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• Historic of an unfinished theatre
In 1866, the Emperor Napoleon III decides the construction
of a new theatre. It's a question of diverting the Court which
accompanies the sovereign to his stays in Compiègne. The Emperor
chooses a place by the palace where was the carmelites convent,
immortalized by Georges Bernanos and the opera by Francis
Poulenc. The works begun the year after, during the universal
exhibition.
The architect was called Auguste-Gabriel Ancelet (1829-1895).
First, pupil of Baltard, he was resident in the Villa Medicis.
Some of his realisations are: the front of the entrance of the
Château de Pau and the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.
Professor in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, architect of the Second
Empire governement, Ancelet had the mission to take care about
the Château de Compiègne. He is naturally choosed to edify the
Theatre Impérial. A sum of 1.371.000 gold-francs is released.
The building comes out of the earth.
The painter Elie Delaunay realizes a setting destinated to
decorate the circular roof of the hall. That will naver take
place. The 19th of July 1870, the war between France and Prussia
breaks out. The Theatre Impérial becomes a building side and
after the disaster of Sedan, the chances to see the hall open
die away and for ever. The Second Empire took its ostentation
and its entertain away.
Consequantly, the work of Ancelet stayed unfinished.Ancelet
choosed an audacious system of metalic constractions for the
superior parts of the edifice. Even if it represents particulary
the Second empire, the Theatre Impérial architecture can not
hide the similarity with the Teatro Olimpico in Vicinza, the
theatre of Margavine in Bayreuth, the realizations by Gabriel or
Nicolas Ledoux.
Finaly, the Theatre Impérial is exceptional by its accoustic
qualities. All the personalities of the world of music who
visited it have been admirative and amazed, as the famous
conductor Carlo-Maria Giulini who considers the hall auditorium
"as one of the most perfect in the world, more achieved than
this one of Musikverein in Viena, still the reference in the
world".
• The rehabilitation
Constituted in 1987, the association pour le Theatre Impérial de
Compiègne's subject is to rehabilitate the theatre, to make it
live by varied manifestations, in the respect of the prestigious
vocation of the place.
To bring its goal to a successful conclusion, the association
profited by an exceptional procedure: a convention signed by the
state giving it all the liberty to make the works and to animate
the theatre during 15 years.
In this way, the association is charged to chose the restoring
program, to collect the public or private financing. It accepts,
without exclusivity, all those who want to participate to the
rehabilitation of the Theatre Impérial. It is advisable to
elaborate a project which respects the architectural quality and
the specific caracter of the theatre while receiving artistic
events.
In 1990, begin the works whiches will be done in three sections
in the way to permit to give life to the theatre as fast as
possible and to anchor the Theatre Français de la Musique in the
lyrical frenchscenery. The official inauguration took place in
September 1991 with the opera by Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII.
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Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne • N°
Indigo 0.825.000.674 • Fax 03.44.40.44.04 • 3, rue Othenin 60200 Compiègne
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