In his Memoirs from beyond the grave , Chateaubriand wrote that “the patricians began the Revolution, the plebeians of the finally completed”. Nothing could better illustrate this maxim, that the representation of the Marriage of Figaro in the spring of 1784 at the Odeon Theatre, the new temple which had just been built and was then called the new Theatre-French. It is the count de Provence, future Louis XVIII, who had decided the construction for the actors,-French to have a room near his palace of the Luxembourg, as the duke of Orleans was the Opera house near his residence in the Palais-Royal.
After 11 hours, 27 April, the whole of Paris is rushing to the box office of the theatre. The servants of the great houses are lining up with the bourgeoisie and a few great nobles, valiant knights, and even a few cords-blue, playing elbows to be sure to have a place at the first of what Paris means by his title: The Crazy Day, or Marriage of Figaro . And God knows, if this …
I log
Subscribe for only 1€
Enter your email
