The Versailles Opéra Nancy R. Rivers Before the middle of the eighteenth century innovations in the realm of opera house design in France had been rela- tively modest. V oltaire first decried the inadequacy of French theater design in 1749. 1 In his L’Architecture françoise of 1752 Jacques-François Blondel also disparagingly compared the designs of theaters and opera houses in France to those ofItaly, calling for striking reforms in theater architecture throughout France. 2 Several architects responded to his call, inaugurating significant innovations in French opera house design between the years 1753 and 1790. One of these was Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782), who constructed the Opéra at Versailles (Figure 1). Born into one of the leading architec- tural dynasties in France, Gabriel was a descendant of the renowned seventeenth-century French classical architect François Mansart. Upon the death of his father Jacques V Gabriel in April 1742, Ange-Jacques was chosen to succeed him as Premier Architecte to the King and Director of the Academy.At the time of its completion in 1770 the V ersailles Opéra represented the culmination of eighteenth-century court opera house design in Western Europe. Yet most architectural historians today are only vaguely familiar with the innovative components that Gabriel integrated within its interior design. Distinguished scholars have laid a historical foundation that enables one to understand the socio-political context in which the Versailles Opéra was created. 3 There is currently, however, no scholarly publication that adequately conveys the significance of Gabriel’s final design for the Opéra, leaving readers with an incomplete understanding of his accomplish- ments there. Missing are an explanation of Gabriel’s choice for the truncated oval plan and a consideration of the indi- vidual elements incorporated into the interior design that had an impact upon the structure as a whole. Gabriel’s inclusion of these elements demonstrates his knowledge of Italian the- ater design and also reveals a number of important sources and theoretical treatises, not fully explored by scholars, that may have influenced him. Also missing is a treatment of the Versailles Opéra that would compare it in functional terms with other European opera houses, or a discussion that would I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Robert Neuman, who directed my Masters Thesis from which this paper was derived. His e ncour- agement, counsel, and knowledge were a constant source of inspiration. I would also like to express my profound appreciation to Dr. Jack Freiberg and Dr. Patricia Rose for generously sharing their extensive knowledge and for providing guidance and support throughout my graduate studies and during the preparation of my Thesis. 1 William D. Howarth, ed., French Theatre in the Neoclassical Era, 1550- 1789 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997) 461. Howarth cites Voltaire from “Dissertation sur la tragédie ancienne et moderne,” Preface to Sémiramis in Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, ed. Moland, vol. IV (Paris: Garnier frères: 1877-85) 499-500. Howarth presents a synopsis of Voltaire’s message, “I shall never cease to be astonished or to complain at the lack of concern taken in France for making the theatr es worthy of the excellent works that are staged in them and of the nation that so delights in them. [Pierre Corneille’s] Cinna and [Racine’s] Athalie deserve to be played somewhere better than in a tennis court, at one end of which a few tasteless items ofscenery have been set up, and where the spectators are accommodated, con- trary to all notions of order and reason, some standing on the stage itself, others standing in what is called theparterre, where they are uncomfort- ably and indecently packed together and where sometimes they rush riot- ously upon one another as if in some popular uprising. In the far north ofEurope French plays are staged in auditoria infinitely more magnificent, better designed and with a good deal more decency. […] A stage that is properly and correctly designed should be enormous: it must be able to represent at once part of a town square, the peristyle of a palace and the entrance to a temple. It must be arranged in such a way that, should occa- sion require, a character may be seen by the audience and yet remain un- seen by other characters.[…] It must be capable of staging great display and ceremony. Wherever they are placed, all the spectators must be a ble to see and hear equally well. And how is this possible on a narrow stage, amidst a crowd of young men who leave scarcely ten feet of acting space for the actors?” 2 Jacques-Francois Blondel, L’Architecture françoise , vol. 2 (Paris: C.A. Jombert, 1752-56) 14-36. See also Howarth, French Theatre in the Neo- classical Era 462. Blondel states, “What history tells us about the size and magnificence of the theatres of the Ancients, the remains still existing ofseveral of these monuments and the theatres which have since been built in Italy […]—to say nothing of those built in England, Germany and else- where—all this ought by rights to spare us having describe an y of our the- atres here in France, since it is well known that it is not thanks to this kind of building that French architecture merits re cognition …” 3 For a comprehensive acc ount of the state of the literature pertaining to the V ersailles Opéra, see Nancy Rivers, “The Versailles Opéra” (Master ’s The- sis, Florida State University, 2002). André Japy, the architect who restored the Versaill es Opéra, produced a beautifully illustrated book on the Opéra’s restoration. See André Jap y, L’Opéra royal de Versailles (Comité national pour la sauvegarde du château de Versailles, 1958). For monographs on Ange-Jacques Gabriel see Christopher Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel (London: Zwemmer, 1978); and Michel Gallet and Yves Bottineau, eds.,Les Gabriel (Paris: Picard, 1982). Three scholars have each examined Gabriel’s work in the broader context of eighteenth-century French architecture: Allan Braham, The Ar- chitecture of the French Enlightenment(Berkeley and Los Angeles: Cali- fornia UP, 1980); Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Histoire de l’architecture française (Paris: Mengès, 1989); Wend von Kalnein,Ar- chitecture in France in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale UP, 1995). Due to the methodology of their work, the se ction in their respective books devoted to the V ersailles Opéra is mor e general in nature. There are several statements in these works pertaining to historic theater design that leave the reader with misconceptions concerning Gabriel’s accomplishments.
Before the middle of the eighteenth century innovationsin the realm of opera house design in France had been rela-tively modest. Voltaire first decried the inadequacy of Frenchtheater design in 1749.1 In his L’Architecture françoiseof 1752Jacques-François Blondel also disparagingly compared thedesigns of theaters and opera houses in France to those of Italy, calling for striking reforms in theater architecturethroughout France.2 Several architects responded to his call,inaugurating significant innovations in French opera housedesign between the years 1753 and 1790. One of these wasAnge-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782), who constructed the Opéraat Versailles (Figure 1). Born into one of the leading architec-tural dynasties in France, Gabriel was a descendant of therenowned seventeenth-century French classical architectFrançois Mansart. Upon the death of his father Jacques VGabriel in April 1742, Ange-Jacques was chosen to succeedhim as Premier Architecte to the King and Director of theAcademy. At the time of its completion in 1770 the VersaillesOpéra represented the culmination of eighteenth-century court
opera house design in Western Europe. Yet most architecturalhistorians today are only vaguely familiar with the innovativecomponents that Gabriel integrated within its interior design.
Distinguished scholars have laid a historical foundationthat enables one to understand the socio-political context inwhich the Versailles Opéra was created.3 There is currently,however, no scholarly publication that adequately conveys thesignificance of Gabriel’s final design for the Opéra, leavingreaders with an incomplete understanding of his accomplish-ments there. Missing are an explanation of Gabriel’s choicefor the truncated oval plan and a consideration of the indi-vidual elements incorporated into the interior design that hadan impact upon the structure as a whole. Gabriel’s inclusionof these elements demonstrates his knowledge of Italian the-ater design and also reveals a number of important sourcesand theoretical treatises, not fully explored by scholars, thatmay have influenced him. Also missing is a treatment of theVersailles Opéra that would compare it in functional termswith other European opera houses, or a discussion that would
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Robert Neuman, whodirected my Masters Thesis from which this paper was derived. His encour-
agement, counsel, and knowledge were a constant source of inspiration. Iwould also like to express my profound appreciation to Dr. Jack Freibergand Dr. Patricia Rose for generously sharing their extensive knowledgeand for providing guidance and support throughout my graduate studiesand during the preparation of my Thesis.
