Theater of Odéon

The Odéon , Theater of Europe or Théâtre of Odéon is a neo-classic Théâtre of style of the VI {{E}} district of Paris builds between 1779 and 1782 under Louis XVI by the Architecte S Marie-Joseph Peyre and Charles De Wailly and inaugurated in 1782 to initially accommodate the Comédie-Française (which preferred the Th3e4atre Fran1cais there).

History

Construction

Starting from 1767, at the request of the Marquis de Marigny, director of the Buildings of the King, Marie-Joseph Peyre and Charles De Wailly worked with the project of a new room for the Th3e4atre Fran1cais. The March 26th 1770, a stop of the Council orders the execution of the project on the ground of the garden of the hotel of the Prince de Condé, of which this one wished to be demolished in order to settle with the Palais Bourbon. De Wailly was protected from Marigny and Peyre the architect from Prince de Condé, and the friend of Wailly since their stay common to Rome. Their project - several times altered - was however to face the competition of those of the architects of Amusements, Denis-Claude Liégeon and Jean Damun, supported by the troop of the actors, and the Town of Paris, with its architect Pierre-Louis Black-Desproux. Ultimately, and thanks to the protection of Mister, brother of the king, and the count d' Angiviller, managing director of the Buildings of the King, the Peyre project and De Wailly end up definitively carrying it with the autumn 1778.

Work begins in May 1779. Peyre will be mainly responsible for outsides and De Wailly of the interiors:

outside is of a sobriety which confines with the austerity. Inspired by Palladio, the original frontage was flanked houses connected by an arch, as with the Villa Pisani.
Of semicircular plan, the room of the theater was the first room “with Italian” to have a floor (called orchestra today) with benches; previously, the public of the floor attended the representation upright. This innovation, which answered the new theories concerning the architecture of the theaters, was highly criticized at the time.

The Theater was to become the focal point of a new district, arranged within Peyre and De Wailly towards 1794. A beam of five streets (the streets Root, Casimir-Delavigne, Odéon, Crébillon and Regnard) convergent towards the Gantry of entry of the theater and lead on a vast semicircular place, the Place of Odéon, which serves and emphasizes the building. This district offered facilities of remarkable circulations and parking for the time.

Inauguration

The site of the theater had been very slightly modified compared to the preliminary draft, so as to bring it closer to the Palais of Luxembourg, remains of Sir, Count de Provence, brother of the King, so that it a new approval for their dwelling . In front of the opposition of the actors of the French to this site, the Chambre meant to them that one would withdraw their privileges and pensions to them and that another troop would be formed, if they persisted in their opposition . The February 16th 1782, the actors of the French are installed in their new walls. New the Th3e4atre Fran1cais is inaugurated by the queen Marie-Antoinette the April 9th 1782.

Some big events

the April 27th 1784, the Marriage of Barber of Beaumarchais is created by Dazincourt with the Theater of Odéon before the queen Marie-Antoinette and the court.

In 1791, the troop of the Comédie-Française is divided and the revolutionists, taken along by Talma, settle on Right Bank with the theater of the Palais Royal. The others rename the New Comedy “Theater Equality”, then, in 1794, Odéon, in reference to the ancient Greece.

Following a fire which has occurred in March 1799, the theater is restored with identical by the architect Chalgrin in 1807. It takes the name of Theater of the Empress.

Odéon is again destroyed by a fire in 1818. It is rebuilt by the architect Pierre Thomas Baraguay, associated of Chalgrin and architect of the Palais of close Luxembourg. This one removes the two houses and the two arches, giving to the building the aspect which it preserves nowadays.

It knows well later glory with the troop Renaud - Barrault which plays until May 1968 there before its occupation by the students at the time of the events.

In 1888, a new ceiling had been ordered from Jean-Paul Laurens. It is replaced in 1965 by a ceiling painted by André Masson.

After an important restoration campaign, the theater reopened its doors in April 2006.

Statute

Odéon is one of the five national theaters. Baptized in 1971 National theater of Odéon, it becomes in 1990 Odéon - Theater of Europe under the impulse of Giorgio Strehler. It is a national public corporation governed by the Decree n° 68-905 of October 21st, 1968 modified lastly by the Decree n° 2002-108 of January 24th, 2002

In 1996, Georges Lavaudant is named artistic director of Odéon. Olivier Py is since March 2007 the director of the theater of Odéon.

References

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