The Currency - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

History

Built after the bombardment of Brussels by the French Army (1695) on the ruins of the hotel where currency was beaten, the Theater on Monnoye is due to the Venetian architects Paolo and Pietro Bezzi. The voter Maximilien-Emmanuel of Bavaria, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, had charged his treasurer, Gio Paolo Bombarda, to establish a new public theater in the middle of the city. The inauguration takes place in the current of the year 1700, without one managing until now to know the exact date of it. The first representation mentioned by the gazette is that of Atys , on November 19th, 1700, which one gives for the seventeen years of the king Philippe V of Spain, in the presence of the governors. The repertory of Lully and Quinault occupies the essence of the scene during twenty-five years and yields the step, in 1727, with the Venetian operas whose controlling it Marie-Elisabeth is fond of delicacies. The years 1730 to 1745 are characterized by a ceaseless change of direction, certain troops essuyant a bankruptcy after a few weeks only. In 1744, Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine becomes governor of the Austrian Netherlands and goes, after the French bracket, to give a new blow of projector on the scene of Brussels, often considered as the second after Paris.

In 1745 arrives at Brussels Jean-Nicolas Servandoni, known as D' Hannetaire, but the invasion of the French troops of the marshal of Saxony does not leave him time to settle with the head of the Theater of the Currency. Maurice of Saxony calls indeed upon Favart to direct the scene of Brussels, surrounded by a many troop. He will present to it the majority of works which he had given to the Op3era Comique of Paris. After the departure of the French troops, the directors follow one another a constant rate: D' Hannetaire takes again the direction of the theater in 1748, then Jean-Benoit Leclair, brother of the musician Jean-Marie Leclair, takes it again the following year, to yield it at once to other directors, like the Italian Francesco Crosa or the brothers Hus. In 1752, Jean-François Fieuzal, known as Durancy (which had come in the Netherlands with Favart), inaugurates one era of greater stability. It however yields the hand, three years later, in Hannetaire, which joins to the actor Gourville. In 1766, the “ordinary Actors of S.A.R.” (prince Charles of Lorraine) join following the example Comédie-Française and this company of actors will reign on “the Currency” a dozen years. This period is strongly marked by the rise of the Op3era Comique, that Favart had brought to Brussels, for the greatest pleasure of the public.

As of 1772, an outstanding figure takes the head of the associated actors and gives fresh impulse to the repertory of the scene of Brussels: Ignaz Vitzthumb, former timpanist of the court and Leader of the Theater of the Currency, puts at the honor productions of great scale and, with its comparse Louis Compain - Despierrières, it invites Parisian artists to go up their works in Brussels, to even create some especially for the Currency.

Thus, in 1774, he asks Pleinchesne and Philidor to assemble the new opera Berthe . Philidor having declined the offer, it is finally Vitzthumb which will compose the music of it. While Vitzthumb directs the troop, Compain prospects in Paris: he discovers new talents like Dazincourt, Larive, Florence and Grandmesnil which, after having begun in Brussels, will continue all a brilliant career with the Comédie-Française.

But in 1776, the direction Vitzthumb court with the bankruptcy and, the following year, the theater passes to the hands of three associated, Louis-Jean Pin, Alexandre Bultos and Sophie Lothaire, while Vitzthumb keeps the musical direction of the orchestra. This period proves as ruinous as the preceding one, more especially as Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine dies in 1780 and, with him, the interest which the government carries to the spectacles. Ten years later, the Révolution brabançonne upsets not only the manpower of the troop and finances, but also the repertory: with the arrival of the French troops of Dumouriez in 1792, Miss Montansier takes possession of the Theater of the Currency and made there play revolutionary coins, relegating to the oubliettes the majority of the light operas snuffed by the public.

In 1795, the French mode is set up in Brussels and the Currency will have nothing any more but one statute of “theater of province”, but where many French actors will however come “to make their floors”.

Completely dilapidated and reached outdatedness, the building of Bombarded is shaven in 1818 and the architect Louis Damesme designs a new inaugurated room the May 25th 1819 by a representation of the Caravan of Cairo of Grétry. The theater passes consequently under the administration of the Ville of Brussels and releases from the supervision of the Dutch mode. Large artists come of representation, such as Talma, M {{the}} Mars, Laure Cinti and the Malibran, the troop grows rich by personalities like Jenneval, the Ballet is directed by Petipa and Marie Lesueur is the First dancer.

The August 25th 1830, for the 59e birthday of Guillaume I {{er}}, one gives to the Dumb woman of Portici , grand opera of Auber, on a booklet of Scribe and Delavigne: the air Amour crowned of the fatherland starts the Révolution of 1830. The theater is closed during several weeks and takes again its regular activities only the following year.

The majority of the operas of Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer, Boieldieu, Donizetti and Verdi remain a long time with the poster and of many works are represented for the first French time.

The January 21st 1855, the theater is entirely destroyed by the flames, leaving only the four walls upright. Rebuilt almost with identical, the new theater is inaugurated the March 24th 1856 by a representation of Jaguarita the Indian , Op3era Comique of Halévy.

to be followed…

Directors of the Theater of the Currency

Files

The majority of the old files concerning the Theater of the Currency are preserved at the Archives of the Town of Brussels . There exist also funds Administration of the Theater of Brussels to the general Archives of the Kingdom , which covers mainly the years 1772 to 1811.

Since 1995, the Currency engaged an archivist whose mission is to count and preserve the whole of the data, documents, models of decorations, press reviews, etc a database is constituted gradually and been accessible on Internet site “CARMEN” (Computerized Archival Retrieval in Multi-media Enhanced Networking). It makes it possible to find all the history of the productions of the Currency since 1945, as well as other former information. Research can be done thanks to a multilingual thesaurus (French, English and Dutch). It is a relational and multilingual database. It is on the one hand a catalog of the files but it is also directed towards the electronic management of documents, to ensure their conservation and their availability. The encoding of these data in CARMEN is based on the standards AFNOR and ISBD. The encoding of the data follows a general procedure including the following stages:

a general description including the title, the mention of responsibility, the language, the bibliographical address, the collation, the identification number standardized, zone of note, descriptor resulting from the thesaurus. Of course these elements all are not obligatory, description adapts to the types of documents;
physical identification and localization of the documents, so that it is seen clearly if they belong to the bottom of the Currency or external collections;
a bond towards a digital representation of the document;
the creation of relations with other elements of the database.

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