1 William D. Howarth, ed., French Theatre in the Neoclassical Era, 1550-
1789 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997) 461. Howarth cites Voltaire from“Dissertation sur la tragédie ancienne et moderne,” Preface to Sémiramis
inOeuvres complètes de Voltaire, ed. Moland, vol. IV (Paris: Garnier frères:1877-85) 499-500. Howarth presents a synopsis of Voltaire’s message, “Ishall never cease to be astonished or to complain at the lack of concerntaken in France for making the theatres worthy of the excellent works thatare staged in them and of the nation that so delights in them. [PierreCorneille’s]Cinna and [Racine’s] Athalie deserve to be played somewherebetter than in a tennis court, at one end of which a few tasteless items of
scenery have been set up, and where the spectators are accommodated, con-trary to all notions of order and reason, some standing on the stage itself,others standing in what is called the parterre, where they are uncomfort-ably and indecently packed together and where sometimes they rush riot-ously upon one another as if in some popular uprising. In the far north of Europe French plays are staged in auditoria infinitely more magnificent,better designed and with a good deal more decency. […] A stage that isproperly and correctly designed should be enormous: it must be able torepresent at once part of a town square, the peristyle of a palace and theentrance to a temple. It must be arranged in such a way that, should occa-sion require, a character may be seen by the audience and yet remain un-seen by other characters.[…] It must be capable of staging great displayand ceremony. Wherever they are placed, all the spectators must be able tosee and hear equally well. And how is this possible on a narrow stage,
amidst a crowd of young men who leave scarcely ten feet of acting spacefor the actors?”
2 Jacques-Francois Blondel, L’Architecture françoise, vol. 2 (Paris: C.A.Jombert, 1752-56) 14-36. See also Howarth, French Theatre in the Neo-
classical Era 462. Blondel states, “What history tells us about the size andmagnificence of the theatres of the Ancients, the remains still existing of several of these monuments and the theatres which have since been built inItaly […]—to say nothing of those built in England, Germany and else-where—all this ought by rights to spare us having describe any of our the-atres here in France, since it is well known that it is not thanks to this kindof building that French architecture merits recognition …”
3 For a comprehensive account of the state of the literature pertaining to theVersailles Opéra, see Nancy Rivers, “The Versailles Opéra” (Master’s The-sis, Florida State University, 2002). André Japy, the architect who restoredthe Versailles Opéra, produced a beautifully illustrated book on the Opéra’srestoration. See André Japy, L’Opéra royal de Versailles (Comité national
pour la sauvegarde du château de Versailles, 1958).For monographs on Ange-Jacques Gabriel see Christopher Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel (London: Zwemmer, 1978); and Michel Gallet andYves Bottineau, eds., Les Gabriel (Paris: Picard, 1982).
Three scholars have each examined Gabriel’s work in the broadercontext of eighteenth-century French architecture: Allan Braham, The Ar-
chitecture of the French Enlightenment (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Cali-fornia UP, 1980); Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Histoire de
l’architecture française (Paris: Mengès, 1989); Wend von Kalnein, Ar-
chitecture in France in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale UP,1995). Due to the methodology of their work, the section in their respectivebooks devoted to the Versailles Opéra is more general in nature. There areseveral statements in these works pertaining to historic theater design thatleave the reader with misconceptions concerning Gabriel’s accomplishments.
illustrate Gabriel’s influence upon subsequent European ar-chitects. In terms of acoustics and visual clarity for the specta-tors, the design of Gabriel’s final plan and its components notonly surpassed the oval theater designs of Jacques-GermainSoufflot at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon (1754) and Pierre-LouisMoreau-Desproux at the Palais Royal in Paris (1763-70), two
buildings that modern scholars have over-emphasized atGabriel’s expense, but ultimately functioned better than sev-eral pre-eminent opera houses erected in the modern age. Mygoal is to reinterpret Gabriel’s work at the Versailles Opéra inan effort to accord it a more significant place in the field of architectural history. I believe that Gabriel’s final design forthe Opéra not only influenced subsequent European architects,but also redirected the course of French opera house designtoward a grander scale.
Early History of the Versailles Opéra
Versailles had been in dire need of a permanent courtopera house long before the time of Gabriel. During the sev-
enty-two year reign of Louis XIV, over six hundred musicaland dramatical performances were given at court, none of which was presented within a permanent facility.4 These pro-ductions were performed in provisionary settings in variouslocations such as the Marble Courtyard, the gardens, the GrandStables, or within the château. Everything had to be dismantledafter every performance.
A plan located in Stockholm reveals that Louis Le Vaufirst conceived of a design for a large, freestanding royal Opérahouse at Versailles in 1669-70, to be constructed south of thechâteau.5 The allocation of such a generous amount of privi-leged space on the palace grounds and the sheer magnitude of the building’s size indicate that the performing arts of music,
ballet, opera, and drama were to play a prominent role in thelives of Louis XIV and his court.
Jules Hardouin-Mansart began working on the vast ex-pansion of the North and South Wings of Versailles in 1678,and he included a large Salle des Ballets in the original de-sign of the South Wing. In 1685, however, Louis XIV ordered
the construction of the court theater next to the chapel, at theextreme end of the North Wing of the château. Hardouin-Mansart and Carlo Vigarani designed several plans for a per-manent court theater for the North Wing between the years1685-88.6 Christopher Tadgell states that work on the Opérahad begun based upon a plan designed by Vigarani, who con-
structed the Salles des Machines theater within the Tuileriesin Paris in 1662.7 Plans for the Opéra came to an abrupt halt,however, with the onset of the War of the League of Augsburg.By the end of the reign of Louis XIV, little more than a plat-form above the foundation of the Opéra had been completed.8
Ange-Jacques Gabriel began working on the VersaillesOpéra project in the early 1740s. Over the course of a thirty-year period he was confronted with two major obstacles thatdelayed the completion of his work there until 1770. The firstwas the lack of available money, since a series of dynasticwars had drained the King’s coffers. The second was a lack of adequate space in which to house the Opéra. Although plansindicate that the Opéra was to be contained within the North
Wing of the château, the garden side of the wing was occu-pied by private appartements. Louis XV finally ordered theclearing of these in 1765, freeing up the necessary space toenable Gabriel to complete his plans.9 The Versailles Opérawas officially inaugurated on 16 May 1770, serving first as abanquet hall and later as an Opéra house. The wedding fes-tivities of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, and MarieAntoinette were celebrated there. It functioned for the nexttwenty years as the site of elaborate musical performances andsocial events.10
The Plan of the Versailles Opéra
In his monograph Ange-Jacques Gabriel Christopher
Tadgell published a series of ground plans pertaining to theVersailles Opéra project that Gabriel developed over a thirty-year period.11 These plans illustrate numerous modificationsmade by Gabriel to the design of the Opéra, demonstratinghis assimilation of important concepts of Italian and Frenchopera house design that had developed over the course of the
4 Barbara Coeyman, “Sites of Indoor Musical and Theatrical Productions atVersailles,” Eighteenth-Century Life 17.2 (1993): 55. See also James Eu-gene Farmer, Versailles and the Court under Louis XIV (New York: Cen-tury, 1905); Alfred Marie, “Les théâtres du château de Versailles,” Revue
de l’histoire d4 théâtre (1951): 133-52; J. Feray, “Les théâtres successifsdu château de Versailles,” Monuments historiques de la France 3.1 (1957):3-18; Pierre Verlet, “L’Opéra de Versailles,” Revue d’histoire du théâtre 9
(1957): 133-54; and Gerold Weber, “Theaterarchitektur am Hofe von LouisXIV,” Bollettino del centro internazionale di studi di architettura An-
drea Palladio 17 (1975): 259-81.
5 Guy Walton, Louis XIV’s Versailles (New York: Viking, 1986) 74.
6 Marie, “Les théâtres du château de Versailles,” 133-52.
7 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 119. There is considerable confusion inthe scholarly writing concerning the first plan of the Versailles Opéra. Marie,Feray, Verlet, and Tadgell all identify the first plan for the Versailles Opéraas by the hand of “Vigarani, who constructed the theater at the Tuileries.”In his entry in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, vol. 2 (NewYork: Free Press, 1982) 140, Tadgell erroneously identifies the architect of
the first plan for the Versailles Opéra as Gaspare Vigarani. He states thatthe plan is dated 17 January 1685. Gaspare Vigarani died in 1663. Theplan should be credited to Carlo Vigarani, Gaspare’s son, who worked forthe French Court following the death of his father.
