Théâtre des Variétés
Encyclopedia
The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7, boulevard Montmartre
, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris
. It was declared a monument historique
in 1975.
(Marguerite Brunet). Imprisoned for debt in 1803 and frowned upon by the government, a decree of 1806 ordered her company to leave the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
which then bore the name of "Variétés". The decree's aim was to move out Montansier's troupe to make room for the company from the neighbouring Théâtre-Français
, which had stayed empty even as the Variétés-Montansier had enjoyed immense public favour. Strongly unhappy about having to leave the theatre by 1 January 1807, the 77 year old Montansier gained an audience with Napoleon himself and received his help and protection. She thus reunited the "Société des Cinq", which directed her troupe, in order to found a new theatre, the one which stands at the side of the passage des Panoramas
. It was inaugurated on 24 June 1807. The theatre plays a prominent role in Emile Zola's novel of 1880, Nana, as the theatre in which Nana achieves celebrity in the opening chapters.
Boulevard Montmartre
Thee Boulevard Montmartre is one of the four grands boulevards of Paris. It was constructed in 1763. Contrary to what its name may suggest, the road is not situated on the hills of Montmartre...
, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. It was declared a monument historique
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...
in 1975.
History
It owes its creation to the theatre director Mademoiselle MontansierMademoiselle Montansier
Marguerite Brunet, known by her stage name of Mademoiselle Montansier , was a French actress and theatre director.-Background:...
(Marguerite Brunet). Imprisoned for debt in 1803 and frowned upon by the government, a decree of 1806 ordered her company to leave the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
Théâtre du Palais-Royal
The Théâtre du Palais-Royal is a 750 seat theatre at 38, rue Montpensier in Paris. In 1637 Cardinal Richelieu began work on a theatre on the east wing of the Palais-Royal building, to break the theatre monopoly of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and it was opened in 1641...
which then bore the name of "Variétés". The decree's aim was to move out Montansier's troupe to make room for the company from the neighbouring Théâtre-Français
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....
, which had stayed empty even as the Variétés-Montansier had enjoyed immense public favour. Strongly unhappy about having to leave the theatre by 1 January 1807, the 77 year old Montansier gained an audience with Napoleon himself and received his help and protection. She thus reunited the "Société des Cinq", which directed her troupe, in order to found a new theatre, the one which stands at the side of the passage des Panoramas
Passage des Panoramas
The Passage des Panoramas is a roofed commercial passageway located in the IIe arrondissement, of Paris between the Montmartre boulevard to the North and Saint-Marc street to the south. It is one of the earliest venues of the Parisian philatelic trade, and it was one of the very first covered,...
. It was inaugurated on 24 June 1807. The theatre plays a prominent role in Emile Zola's novel of 1880, Nana, as the theatre in which Nana achieves celebrity in the opening chapters.
Premieres at the theatre
- 1864: La belle HélèneLa belle HélèneLa belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
, opéra bouffeOpéra bouffeOpéra bouffe is a genre of late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens that gave its name to the form....
by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, libretto by MeilhacHenri MeilhacHenri Meilhac , was a French dramatist and opera librettist.-Biography:Meilhac was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront...
and HalévyLudovic HalévyLudovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris... - 1867: La Grande-Duchesse de GérolsteinLa Grande-Duchesse de GérolsteinLa Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe , in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
, opéra bouffe by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, libretto by MeilhacHenri MeilhacHenri Meilhac , was a French dramatist and opera librettist.-Biography:Meilhac was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront...
and HalévyLudovic HalévyLudovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris... - 1868: La PéricholeLa PéricholeLa Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
, opéra bouffe by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, libretto by MeilhacHenri MeilhacHenri Meilhac , was a French dramatist and opera librettist.-Biography:Meilhac was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront...
and HalévyLudovic HalévyLudovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris... - 1869: Les brigandsLes brigandsLes brigands is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy....
, opéra bouffe by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, libretto by MeilhacHenri MeilhacHenri Meilhac , was a French dramatist and opera librettist.-Biography:Meilhac was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront...
and HalévyLudovic HalévyLudovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris... - 1883: Mam'zelle NitoucheMam'zelle NitoucheMam'zelle Nitouche is a vaudeville-opérette by Hervé. The libretto was by Henri Meilhac and Albert Millaud.-Performance history:It was first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 26 January 1883.- Roles :-Synopsis:...
, vaudeville-operette by HervéHervé (composer)Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras... - 1907: L'Enfant prodigue, the first feature-length European film, directed by Michel Carré, fils.
- 1923: CibouletteCibouletteCiboulette is a French opérette in three acts, music by Reynaldo Hahn, libretto by Robert de Flers and Francis de Croisset, first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, in Paris, on April 7, 1923...
, operetta by Reynaldo HahnReynaldo HahnReynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
, libretto by Robert de FlersRobert de FlersRobert de Flers was a French playwright, opera librettist, and journalist....
and Francis de CroissetFrancis de CroissetFrancis de Croisset was a Belgium-born French playwright and opera librettist.His opera librettos include Massenet's Chérubin , based on his play of the same name, and Reynaldo Hahn's Ciboulette .He married, in 1910, Marie-Thérèse Bischoffsheim, the widow of banking heir Maurice Bischoffsheim and... - 1946: César by Marcel PagnolMarcel PagnolMarcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.-Biography:...
, after his film of the same name.
Directors
- 1807-19 : Mlle Montansier
- 1820-30 : Mira Brunet
- 1930-36 : Armand Dartois
- 1836 : Jean-François BayardJean-François BayardJean-François Alfred Bayard was a French playwright.-Life:As a law student and a lawyer's clerk, Bayard wrote with passion for the theatre and, after several attempts, had a great success at the Gymnase theatre, with la Reine de seize ans...
- 1837-39 : Philippe Pinel-Dumanoir
- 1839 : Jouslin de la Salle
- 1840 : M. Leroy
- 1840-47 : Nestor Roqueplan
- 1847-49 : M. Morin
- 1849-51 : M. Thibeaudeau-Milon
(M. Bowes, proprietor) - 1851-54 : M. Carpier (M. Bowes, proprietor)
- 1855 : MM. Laurencin & Zacheroni (M. Bowes, proprietor)
- 1855 : Hippolyte & Théodore Cogniard
- 1856-69 : Hippolyte Cogniard & Jules Noriac
- 1869-91 : Eugène Bertrand
- 1892-1914 : Fernand Samuel
- 1914-40 : Max Maurey
- 1940-43 : Émile Petit
- 1944-45 : Max Maurey & Émile Petit
- 1946-47 : Max & Denis Maurey
- 1947-75 : Denis & Marcel Maurey
- 1975-89 : Jean-Michel RouzièreJean-Michel Rouzière- Life :He headed the théâtre du Palais-Royal from 1965 then headed the Théâtre des Variétés from 1975. He was made a knight of the Légion d'Honneur.- Filmography :* 1942 : Vie privée by Walter Kapps...
- 1989-91 : Francis Lemonnier
- 1991-2004 : Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
- depuis 2005 : Jean-Manuel Bajen