Petit Theatre De La Reine
by Iryna Goodall
Title
Petit Theatre De La Reine
Artist
Iryna Goodall
Medium
Photograph
Description
Nestled behind the Chateau de Versailles there is a palace called Le Petit Trianon, meshed with a dreamy little hamlet and English gardens created for the Queen Marie Antoinette.
Originally built for Madame de Pompadour, Petit Trianon ultimately became a 19 year old Marie Antoinette’s exclusive residence, which was her refuge from the demands of formal ‘court life’ and her royal responsibilities.
Her reconfiguration of the Trianon gardens can be divided into two distinct phases.
The first, starting in 1777, corresponds to the creation of the English Gardens.
Subsequently, in 1783, she tasked Richard Mique with extending the gardens to the north and building a whole model village around an artificial lake.
Work began in the summer of 1783 and was completed in 1786.
A great lover of the dramatic arts, Marie-Antoinette eventually grew tired of the temporary stages knocked together for performances in the gallery of the Grand Trianon and the orangery of the Petit Trianon. Once she had decided to commission her personal architect Richard Mique to build her a real theatre on the border between the French Garden and the English Garden.
The interior is gleaming in blue and gold, but it is fictitious: the stucco, the friezes and the woodwork were made of cardboard, painted and gilded; the sculpted decorations were created using the quick (and cheap) technique of papier mâché.
The theatre was large enough to seat large enough to seat two hundred and fifty spectators.
The vast stage (eight layers, two floors below stage level and two in the rafters) has a very sophisticated machinery which was expertly fitted out by a mechanical specialist, successor to Blaise-Henri Arnoult, who designed the machinery of the Royal Opera House. The orchestra pit has room for around twenty musicians.
Featured artists included Gluck, Grétry, Sacchini and Paisiello, whose Barber of Seville, first performed in Saint Petersburg for Catherine II, had its French premiere at the Trianon theatre in 1784.
Falling out of favor with the queen after 1785, the theatre survived the revolutionary period relatively unscathed. It was used occasionally in the 19th and early 20th centuries and underwent restoration between 1925 and 1936 and again in 2001.
The original machinery has been restored to working order, making the Trianon theatre the only 18th-century theatre in France which is still intact and fully-functioning.
On account of its small size and distance from the palace, the auditorium is no longer used for performances. This has helped to preserve the theatre in its original condition, without the need to install modern safety features which would inevitably compromise its period authenticity.
Uploaded
June 11th, 2021
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