See also Danielle Gallet-Guerne with Christian Baulez, Versailles:
Dessins d’architecture de la direction générale des Bâtiments du roi,vol. 1, Le château, les jardins, le parc, Trianon (Paris: Archives nationales,
1983) 541 and 597. The same plan for the Versailles Opéra is also errone-ously credited to Gaspare Vigarani instead of CarloVigarani in this publi-cation.
8 Blondel, L’Architecture françoise4:131.
9 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 121.
10 For an excellent account of how the Versailles Opéra functioned over theyears, see Rose-Marie Langlois, L’Opéra de Versailles (Paris: Pierre Horay,1958).
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.12 Gabriel’s ground plansclearly reveal that he was not reluctant to explore various the-ater designs to determine which plans had superior sight linesand acoustical qualities. In the early 1740s through the mid-1760s Gabriel experimented with the French V-shaped planand with the Italianate bell and oval-shaped plans, drawing
inspiration from theaters designed by Gaspare and CarloVigarani, Carlo Fontana, Filippo Juvarra and BenedettoAlfieri.13 In April 1765 Gabriel designed a circular plan forthe Versailles Opéra based in part upon his study of the courttheater built at Caserta by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1752-59.14 Tadgellstates that at one point, Gabriel also explored the possibilityof employing elliptical wall surfaces.15
For the final plan Gabriel chose the Italianate truncatedoval design, the sides of which flattened as they approachedthe proscenium (Figure 2).16 Although scholars have specu-lated that Gabriel chose the oval plan for acoustical reasons,they have not adequately addressed the history of this particu-lar design or investigated the reasons why he deliberately
employed it over other known opera house designs. Gabriel’s
application of the truncated oval plan and his integration of other significant elements produced a court opera house en-dowed not only with excellent acoustical qualities but alsowith superior sight lines, which provided spectators with aclearer view of the stage.
Scholars who have written surveys of eighteenth-century
French architecture have considered only three possible sourcesfor Gabriel’s truncated oval plan for the Versailles Opéra: thecourt theater designed by Benedetto Alfieri at Turin in 1740;Soufflot’s Grand Théâtre at Lyon, constructed in 1754; andMoreau-Desproux’s Palais Royale theater built in Paris in1764-70 (Figures 3-5). Furthermore, these scholars have alsoassumed that Gabriel’s decision to construct an oval-shapedopera house was influenced not by his own ideas but by theItalian sojourn of Soufflot, Charles-Nicolas Cochin, and theMarquis de Marigny in 1750, remarking that Soufflot sentGabriel a copy of the truncated oval plan for the Teatro Regioin Turin.17 Gabriel, however, was well aware of the oval the-ater design long before this time. Tadgell published a prelimi-
nary drawing from the early 1740s that demonstrated Gabriel’s12 For a more comprehensive discussion of concepts of historic Italian and
French theater design that developed over the course of the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries that Gabriel assimilated and a detailed examination of Gabriel’s ground plans see Rivers, “ The Versailles Opéra.” Italian Renais-sance architects designed court theaters based upon the semi-circular andsemi-elliptical plans of the Ancients, and their central focus was the seat of the court Prince. Not only was the stage raised to accord with the eye levelof the Prince, but the one-point linear perspective scenery employed wasdesigned so that the ideal view was seen from his chair. Italian Baroquearchitects began to transform these semi-circular and semi-elliptical plansinto theaters with a U-shaped design, as this specific plan accommodated alarge audience and provided ample space for spectacular performances heldin the center of the auditorium. By the 1630-40s, the utilization of elabo-rate scenic design in operatic productions became a vital part of courtly
entertainment. Baroque theater architects, many of whom were also scenicdesigners, began to shift the focus of their scenic displays away from apoint in the center of the auditorium to the area behind the prosceniumframe. After opera’s initial debut in the leading Italian courts, it was nextintroduced to the public audience in the city of Venice. In order to accom-modate an increasingly larger number of paying patrons, architects beganto exploit the wall space of the standard U-shaped auditorium more fullyby integrating tiers of vertically rising boxes. Architects concerned withspectator visibility and the acoustical qualities of opera houses began totransform the U-shaped box theater plan into other variations, including thebell, horseshoe and the oval-shaped plans. By the eighteenth century, manyFrench architects and theorists believed that spectator visibility and theacoustical qualities of an opera house could be significantly improved bythe specific shape an architect selected for the auditorium and by the type of building materials utilized within its interior construction. Many favoredthe elliptical or oval-shaped opera house design for its acoustical proper-
ties. (In many ways, however, the precise determination of the quality of anauditorium’s acoustics is still today an inexact science.) Another importantaspect of eighteenth century Italian and French opera house design was theconsideration of the audience’s need “to see and be seen”
13 For a discussion of specific plans by the Vigaranis, Fontana, and Juvarrathat influenced Gabriel, see Rivers, “The Versailles Opéra.”
14 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel plate 57. The plan for the court theater atCaserta (1752) can be found in Donald C. Mullin, The Development of
the Playhouse (Berkeley: California UP, 1970) 90. The theater at the Pal-ace at Caserta was designed as a truncated circular plan. Mullin states thatunlike Moreau-Desproux’s truncated oval plan for the Palais Royal, which
intruded beyond the proscenium opening, Gabriel’s final oval plan for theVersailles Opéra was truncated almost at its center. He further reveals thatthe end result of this experimentation was to be an opera house based on acircular plan. I believe that Gabriel’s experimentation may have influencedlater French architects to employ the circular theater plan, including VictorLouis who constructed the Grand Théâtre at Bordeaux and Charles Garnier,who erected the Paris Opéra.
15 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 120.
16 There is much disparity among scholars in their use of the terms “oval” and“elliptical” with respect to the interior shape of the Versailles Opéra. Somescholars call it a truncated ellipse, whereas other scholars call it a truncatedoval. Gabriel described his own plan for the Versailles Opéra as a truncated
oval in the Mercure de France in August 1770. Thus, I have chosen toapply the term “oval” throughout, in reference to the Versailles Opéra.
See also Briant Hamor Lee, European Post-Baroque Neoclassical
Theatre Architecture (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996) 110. Lee dis-cusses Patte’s application of the term ellipse in his treatise, Essai sur
l’architecture théâtralè (1782) with regard to theater design, which waspublished a decade after Gabriel completed the Versailles Opéra. AlthoughPatte defines the differences between the oval and the ellipse in his treatise,I do not believe that this distinction was clearly discernible to architectswho employed the oval design for their opera houses before 1782, when theterms “oval” and “ellipse” were being used interchangeably in terms of theater design.
17 Braham, The Architecture of the French Enlightenment 43. See alsoPérouse de Montclos, Histoire de l’architecture française 409. These twoscholars believe that Gabriel’s plan for the Versailles Opéra was indebted
in great part to ideas sent back to him by Soufflot, Marigny and Cochin ontheir tour of Italy in 1750. Although Gabriel was most likely influenced bythe plan of the Teatro Regio in Turin, he knew of other oval theater planslong before the tour taken by these individuals in the year 1750.
See also Kalnein, Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century
156-57. With regard to the Versailles Opéra, Kalnein states that, “The pro-totype, in general terms, was Benedetto Alfieri’s new court theatre in Turin,which was regarded as the most modern in Europe.” Kalnein does, how-ever, credit Gabriel for his intellectual approach to the Versailles Opéraproject, stating that “Numerous, often mutually contradictory plans andsketches bear witness to Gabriel’s intensive concentration on this issue andto his constantly changing ideas of the shape of the auditorium.”
Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 120, states that Soufflot measured
knowledge of the oval theater plan years before Marigny’svoyage to Italy (Figure 6).18 This drawing also predates theoval opera houses constructed by Soufflot and Moreau-Desproux. Although the oval theater plans utilized by Soufflotand Moreau-Desproux may have influenced Gabriel in someways, his final oval plan for the Versailles Opéra was more
severely truncated at the center, bringing the audience closerto the sights and the sounds of the stage. Gabriel’s designrepresented a vast improvement in terms of acoustics and spec-tator visibility over each of these earlier opera houses.
I believe that there were other sources, not addressed byearlier scholars, that influenced Gabriel’s use of the truncatedoval plan. First, new parallels can be drawn between the workof Gabriel and Carlo Vigarani, who submitted a truncated ovalplan for a Salle des Ballets for Versailles in 1685 (Figure 7).In my view Carlo Vigarani’s plan significantly influenced notonly Gabriel’s fourth project of his first series of plans fromthe 1740s, but also his final plan for the Versailles Opéra.19
Second, no one has connected Gabriel’s final truncated oval
plan to the preliminary oval plans of the Teatro Tor di Nonain Rome designed by Carlo Fontana in 1671-1695 (Figures 8-9).
Gabriel’s final plan for the Versailles Opéra and Vigarani’s1685 plan for a Salle des Ballets both employed an oval de-sign, truncated sharply at its center, and also incorporated re-ceding tiers of galleries in lieu of theater boxes to seat courtlyspectators (Figures 2 and 7). Vigarani integrated a series of Corinthian columns to brace the upper tiers of galleries. Gabrielexpanded upon this idea by employing a magnificent Ioniccolonnade to support the cornice. In lieu of Vigarani’s haut
dais Gabriel substituted a grilled royal box for the King. Fol-
lowing Vigarani’s example, Gabriel included a large area forthe king’s orchestra and he framed the proscenium with co-lossal Corinthian columns. Both architects also dedicated agenerous amount of space for the stage and numerous sets of scenic wings to display opera’s spectacular visual effects.
Gabriel’s final truncated oval plan may also have been
influenced by Carlo Fontana’s preliminary oval designs forthe Teatro Tor di Nona in Rome (1671-95). Fontana experi-mented with the theater’s original U-shaped plan of 1671 inan effort to transform this public, multi-tiered box theater intoa semi-court theater for former Queen Christina of Sweden,who was living in Rome. One of Fontana’s undated prepara-tory drawings illustrates his design for a new oval-shaped planthat allocated a generous amount of space at the rear of the parterre for the Queen and her entourage (Figure 8).20 Fontanafurther modified his design for the Teatro Tor di Nona at alater date (Figure 9).21 He also intended to employ his ovalplan for another new theater to be built on the site of the viaMargutta and the via Alibert in Rome, although limitations of
the site prevented its construcion.22 In each of his preliminaryoval theater designs Fontana also employed receding tiers of boxes, arranged the side boxes of the house to follow the sameline as the diminishing perspective of the stage scenery, andangled the box divisions toward the stage in order to providespectators with a clearer view of the action taking place there.I believe that Gabriel appropriated Fontana’s oval plan and itsvarious components for the Versailles Opéra through knowl-edge of Italian theater design that was being disseminatedthroughout France in a variety of ways.23 Gabriel defended hischoice of the oval plan for the Versailles Opéra, writing to the Mercure de France in August 1770 that the truncated oval
the theatre built in the royal palace of Turin, and sent the plan back toGabriel at Versailles. See also Louis Hautecoeur, Histoire de l’architecture
classique en France, vol. 4 (Paris: Picard, 1943-50) 3 and 437.
18 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 36, and plate 45.
19 Tadgell, Ange Jacques Gabriel 36, footnote 14. Tadgell states that of theplans contemporary with the earliest elevation for the Versailles Opéra,Gabriel’s plan for the ‘quatrième projet’ derives from Vigarani’s 1685 un-executed truncated auditorium plan for a Salle des Ballets for Versailles.Carlo Vigarani’s plan, Hardouin-Mansart’s plan, and several anonymousplans for the Versailles Opéra are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale(Cabinet Estampes, Va 351). Thomas E. Lawrenson published Vigarani’s1685 plan in The French Stage and Playhouse in the Seventeenth Cen-
tury: A Study in the Advent of the Italian Order , 2nd ed. (New York: AMSPress, 1986) 249-50 and fig. 114. Vigarani divided the ground floor into
four parts, including a stage, an orchestra area, an open parterre, and acurved amphitheatre. A haut dais for the King and the royal family wasraised above the orchestra area, and the seating situated there sloped slightlydownward toward the stage. Vigarani skillfully rendered the King’s sightlines on his plan, emphasizing the fact that Louis XIV would be providedwith the most privileged view of the stage. Above the amphitheatre, Vigaraniplanned to integrate a Corinthian colonnade that would support two undi-vided galleries. He also flanked the proscenium with colossal columns.
20 Per Bjurström, Feast and Theatre in Queen Christina’s Rome (Stockholm:Nationalmuseum, 1966) 106-110. In the original U-shaped Teatro Tor diNona (1671), Queen Christina had at her disposal five boxes centrally lo-cated at the rear of the auditorium. Their location, however, made it almostimpossible to arrange for a private foyer for the Queen and her guests be-
cause the boxes opened onto the public corridors. To provide some sem-blance of privacy for the Queen’s guests, Fontana separated them from thepublic audience by placing the Queen’s section three steps higher than therest of the parterre. The actual seats for Christina and her guests wereraised an additional four steps higher on a platform.
21 For a more comprehensive study of the Teatro Tor di Nona, see AlbertoCametti, Il teatro di Tordinona poi di Apollo, 2 vols. (Tivoli: 1938). Seealso Sergio Rotondi, Il Teatro Tordinona, storia, progetti, architettura
(Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 1987).
22 Rotondi, Il Teatro Tordinona 21 and 66, note 48. See also Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976), 71-73; Mullin,The Development of the Playhouse 48; Fontana’s new oval theater planmarked the transition of the Renaissance and Baroque theater to that of themodern age. Oval and horseshoe-shaped opera house designs swept away
the earlier U-shaped plan and became the standard for those that followed.
23 Gabriel would have known Fontana’s preliminary oval designs for the TeatroTor di Nona and principles of Italian theater design from at least threesources: Jacques V Gabriel, Nicolas-Marie Potain, and Filippo Juvarra.Gabriel’s father, Jacques V Gabriel toured Italy with Robert de Cotte in1689-90, recording details and making drawings of various types of build-ings, including opera houses. See Correspondance des Directeurs de
l’Académie de France à Rome avec les Surintendants des Bâtiments,
vol. 2 (Paris: Charavay Frères, 1887) 204, 313. Letters written from LaTeulière, Director of the French Academy in Rome to Villacerf, theSurintendent des Bâtiments from 20 March 1696 to 12 June 1696 ex-pressed keen interest in Carlo Fontana’s new plan for the Teatro Tor diNona. These letters further reveal that Jacques V Gabriel returned to Rome
was the preferable shape for an opera house because it permit-ted the best views of the stage and involved the fewest anglesand corners, which are considered the worst traps for voices.24
Recessed Tiers of Galleries
Gabriel divided the final plan for the Versailles Opéra in
the manner of a court theater. The Opéra’s first level con-tained space allocated for an orchestra and an open parterre,which allowed the royal patrons an unobstructed view of thestage (Figure 10). He placed a balustraded amphitheatre di-rectly behind the parterre, which provided seating for courtlyguests. Gabriel intended for the King to have the most privi-leged view of the stage; therefore the precise placement of theKing’s box in the center of the second gallery played a signifi-cant role in the design.
