The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

, located in the place du Châtelet in the

1st arrondissement of Paris The 1st arrondissement of Paris (''Ier arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le premier'' (the first). I ...

, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of

Baron Haussmann Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

between 1860 and 1862. Originally named the Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet, it has undergone remodeling and name changes over the years. Currently it seats 2,500 people.

Description

The theatre is one of two apparent twins constructed along the quays of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

, facing each other across the open Place du Châtelet. The other is the Théâtre de la Ville. Their external architecture is essentially

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

entrances under arcades, although their interior layouts differ considerably. At the centre of the plaza is an ornate,

sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...

-endowed fountain, erected in 1808, which commemorates

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's victory in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Origins

The Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet was built for Hippolyte Hostein's equestrian company, the Théâtre Impérial du Cirque. The previous theatre, the Cirque Olympique on the

Boulevard du Temple The Boulevard du Temple (), formerly nicknamed the "Boulevard du Crime", is a thoroughfare in Paris that separates the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, 3rd arrondissement from the 11th arrondissement of Paris, 11th. It runs from the Place de la Répu ...

, was slated for demolition by

to allow the construction of the Boulevard du Prince-Eugène (now the

Boulevard Voltaire The Boulevard Voltaire () is a well-known boulevard in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. It was created by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann during the reign of French emperor Napoleon III. Originally named the Boulevard du Prince-Eugène, it was ...

).Wild 1989, p. 76. The site for the new theatre was acquired by the City of Paris in October 1859, and construction took place between 1860 and 1862. The interior designers included Eugène Carrières and Armand Cambon, and the curtain was created by Charles Cambon. The theatre originally seated 2,200 people, although Haussmann claimed it held 3,600. The repertory, fixed by a decree of 20 September 1862, included military works and '' féeries'' in one or several acts, as well as dramas and ''vaudevilles''. Hostein left as director in September 1868. Nestor Roqueplan ran the theatre from 1 July 1869 to April 1870.

Fall of the Second Empire

The theatre was closed from September 1870 to July 1871 due to the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. The war brought about the fall of the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

, and under the succeeding

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France durin ...

, the appellation ''impérial'' was dropped. Hippolyte Hostein returned as the theatre's director in 1873–1874. Notably, beginning in April 1876, the stage version of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's ''

Around the World in Eighty Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

'', adapted by Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery, began a run spanning sixty-four years and 2,195 performances (although not continuously). It was only the Nazi occupation of Paris in May 1940 that closed this production permanently.

Twentieth century

Into the 20th century, the theatre was used for

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

s, variety and ballet performances, for classical and popular music concerts. It was also, for a time, a cinema.

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's '' Le Martyre de saint Sébastien'' received its premiere in the theatre on 22 May 1911. It was the first venue for the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

, before they moved to the new

théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...

with their 1913 season: among the ballets premiered at the Châtelet are

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

's '' Petrushka'' on 13 June 1911,

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

' '' La Péri'' on 22 April 1912,

Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

's '' Afternoon of a Faun'' on 29 May 1912,

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

's '' Daphnis et Chloé'' on 8 June 1912, and

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

's ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' on 18 May 1917. In addition, many foreign composers and conductors made appearances in the theatre, including

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

. Since 1979, the theatre has been operated by the City of Paris, and, after undergoing a major restoration, re-opened in 1980 under the name Théâtre Musical de Paris. It was acoustically re-modeled again in 1989 and reverted to the Théâtre du Châtelet name.

Shirley Horn Shirley Valerie Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005) was an American jazz singer and pianist. She collaborated with many jazz musicians including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and oth ...

recorded her 1992 live album '' I Love You, Paris'' at the Théâtre du Châtelet. For a time it was mainly used for opera performances and concerts. The

Orchestre de Paris The Orchestre de Paris () is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris. History In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du ...

and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France have played there. In 1993 the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

of London began an annual residency period. Under the artistic direction of Stéphane Lissner from 1995 to 1999, the theatre received additional improvements in acoustics and sight lines.

Twenty-first century

In 2004, became artistic director of the theatre. He de-emphasized

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and dance performances and introduced more lucrative productions of

Broadway musicals Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...

, including ''

Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off- ...

'', ''

Singin' in the Rain ''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Rita Moreno a ...

'', '' 42nd Street'', and ''

An American in Paris ''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) for orchestra by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and en ...

''. In 2017, Choplin was succeeded by Ruth Mackenzie, who was appointed artistic director alongside general director Thomas Lauriot dit Prévost, who worked at the theatre with Choplin from 2006 to 2013. Mackenzie aimed to connect the theatre's programming more to the citizens of Paris, including its banlieues. Under her tenure, from 2017 to 2019, the theatre was closed for a $34.7 million renovation. While the main purpose of the renovation was to renew electrical circuits, fire safety and security, the Grand Salle was returned to its appearance of 1862 and the Grand Foyer to its

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

style. Outside of the theatre,

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

statues symbolising dance, music, comedy and drama which were removed at the end of the 19th century were restored. When the theatre re-opened in 2019, Mackenzie and Lauriot dit Prévost introduced a "Robin Hood scheme" for theatregoers and sponsors to buy extra tickets for those who cannot afford them. In 2019,

Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons (CDG, ) is a Japanese fashion label, founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969. It is based in Paris, where its flagship store is located. Other than fashion, the label has expanded to include jewelry and perfume (under the brand Comme ...

launched a

fragrance An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance, flavoring or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficien ...

called "''Odeur Du Théâtre Du Châtelet Acte I''" created by Caroline Dumur inspired by the history of the theatre mixed with the modernity of its new creative director Ruth Mackenzie. Since the 2019 edition, the ceremony of the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

is held every year at the venue. On 28 August 2020 it was announced that Théâtre du Châtelet had fired Ruth Mackenzie as artistic director, with an unnamed source suggesting a managerial problem with the staff and a financial problem due to an insufficient artistic season. In response, Mackenzie confirmed an inquiry into her performance had been carried out, but stated that it had not uncovered evidence of wrongdoing. General director Thomas Lauriot dit Prévost remained in his post. Between September 2020 and January 2022, multiple productions were cancelled due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 24 February 2022, 32 dancers of the Kyiv City Ballet were stranded in Paris due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. The City of Paris offered them a residency at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Anne Hidalgo Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (, ; born 19 June 1959) is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). Hidalg ...

, mayor of Paris, announced this at one of the group's first performances at the theatre, saying the arrangement would last "for as long as it takes."

Notes

Bibliography

*Allison, John, ed.(2003). ''Great Opera Houses of the World'', supplement to ''Opera'' Magazine, London. * Wild, Nicole (1989). ''Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: les théâtres et la musique''. Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres. . (paperback).

External links

Official websiteFloormic Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Theatre Du Chatelet Chatelet Buildings and structures in the 1st arrondissement of Paris Theatres completed in 1862 Music venues completed in 1862 1862 establishments in France Music venues in France