L'Opéra of the Palace of Versailles

The Royal Opera House ( fr.: Opéra royal du château de Versailles) of the Palace of Versailles in France in 1770 under Ange-Jacques Gabriel in the reign of Louis XV. completed. The establishment of the modern opera house was one of the last major construction projects of the ancien regime in Versailles. It has remained largely unchanged to the present day and is still played regularly.

History of the Opera House

The Palace of Versailles was built up in the second half of the 17th century by the Sun King Louis XIV of a small hunting place for the permanent royal residence. Although developed Versailles at this time a Musenhof of the French opera, lacked financial reasons a permanent building for the spectacles. A 1682 imagined by Jules Hardouin -Mansart project was never realized, theater and musical plays were recorded until the 18th century into changing rooms with mobile stands.

Louis XV. commissioned the court architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1748 with the construction of a fixed Court Opera in the Castle, the plans remained untouched for almost 20 years. The occasion for the construction of the Opera House was finally the marriage of the heir to the throne of Louis XVI. with the Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette. The opening in the wedding ceremony took place - after only about two years of construction - on May 16, 1770 instead, was listed Jean -Baptiste Lully's Persée work. The Court Opera was used to the end of the ancien regime in addition to regular performances also for balls and similar events, as in 1777 and 1781 at the reception of Joseph II and in 1784 when the Swedish king Gustav III reception. In the 19th century, the opera house served several years as a meeting room of the French National Assembly.

The Opera House will be recorded up to the present on a regular basis. From 2007 to 2009 it was renovated for 12 million euros.

Equipment

The Opera House is located - barely recognizable from the outside - at the end of the north wing of the palace at Versailles. The equipment of the oval space is built for acoustic reasons entirely of wood, all leading to the opera hall staircases and galleries are made of stone, to the case of a fire, the spread of the fire to the rest of the castle to prevent. The orchestra pit can accommodate 80 musicians, the auditorium can accommodate more than 700 guests. The floor could be raised with the help of a lifting mechanism on the level of the stage floor, so that the auditorium of the Opera for balls and banquets were available.

The auditorium, designed by Gabriel waived the customary in the 18th century design with individual lodges, the audience of the ranks instead finds on three terraced stands its place. The hall with its tall Corinthian columns refers positions and the indicated form of an amphitheater already on classicism, however, is still attributable to its ornamentation and the strong colors the style of Louis XV. The center of the auditorium is formed from the Royal Box, the place of honor is emphasized at the height of the third rank of half dome. At the height of the second rank, there is also a hidden behind bars, second box, which made it possible to the King to appear unseen to the performances.