Although earlier scholars discuss how the auditoriumspace was laid out, they do not reveal the measures Gabrieltook to improve spectator visibility. Gabriel deliberately choseto go against the custom of the day, which called for boxes
rising vertically over one another. He integrated three reced-ing tiers of galleries above the amphitheatre, and he angledthe gallery partitions toward the stage in order to improvesignificantly the sight lines of the spectators. Gabriel’s use of these components demonstrates a vast improvement over thedesigns of two of his earlier predecessors, Soufflot at the GrandThéâtre at Lyon and Moreau-Desproux at the theater withinthe Palais Royal. Although these architects had employed re-
cessed tiers of galleries within their respective theaters, nei-ther had angled their gallery partitions toward the stage, mak-ing it extremely difficult for spectators to see.25 Furthermore,Thomas E. Lawrenson points out that at the Grand Théâtre atLyon Soufflot also pierced a series of small openings in theback of the first recessed gallery to allow late-arriving specta-
tors an opportunity to witness the performance from the corri-dors running behind the exterior of the galleries without dis-turbing the seated guests. The effect of these pierced open-ings, however, vastly deteriorated the acoustical qualities of the opera house.26 Likewise, Moreau-Desproux placed privateboxes near the forestage at the Palais Royal, which also un-dermined the acoustical effects of the auditorium there.27
I believe that Gabriel’s decision to integrate receding tiersof galleries was influenced not only by Carlo Fontana’s em-ployment of a similar feature at the Teatro Tor di Nona, butalso by the theaters designed by the Vigarani family. HélèneLeClerc points out that the Vigaranis had developed tiers of receding gallery seating in conjunction with several theaters
they constructed, including the Teatro della Speltà in Modenaand the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries Palace in Paris.28
Wood
In order to aid the hall’s acoustical qualities Gabriel linedthe interior of the Versailles Opéra with thin wood panelingpainted to resemble marble. During the eighteenth centurymany believed that wood served as a sound-absorptive mate-
in June 1697, where he may have seen the Teatro Tor di Nona before it wasdemolished by order of Pope Innocent XII in August 1697, and he mayhave made copies of Fontana’s preliminary oval designs for the theater atthat time.
Gabriel enlisted French pensionnaire Nicolas-Marie Potain to make
drawings of plans of the most eminent theaters in Italy before he completedhis study at the French Academy in Rome in 1738. See Helmut Hager,“The Accademia di San Luca in Rome and the Académie Royaled’Architecture in Paris: A Preliminary Investigation,” in Projects and
Monuments in the Period of the Roman Baroque (Papers in Art Historyfrom Pennsylvania State University, 1984): 129-66. French pensionnaires
were given direct access to numerous drawings preserved as instructionalmaterial in the Accademia di San Luca, many prepared by the principe
himself. Carlo Fontana served as principe in 1686 and in 1693, holdingthis position until 1699.
Another likely source for the dissemination of Fontana’s oval planwas Filippo Juvarra, who had studied under the direction of Fontana whileliving in Rome from 1704-1714. See Andrea Barghini, Juvarra a Roma:
Disegni dall’atelier di Carlo Fontana (Turin: Rosenberg and Sellier: 1994)11 and Figure 93r. Barghini published a plan believed to be by Juvarra thatimmediately recalls Fontana’s preliminary oval design for the Teatro Tor
di Nona. See also Henry A. Millon, “Filippo Juvarra and the Accademia diSan Luca in Rome in the Early Eighteenth Century,” Projects and Monu-
ments in the Period of the Roman Baroque (Papers in Art History fromPennsylvania State University, 1984) 13. Juvarra likely shared Fontana’soval theater design with his student Benedetto Alfieri while working inTurin as court architect to Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy in 1714. Millonreveals that Juvarra later traveled to Paris in 1718-19 and in 1721, wherehe was asked to execute a design for an oval theater that was to be con-structed at a later date on the site of the Hôtel de Soissons.
24 Langlois, L’Opéra de Versailles 22.
25 See Mullin, The Development of the Playhouse, 26, 90 and 96. See alsoSimon Tidworth, Theatres: An Architectural and Cultural History (New
York: Praeger Publishers, 1973) 78-79; T. E. Lawrenson “The Shape of the Eighteenth-Century French Theatre and the Drawing Board Renais-sance,” Theatre Research 7.1 (1965): 14-15; Kalnein, Architecture in
France in the Eighteenth Century, 167. Cosimo Lotti was the first personto implement the arrangement of partitions or low box divisions angled
toward the stage to aid spectator sight-lines in his design of the theater builtin El Buen Retiro Palace in 1632 for King Philip IV. Lotti, a Florentine,had been an associate of Giulio Parigi (1571-1635), who redesigned theTeatro Mediceo in the Uffizi Palace in Florence.
Kalnein states that at Soufflot’s Grand Théâtre at Lyon, “…all seatscommanded a clear view of the stage.” Mullin and Lawrenson point out,however, that Soufflot did not angle the partitions of his interior galleriestoward the stage, thus the spectators did not have a clear view of the activi-ties being performed there.
26 Lawrenson, “The Shape of the Eighteenth-Century French Theatre,” 14-15.
27 Howarth, French Theatre in the Neoclassical Era 478. Grimm’s reviewof Moreau-Desproux’s new theater in the Palais Royal mentioned that thoseseated in the parterre could not see well, and he suggested that the parterre
be lowered or the stage raised. He also revealed that many patrons com-plained about the visibility from the boxes located within the columns sup-porting the proscenium. He also stated that some individuals also could nothear well from several boxes located at the rear of the house.
28 Hélène LeClerc, “La scène d’illusion et l’hégémonie du théâtre à l’italienne,”in Histoire des spectacles (Paris: Gallimard, 1965) 613. See also the entryon “Teatro” in Enciclopedia dello spettacolo,vol. 9 (Rome: Le Maschere,1954-62) 762-65. See also Janet Southorn, Power and Display in the Sev-
enteenth Century: The Arts and Their Patrons in Modena and Ferrara
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988) 56-58 and 163-64, note 134. Gaspare’sexperimentation in gallery seating was first applied in several ecclesiasticalstructures he built, including S. Agostino and S. Girolamo constructed inReggio, and S. Giorgio constructed in Modena, which he began in the later
rial, playing a vital role in the enhancement of acoustics.29
Fabrizio Carini Motta’s treatise (1676) recommended the useof wood for an opera house, as did the treatise written by CountFrancesco Algarotti (1755), which stated that whereas theoutside fabric of an opera house could be made of brick orstone as a safeguard against fire, the interior auditorium should
be constructed of wood for acoustical reasons.30
Gabriel chose to employ wood within the Opéra at a timewhen many other theater architects were experimenting withmore durable materials. Antonio Galli-Bibiena constructed theTeatro Communale in Bologna in 1756 entirely of stone andbrick, and although these materials made the auditorium fire-resistant, the opera house was a conspicuous failure acousti-cally.31 As a sound-reflective material, stone distorted musicin unnatural ways. Soufflot constructed the interior periph-eral galleries at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon in stone as a fire-preventative measure, yet the employment of stone dramati-cally deteriorated the hall’s acoustical qualities, a fact whichwas duly noted and criticized.32 Likewise, when fire destroyed
the theater within the Palais Royal in Paris in 1763, Moreau-Desproux integrated iron into the structural framework of thenew theater, even though that material also proved to be highlydetrimental to the acoustics.33
I believe that Gabriel’s employment of wood was influ-enced in part by Carlo Fontana, who integrated wood through-out the interior of the Teatro Tor di Nona in Rome. Havingstudied the designs of earlier Italian theaters constructed innumerous cities including Venice and Florence, Fontana likelyknew of the Teatro Farnese in Parma (1618-28), a theater re-nowned for the sonority of its acoustics due to the applicationof thin wood paneling throughout the entire auditorium.
Gaspare Vigarani had also worked near Parma, constructingseveral opera houses of his own entirely in wood at Carpi(1640) and in Modena (1656).34 Gabriel also knew the acous-tical problems associated with the stone materials employedfor the interior of the Salle des Machines in Paris (1659-62)because he and Soufflot had worked together to remodel this
theater in 1763-64.35
Thus Gabriel deliberately chose to em-ploy wood in lieu of masonry or iron in order to endow theVersailles Opéra with superior acoustical qualities.
