was written by Jules Moinaux and was a condensation of hi ...
'', a one-act ''bouffonerie musicale'' about two swindling "blind" Parisian beggars. The latter was almost cut, since the invited audience who attended the dress rehearsal failed to laugh, but Offenbach decided to retain it, and it was the hit of the opening night. This little piece soon acquired an international reputation (due to visitors from the Exposition), and Offenbach's admirers soon included
Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
and Thackeray. Further performances in the summer of 1855 were primarily of satirical sketches which only included a few musical numbers. The season, however, was so successful that Offenbach was able to resign his position as conductor of the Théâtre Français.


Salle Choiseul

In October Offenbach submitted another petition to the authorities, this time to merge his company with the Théâtre des Jeunes Élèves de Monsieur Comte (
Théâtre Comte The Théâtre Comte, also called Théâtre des Jeunes-Élèves (the latter name revived from a previous theatre, on a different site, in the rue de Thionville, that had been closed down by Napoleon's decree of June 1807), was a Parisian entertainme ...
). This company's theatre, which was not much larger than the Salle Lacaze, was demolished, and the larger Salle Choiseul with a capacity of about 900 was constructed. The new theatre was not only larger, but warmer, more luxurious and more comfortable than the Salle Lacaze. The orchestra was enlarged from sixteen players to thirty. Offenbach's new license permitted performances of one-act comedies, with or without music, but with fewer than five characters. It also specifically excluded sketches and required the performance of at least two works by composers other than Offenbach. The first performance of the merged company was on 29 December 1855 at the Salle Choiseul and included the premiere of Offenbach's ''
Ba-ta-clan ''Ba-ta-clan'' is a "chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French ''chinoiserie'', from ''chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, ga ...
'', a one-act ''chinoiserie musicale'' with a libretto by Halévy. From this time performances were primarily given at the Salle Choiseul during the winter theatre season. The company performed at the Salle Lacaze during the 1856, 1857 and 1859 summer seasons, however, in March 1861 legislation was enacted which prevented the company from using both theatres, and appearances at the Salle Lacaze were discontinued. In spite of the restrictions of the license, Offenbach began including longer, more substantial works which violated its terms. For instance, his two-act '' Orphée aux enfers'' with a cast of 16 received its first performance at the Salle Choiseul on 21 October 1858. Even after Offenbach resigned as the director in January 1862, the company continued at the Salle Choiseul, performing light operas by other composers as well as Offenbach. Upon the departure of Offenbach, the new director tore down the existing hall to erect a larger one with a capacity of 1100 spectators.


Legacy

While the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens is indelibly linked to Offenbach, it has also been the venue for a number of other important works. In addition to Offenbach's own operettas, the theatre has seen the premieres of musical works by
Hervé Hervé is a French masculine given name of Breton origin, from the name of the 6th-century Breton Saint Hervé. The common latinization of the name is Herveus (also ''Haerveus''), an early (8th-century) latinization was ''Charivius''. Anglicized ...
, Emmanuel Chabrier and
Claude Terrasse Claude Terrasse (27 January 1867 – 30 June 1923) was a French composer of operettas. Terrasse was born in L'Arbresle, Rhône. He became known by writing the music for the play ''Ubu Roi'' by Alfred Jarry in 1896. In Paris, his brother-in-law, t ...
and playwrights such as Robert de Flers, Albert Willemetz,
Sacha Guitry Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and follo ...
and Henri Bernstein. From 1986 to 2007, the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens was under the directorship of
Jean-Claude Brialy Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director. Early life Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland ...
, who died of cancer in May 2007.


List of premieres


List of directors

The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens was founded as a private entrepreneurship.Levin indicates that the company was a private entrepreneurship from its founding in 1855 up until 1885, which is the extent of her coverage of the topic. See Table 16.8. "Chronology and administration of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens company" in Levin 2009, p. 399.


References

;Notes ;Sources * Dickens, Charles (1882). ''Dicken's Dictionary of Paris, 1882. An Unconventional Handbook''. London: Macmillan
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Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
. *Faris, Alexander (1980). ''Jacques Offenbach''. London & Boston: Faber and Faber. . *Fauser, Annegret, editor; Everist, Mark, editor (2009). ''Music, theater, and cultural transfer. Paris, 1830–1914''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. . *Galignani, A. and W., publishers (1862). ''Galignani's New Paris Guide for 1862''. Paris: A. and W. Galignani
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Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
. *Gammond, Peter (1980). ''Offenbach''. London: Omnibus Press. . *Gänzl, Kurt (2001). ''The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre'', second edition. New York: Schirmer Books. . *Levin, Alicia (2009). "A documentary overview of musical theaters in Paris, 1830–1900" in Fauser 2009, pp. 379–402. *Martin, Jules (1901). ''Nos Artistes: Annuaire des Théâtres et Concerts, 1901–1902''. Paris: Ollendorff
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Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
. *Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...
'' (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. . *Wagstaff, John (1992). "''Véronique''" in Sadie 1992, vol. 4, pp. 961–962. *Yon, Jean-Claude (2000). ''Jacques Offenbach''. aris Galimard. .


External links


The Theatre's website
{{Coord, 48.8684, N, 2.3354, E, region:FR-75_type:landmark, display=title Theatres in Paris Opera houses in Paris Buildings and structures in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris Theatres completed in 1855 Music venues completed in 1855