Berlioz in Paris
Théâtre-Lyrique
The Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial, on the Place du Châtelet by the Seine, was inaugurated in 1862. The theatre was burnt down in 1871, but rebuilt on the same plan: the theatre one sees nowadays thus closely resembles the building of Berlioz’s time.
It was at the recently opened Théâtre-Lyrique that Les Troyens received its first performance on 4 November 1863, and then ran for a total of 21 performances until 20 December. The performances were a relative success – they enabled Berlioz to give up at long last his burdensome work as music critic. But it was not the performance that Berlioz had intended: Les Troyens had been meant for the Opéra, the only theatre in Paris with the resources capable of staging adequately the work. The performances at the smaller Théâtre-Lyrique were a very unsatisfactory compromise, which damaged the work’s future for a long time to come. The opera was presented in a truncated form, shorn of its first two acts (which Berlioz never heard performed), renamed Les Troyens à Carthage, and with numerous cuts in the 3 acts that were played. Berlioz relates at length the whole painful experience in his Memoirs (Postface). See also a review of the première of Les Troyens, published in Le Monde Illustré 14 November 1863 (in French).
The first complete performance of Les Troyens was at the Großherzogliches Hoftheater in Karlsruhe, Germany on 6 December 1890, conducted by Felix Mottl.
Berlioz’s adopted city
Paris saw the first complete
performances of Les Troyens in October 2003, when John Eliot Gardiner conducted it
at the Théâtre
du Châtelet, almost exactly 140 years after its première in a truncated
version. Ironically, the
Théâtre-Lyrique, now renamed Théâtre de la Ville, is located exactly
opposite the Théâtre
du Châtelet across the Place du Châtelet.
Théâtre de la Ville (formerly Théâtre-Lyrique)
Théâtre de la Ville (formerly Théâtre-Lyrique)
Théâtre-Lyrique in 1863
The above engraving was published in the December 15 issue of L’Illustration,
1863.
Großherzogliches Hoftheater, Karlsruhe
The Großherzogliches Hoftheater, later named Badisches
Staatstheater, was built in 1849-1853 and opened on 17 May 1853. It was destroyed
in September 1944 by allied aerial bombardment.
Théâtre du Châtelet
Place du Châtelet in 1898
This picture was originally published in John L. Stoddards Lectures, Volume V
– Paris La Belle France and Spain, by John L. Stoddard (Balch Brothers, 1898),
in our own collection.
© 2000-2006 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the photos, engravings and information on this and other Berlioz in Paris pages
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