The Ceiling
Earlier scholars have not drawn attention to Gabriel’sdesign for the ceiling of the Versailles Opéra. Gabriel incor-porated a wooden trussed roof structure from which he hung alath-and-plaster coved ceiling in order to further enhance theacoustics of the Opéra.36 Motta’s treatise may have played aninfluential role in Gabriel’s design.37 Motta recommended thatthe ceilings of opera houses should be made of wood, flat-tened and segmented in order to achieve better acoustical re-
sults.Soufflot had integrated a stone-vaulted ceiling at the Grand
Théâtre at Lyon as a fire-preventative measure, but he wassharply criticized for the resultant poor acoustical effects.38
Likewise, Moreau-Desproux incorporated iron into the roof for the new theater at the Palais Royal, a material that alsoproved to be highly detrimental to acoustics.39 Gabriel improvedupon a ceiling design suggested by Gabriel Pierre MartinDumont, professor of architecture and member of the AcadémieRoyale d’Architecture and the Academies of Rome, Florence,and Bologna. In his treatise Dumont had recommended awooden truss system employed in conjunction with a domed
1640s. Southorn states that Vigarani’s ecclesiastical balconies were said tobe an early experiment in the diagonal perspective settings, or scena per
angolo, later widely adopted in Italian theaters and utilized extensively bythe Galli-Bibiena family working in Italy and throughout Western Europe.
29 Howarth, French Theatre in the Neoclassical Era 481. Gabriel not onlylined the interior of the Versailles Opéra with thin wood paneling, but alsoincorporated wood in the Opéra’s floor, the colonnade, the entablature, andthe ceiling. See also Japy, L’Opéra Royal de Versailles 18.
30 For a more extensive study of Motta’s treatise, see Orville K. Larson, The
Theatrical Writings of Fabrizio Carini Motta (Carbondale: Southern Illi-nois UP, 1987). See also Tidworth, Theatres 97. Algarotti, an Italian scien-tist, published his treatise Saggio sopra l’Opera in 1755.
31 Mullin, The Development of the Playhouse 88; Tidworth, Theatres 81-
82; Michael Forsyth, Buildings for Music: The Architect, the Musician,and the Listener from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day (Cam-bridge: M.I.T. Press, 1985) 95.
See also Hautecoeur, Histoire de l’architecture classique en France,4: 449. Hautecoeur reveals that masonry materials were also employed atthe Teatro Pergola in Florence, and its resulting poor acoustical qualitieswere known to many architects working in France. See also the sectionentitled “Theatre,” by Graham F. Barlow in The Dictionary of Art , ed.Jane Turner, vol. 30 (New York: Grove Dictionaries, 1996) 667.
32 Howarth, French Theatre in the Neoclassical Era 470-72. Soufflot alsoinstalled a metal fire curtain that could be lowered over the forestage, com-pletely closing off the auditorium from the stage in the event of fire. See
also Richard and Helene Leacroft, Theatre and Playhouse: An Illustrated Survey of Theatre Building from Ancient Greece to the Present Day (Lon-don: Methuen, 1984) 88-89. Leacroft reveals that the walls surroundingthe stage of the Grand Théâtre at Lyon were also constructed of stone.
33 Hautecoeur, Histoire de l’architecture classique en France, 4: 449.
34 Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 3: 95. See also the section on “Vigarani” inthe same source, 10:1680-84.
35 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel 203; Gabriel Rouchès, Inventaire des let-
ters et papiers manuscripts de Gaspare, Carlo et Lodovico Vigarani
(Paris: H. Champion, 1913) 18. See also Hautecoeur Histoire de
l’architecture classique en France, 2: 235.
36 George C. Izenour, Theater Design, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1996)
59.
37 See Larson, The Theatrical Writings of Fabrizio Carini Motta for a fulldiscussion of Motta’s recommendations. See also Edward Craig, Baroque
Theatre Construction: A Study of the Earliest Treatise on the Structure
of Theatres by Fabrizio Carini Motta Architect and Scene Designer at
the Court of Mantua 1676 (Great Britain: Bledlow Press, 1982).
38 Richard and Helene Leacroft, Theatre and Playhouse 89. See also Braham,The Architecture of the French Enlightenment 30.
39 Pevsner, A History of Building Types 302, note 90. See also Hautecoeur, Histoire de l’architecture classique en France, 4: 449.
ceiling in his design for a Salle de Concert project, but thedome itself would have been disastrous from an acousticalstandpoint.40
I believe that Gabriel’s choice of ceilings was influencedin great part by the recommendations of Gaspare and CarloVigarani. The Vigaranis believed that the ceiling design was
one of the most integral elements of an opera house. GabrielRouchès reveals that there were vast differences of opinionbetween the Vigaranis, Louis Le Vau, and the local Frenchcarpenters concerning the design of the roof at the Salle desMachines.41 For acoustical reasons, the Vigaranis wanted toconstruct an expansive, thin, wooden trussed ceiling comprisedof a light-weight wood. Their particular ceiling design, how-ever, was not chosen. The roof employed was low, dense, andheavily coffered, and was made from a sturdier, more robusttype of wood. This design contributed in large part to thetheater’s poor acoustical qualities. Gabriel’s avoidance of thetypes of roof structures employed by Soufflot and Moreau-Desproux and his knowledge of the faulty roof design of the
Salle des Machines allowed him to circumvent the acousticalproblems inherent in these earlier theaters.
Reverberating Chamber and Pivoting Floor
Most scholars acknowledge that Gabriel collaborated withrenowned Italian stage engineer Blaise-Henri Arnoult in de-signing the floor of the Versailles Opéra, although they dis-cuss only one aspect of their joint endeavor. Gabriel andArnoult installed equipment in the auditorium floor that al-
lowed it to be elevated to the level of the stage, a feature thateffectively converted the Opéra into a ceremonial banquet hallor ballroom when desired. Earlier Italian architects had uti-lized similar equipment that allowed their theaters to be con-verted into a multi-functional space, including Giacomo Torelliat the Palais Royal in Paris (1646-47) and Ferdinando Tacca
at the Teatro Pergola in Florence (1656).42
Gabriel may alsohave been influenced by Dumont, who had illustrated a de-sign for a moveable floor for theaters in his theoreticalwritings.43 Gabriel and Arnoult installed twelve sets of wingsand backshutters mounted on chariots on the raked floor of the stage, and added four sub-stage levels underneath the au-ditorium in order to allow room for specialized operatic ma-chinery.44
The second feature of the Versailles Opéra’s floor thathas not been discussed by historians is Gabriel’s placement of a large orchestra pit directly over a semi-cylindrical rever-beration chamber in order to further enhance the auditorium’sacoustics (Figure 11). It is probable that Gabriel was influ-
enced by the designs of earlier Italian theaters; records indi-cate that architects were experimenting with various forms of musical troughs at the Teatro Nuova in Parma, the TeatroArgentina in Rome, and the Teatro Regio in Turin.45
The Colonnade
Gabriel lined the third gallery with a magnificent Ioniccolonnade, becoming the first architect in eighteenth-centuryFrance to evoke the grandeur of ancient theaters.46 Gabriel’s
40 Izenour, Theater Design 54-59 and 155, note 27. Dumont’s treatise, pub-lished in 1763, was entitled Parallèle des plans des plus belles salles de
spectacles d’Italie et de France, avec des details de machines théâtrales.
41 Rouchès, Inventaire xvi-xvii; and 12, note 5. Rouchès states that the de-sign of the roof was a divisive issue between the French and the Italianarchitects. See also Barbara Coeyman, “Opera and Ballet in Seventeenth-Century French Theaters: Case Studies of the Salle des Machines and thePalais Royal Theater,” Opera in Context , ed. Mark Radice (Portland:Amadeus Press, 1998) 310, note 38. See also Lee, European Post-Ba-
roque Neoclassical Theatre Architecture 24-25. In discussing the ideas of Italian theorist Paolo Landriani and French theorist Pierre Patte Lee statesthat both men believed that the ceiling of an opera house was of primaryimportance acoustically. Landriani argued that the shape of the ceilingneeded to be more like that of the sounding board of a harpsichord, flat-tened and made of wood, rather than curved and made of plaster. The argu-ment is the distinction between the ceiling as a reflecting surface and as areverberating medium, i.e., plaster versus wood panels.
42 Coeyman, Opera in Context 63. See also Per Bjurström, “Giacomo Torelli
and Baroque Stage Design,” Figura ns. 2 (1961): 125. See also Tidworth,Theatres 71.
43 See Izenour, Theater Design 54, for a more comprehensive discussion onDumont’s theories. In Parallèle des plans des plus belles Salles des Spec-
tacles d’Italie et de France Dumont illustrated two designs, one for a Sallede Concert and one for a Salle de Spectacle, based on the traditional Italianplan and section. Dumont proposed two schemes: one with a fixed floor,and one with a pivoting floor. His pivoting floor may have been of particu-lar interest to Gabriel. It was designed as a wooden truss system, one thatcontained a counter-weighted pivoting level that when covered and raisedto the level of the orchestra pit, connected the parterre to the stage. Dumontproposed his idea as a means for converting the auditorium into a ballroomor banquet hall.
44 Mullin, The Development of the Playhouse 95.
45 Mullin, The Development of the Playhouse 57-58. See also Forsyth, Build-
ings for Music 95. The Teatro Argentina constructed in Rome in 1732
contained a brick channel dug underneath the auditorium floor that ranfrom the stage to the back of the theater. Filled with water, this channel wasbelieved to serve as an effective sound reflector. Music was carried to theback of the auditorium through grilles, which were installed in the floor. Atthe Teatro Regio in Turin Alfieri had installed a semi-cylindrical masonrytrough below the wooden floor of the orchestra pit. Two tubes connectedthe ends of the trough with the stage. It was believed at the time that theshape and the hard surface of the trough would serve as an acoustical re-flector, echoing the resilient sound of the orchestra. Forsyth reveals thattheorists Pierre Patte and George Saunders both recorded that various formsof musical troughs were common to many Italian theaters.
See also Lee, European Post-Baroque Neoclassical Theatre Archi-
tecture 19. Patte’s treatise recommended a sounding vault be inserted un-der the orchestra floor that would function as a resonating chamber. De-vices were to be connected to each end of the chamber in order to direct thesound toward the hall. Patte believed that the resonating chamber would
serve to strengthen the orchestra’s sound. Music composed during this pe-riod relied extensively upon the use of strings and woodwinds, instrumentsthat needed further augmentation in order to be heard. Lee states that withthe increased use of brass instruments in pit orchestras, emphasis was redi-rected toward preventing the sound of the orchestra from overpowering thevoices onstage. The need to muffle the sound of the orchestra led Wagner toenlarge the pit area at Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
46 Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture, trans. Morris Hicky Morgan(New York: Dover Publications, 1960) 148. The motif of a colonnade wasfirst introduced by Vitruvius, who asserted that the topmost passageway atthe rear of ancient auditoriums was to be colonnaded, arched, or vaulted,and should be equal in height to the roof inserted over the stage. He be-lieved that a colonnade would vastly improve the acoustics of an audito-
colonnade served as an architectonic element, supporting thecornice of the Versailles Opéra.47 On the walls of the gallerylocated behind the colonnade Gabriel inserted mirrors thatreflected light glittering from the candles of fourteen elegantchandeliers suspended from the ceiling.48 The mirrors func-tioned to multiply the space of the gallery, allowing courtiers
a chance to “see and be seen.” Gabriel thus enhanced not onlythe interior grandeur of the Opéra, but also the opulence of allthose affiliated with the court. A coffered half-dome was in-serted directly over the central box designed for the King.49
Recessed around the King’s box, the colonnade defined thearea where court etiquette forbade seating if the King wasutilizing his private box below (Figure 10).
By introducing the colonnade, Gabriel ignored the ad-vice of theorist Count Algarotti, who urged the moderate useof ornament in theaters to the extent of avoiding the orders onthe grounds that these could not be given their properdignity.50 Gabriel’s colonnade demonstrated otherwise, serv-ing as an inspiration for later Western European architects.51
The majority of scholars cite Palladio’s Teatro Olimpicoat Vicenza (1585) as a source for Gabriel’s colonnade. Therewere other sources that inspired Gabriel, including the colon-nades incorporated at the Teatro della Speltà and the Salle desMachines, both constructed by the Vigaranis, and the 1685plan for a Salle des Ballets for Versailles by Carlo Vigarani.52
Gabriel also studied the architectural plans of Robert de Cotte,who employed a colonnade for his first (unexecuted) designfor a semi-elliptical theater within the Schleissheim Palacefor the Electors of Bavaria.53
Gabriel’s Influence
Gabriel’s Versailles Opéra exerted greater influence onthe work of subsequent European architects than earlier schol-ars would have one believe. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux utilizedGabriel’s ideas for several of his earliest works that ignitedhis own career. Ledoux integrated a miniature replica of theVersailles Opéra within the pavilion he constructed in 1770-1772 for Mademoiselle Marie-Madeleine Guimard, the cel-ebrated first dancer at the Comédie-Française and theOpéra.54 Before the death of Louis XV in 1774 Ledoux alsodesigned a vast town house for Madame du Barry situated inParis between the rue d’Artois and the chaussée d’Antin; inone of the hôtel’s side pavilions he incorporated an oval the-ater that replicated the design of the Versailles
Opéra. 55 Furthermore, Braham believes that Ledoux’sBesançon theater (1778) owes little to his immediate prede-cessors, yet Ledoux’s work is not dissimilar to Gabriel’sOpéra.56 Although the theater constructed at Besançon waslarger and was planned with a more conscious functionalism,Ledoux abolished theater boxes and employed Gabriel’s tiers
rium because the roof over the stage would project the voice to the higherseats at the back of the theater. Neither Soufflot nor Moreau-Desprouxemployed a colonnade within their respective opera houses.
47 Braham, The Architecture of the French Enlightenment , 43.
48 Ian Dunlop, Versailles (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1970) 162.Dunlop points out that each chandelier was five feet in height and con-tained ninety-six crystal pendants. The largest chandelier was inserted di-rectly over the king’s box, which was eight-feet in height containing threehundred pendants. More than three thousand candles were utilized in allthe chandeliers combined, producing what the Duc de Croÿ described asthe most admirable effect.
49 See Pérouse de Montclos, Histoire de l’architecture française 410; Kalnein, Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century 157. Kalnein attributesthis feature to one of Gabriel’s assistants, de Wailly. Pérouse de Montcloshas pointed out, however, that de Wailly did not start his work at theVersailles Opéra until 1765. Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 122, note25.
50 Tidworth, Theatres 97.
51 See the Théâtre at Besançon by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1778); the GrandThéâtre at Bordeaux by Victor Louis (1780); the court theater at Gripsholm,Sweden by Erik Palmstedt (1781); the theater built in the Hermitage, St.Petersburg by Giacomo Quarenghi (1787); the Théâtre Faydeau in Parisby Molinos and Legrand (1788); and the Paris Opéra by Charles Garnier(1874). The plans for these theaters can be found in Mullin, The Develop-
ment of the Playhouse. For Quarenghi’s theater at the Hermitage, seeTidworth, Theatres.
52 Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel , 122-23, note 25.
53 Robert Neuman, Robert de Cotte and the Perfection of Architecture in
Eighteenth-Century France 58-60. See also Mullin, Development of the
Playhouse 89. De Cotte’s proposal for the Buen Retiro influenced the ar-chitectural designs of Luigi Vanvitelli, who constructed the royal palaceand its theater at Caserta for the Bourbon kings of Naples (1752). Vanvitellieffectively eliminated the system of theater boxes supported by posts, erect-ing an auditorium whose ceiling and seating was supported by a giant Com-posite order that simultaneously endowed the theater with a sense of gran-deur. Mullin points out that some scholars have erroneously credited VictorLouis with initiating this design element at the Grand Théâtre at Bordeaux,although it was first introduced by Vanvitelli.
54 For the plan of Ledoux’s theater for Mademoiselle Marie-MadeleineGuimard, see Anthony Vidler, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and
Social Reform at the End of the Ancien Régime (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press,1990) 54-55. Guimard’s theater accommodated an audience of five hun-dred guests, seated either in the parterre or within the four tiers of recessedgalleries. The rear of the auditorium was crowned with an Ionic colonnade.Ledoux framed the stage with two colossal Corinthian columns and he alsoinserted two royal boxes into the proscenium arch. The entire pavilion de-lighted Blondel whose editor, Jean-François de Bastide recognized the the-ater in context of a private house as a “masterpiece of its kind,” especiallyfor the intimate relationship it forged between spectators and performers.Among the visitors to Guimard’s theater were Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and Joseph II, brother of Marie-Antoinette. Frederick II calledLedoux to Cassel in 1776. Guimard also introduced Ledoux to the Duc deChartres, who became his patron for one of the barrieres in the park of Monceau; and to Louis de Carmontelle, whose set designs for Guimard’sperformances combined theatrical illusion and landscape aesthetic in a waythat later influenced Ledoux.
55 Vidler, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux 53-59. Ledoux also drew up plans for thenew Château at Louveciennes for Madame du Barry, the foundations of which were laid in 1773. One of its pavilions contained a theater rivalingthe Versailles Opéra.
56 Braham, The Architecture of the French Enlightenment 185.
of receding gallery seating, and he crowned the auditoriumwith a Doric colonnade (Figure 12).57
Gabriel’s final design for the Versailles Opéra served as asource of architectural inspiration for other eighteenth- andnineteenth-century Western European architects. For example,Erik Palmsted endowed a sense of grandeur to the interior of
the court opera house at the Swedish castle of Gripsholm forKing Gustavus III in 1781 by employing Gabriel’s colonnadeand mirror panels at the rear of the theater (Figure 13). Itwould seem that Gabriel’s Versailles Opéra influenced sev-eral prominent architects whose work has been affiliated withthe age of Grand Opera (1780 to 1880), including Victor Louis,who constructed the Grand Théâtre at Bordeaux (1773-80)and Charles Garnier, who erected the Paris Opéra (1874).58
By combining the truncated oval plan together with theindividual components integrated into this design, Gabriel
57 Tidworth, Theatres 110.
58 Gabriel’s experimentation with the truncated circular theater plan in April
1765 may have influenced Victor Louis and Charles Garnier to later em-ploy similar circular plans for their respective theaters in Bordeaux andParis. At Bordeaux Louis also integrated a giant order of Corinthian col-umns to support his galleries, which lent a similar sense of ancient gran-deur to the theater that Gabriel had previously achieved at the VersaillesOpéra. Louis, however, incorporated a dome supported by a highly com-plex vaulting system into his theater design.
See also Izenor, Theater Design 155, note 27. Izenour’s research hasdemonstrated that domes employed in conjunction with opera house designwere disastrous from an acoustical standpoint. Gabriel circumvented theproblems affiliated with the dome by flattening and segmenting the ceilingat the Versailles Opéra in 1770, a design that Charles Garnier emulatedyears later for the ceiling at the Paris Opéra.
See also Kalnein, Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century
146 Figure 160, and 187. Louis also employed a grand staircase within theinterior of the Grand Théâtre, which many scholars believe served as the
created a renowned place of performance that was far supe-rior in terms of acoustics and visual clarity of the spectatorthan the Teatro Farnese in Parma (1617-28), the Grand Théâtreat Lyon (1754), and the Palais Royal in Paris (1763). TheVersailles Opéra could not be surpassed even by the “crown jewel” of all opera houses, the world-renowned La Scala in
Milan (1778). Recent research by George C. Izenour has dem-onstrated that the Versailles Opéra ultimately functioned bet-ter than several opera houses erected in the modern age.59
Thus I believe Gabriel’s work at the Versailles Opéra de-serves to be accorded a more significant place in the field of architectural history. The Versailles Opéra stands today notonly as an example of the unappreciated architectural geniusof Ange-Jacques Gabriel, but as an exemplary monument of opera house design for all ages.
Florida State University
prototype for the famous grand staircase integrated at the Paris Opéra byCharles Garnier. Kalnein points out, however, that Louis may have beenstrongly influenced by a monumental staircase Gabriel designed for the
Louvre in 1754.
59 Izenour, Theater Design, 272-79. Izenour conducted a series of techno-logical experiments which determined that only thirteen percent of the seat-ing found within the Versailles Opéra was considered in any way unaccept-able for witnessing operatic or dramatic performances. By comparison, fortypercent of the seating at La Scala in Milan (1778), twenty-seven percent of the seating at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia (1857), and twenty-six percent of the seating at the Staatsoper opera house in Vienna (1955)were deemed unsatisfactory for witnessing performances. Furthermore, LaScala and the Staatsoper were problematic from an acoustical standpointbecause of their ringed balcony fronts, a feature Gabriel did not employ.Long, primary reflections from the ceiling combined with the secondaryreflections from the concave ringed balcony fronts yielded a series of dis-tracting acoustical echoes.
Figure 2. Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Executed Plan, premières loges , TheVersailles Opéra, 1770. Document conserved at the Centre historiquedes Archives nationales à Paris (O11788.71, 32).
Figure 1. Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Interior View, The Versailles Opéra, 1770. Courtesy of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, New York.
[upper left ] Figure 3. Benedetto Alfieri, Plan of the Teatro Regio, Turin, Italy, 1740.The Architectural Plates from the Encyclopédieedited by Denis Diderot. Courtesy of Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995.
[upper right ] Figure 4. Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Plan of the Grand Théâtre at Lyon,France, 1754. The Architectural Plates from the Encyclopédie, edited by DenisDiderot. Courtesy of Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995.
[lower right ] Figure 5. Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux, Plan of the Palais RoyalTheater, Paris, France, 1763-1770. The Architectural Plates from the Encyclopédie,edited by Denis Diderot. Courtesy of Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995.
[left ] Figure 6. Ange-JacquesGabriel, Plan, Fourth Project of the early 1740s, premières loges ,The Versailles Opéra. Documentconserved at the Centre historiquedes Archives nationales à Paris(O1 1786.8).
[right ] Figure 7. Carlo Vigarani,Project, Plan of the Salle des
Ballets at Versailles, 1685. Pho-tographic reproduction by theBibliothèque nationale de France(Est. BN, Va 361, VII).
[below left ] Figure 8. CarloFontana, Preliminary Plan for theTeatro Tor di Nona, Rome, Italy,c. 1670s. Drawing by CarlFredrik Adelcrantz after CarloFontana. Courtesy of theNationalmuseum, Stockholm,Sweden.
[below right ] Figure 9. CarloFontana, Preliminary Plan for the
Teatro Tor di Nona, Rome, Italy,c. 1695. Courtesy of the Trusteesof Sir John Soane’s Museum(Vol. 117/33d).
Figure 10. Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Interior View of the Versailles Opéra,1770. Courtesy of Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NewYork.
Figure 12. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Interior View of the Theater of Besançon, France,1778. Photograph by Marcel Bovis; Courtesy of the Ministère de la Culture – France.
Figure 11. Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Composite Plan and Transverse Section of theVersailles Opéra, 1770. Courtesy of the George C. Izenour Archive at Pennsylvania StateUniversity.
Figure 13. Erik Palmsted, Interior View, Court Theater at Gripsholm,Sweden, 1781. Courtesy of the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
