The Theatre in 17th century France III: French Theatre Spaces and Spectacle; French Actors and Theatrical Troupes

I love this photo I snapped at twilight, just after the lights had been turned on:
the Comédie Française

French Theatre Spaces and Spectacle

The Hôtel de Bourgogne was the only theatre in Paris for many years, and it possessed relatively unique features.  It was a

 rectangle 40 ‘ long and 105 ‘ deep; it contained an open space on the ground level, the pit, or parterre, in which to stand and two or three levels of gallery along 3 of its 4 walls. At least one of the galleries was partly divided into boxes, which were called loges.  The galleries opposite the stage were left undivided; the lower was called the amphitheatre, the upper the paradis, because it was so close to heaven -- the seats were the cheapest in the theatre, which sat and stood approximately 1600.  In the public theatres the pit was filled with standees only, and on the sides of the stage sat audience members who paid to be seen, more than to see, as was the practice in English private theatres.

      

The stage was approximately 5-6 feet high, with no real proscenium arch, though the side galleries provided a sort of frame, 25 feet wide and estimated at anywhere from 17-35 feet deep.  Scenery differed from play to play, but often in the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries, the method of design was an odd mix of medieval and renaissance styles, called

simultaneous settings.  Some scholars use this term to identify any medieval stage set-up, but at the Hôtel simultaneous settings were somewhat different.  The Italian Renaissance was served in that a series of wings or periaktoi led upstage to a central vanishing point, somewhat in perspective, and giving some illusion of depth. However, painted on the wings were not different portions of one setting, as you’d have seen in Renaissance decor. Instead, on each

 was a mansion-like painting emblematic of a different place.  If an actor stepped in front of one of these wings, on which was painted, a castle let’s say, the audience accepted that he was in front of the castle. If he moved to another, a painted forest, perhaps, the audience, kindly suspending its disbelief, accepted that he was in a forest!  A man named Laurent Mahelot designed many such simultaneous sets in the early 17th and a book of his sketches (Le Mémoire) has survived, so we have some sense of what these settings looked like.  The theatre was lit by candle and oil lamp, the auditorium as well as the stage, as had been the case in the Italian Renaissance.

The Hôtel de Bourgogne was the only permanent theatre in Paris. But remember that companies could find other spaces as long as they paid the Confrérie its fee.  There were several such spaces, similar in shape to the Hôtel, and very available because a certain

 sport had lost some of its popularity.  The game was jeu de paume, a form of tennis, and the courts on which the game was played were long thin rectangles with galleries running round the hall.  Stick a platform at one end and you transformed the tennis court into a theatre! The French were on the way to the proscenium arch theatre, especially in the features of the auditorium, and apparent in France earlier than similar structures were available to the public in either England or Italy.

Then in 1634 a rival to the Hôtel du Bourgogne was built, the Théâtre du Marais, fashioned from a tennis court.  This structure 

A scene from Le Cid in the Théâtre du Marais

was in use until it burned in 1644, when it was replaced by a more elaborate building.  This new Marais was 115 feet long, 38 feet wide, and 52 feet high. Its auditorium consisted of three levels of galleries along the side walls, the first two divided into boxes, the top (paradis) open stadium seating.  The rear wall also contained two levels of boxes, then stadium-style seating at the top.  The new Marais could seat 1500.  The stage was 6 feet high and raised, with a proscenium opening of 25 feet.  There was apparently a second level acting space as well.

      

Probably to better compete with the new Marais, the Hôtel de Bourgogne was re-modeled in 1647 in much the same style as the Marais.  In the 1630s and 40s, not much was attempted at the Hôtel or the Marais in terms of spectacle.  The academy had pressured writers to honor unity of place, which limited plays to one set. Whereas in the past simultaneous settings had been used at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, after 1636 the two theatres made use of relatively neutral settings: for comedy, a room with four doors (un chambre a quatre portes) and for tragedy, a place in front of a palace (palais a volonte). 

     

Theatres that catered to the court were more complicated in their use of spectacle.  Courtly audiences became used to Italian-style scene changes as early as the 1620s in temporary spaces, but it 

became much more prominent in the 1640s.  In 1641, Cardinal Richelieu had a theatre built in his home, the Palais Cardinal.  In one court ballet performed in this space, nine different settings changed “a vista” were featured.  When Richelieu died in 1642, his home and his theatre were taken over by the crown.  Both house and theatre were then re-named the Palais Royal.  Once again, it’s very good to be the king!

Gardens of the Palais Royal in 1999

Richelieu’s successor was an Italian who French-ified his name: Cardinal Mazarini became Cardinal Mazarin, and he was

 responsible for the welfare of the country during the childhood of the new King, Louis XIV (as had Richelieu with Louis XIII). Mazarin loved Italian opera, and introduced the form to Paris.  In order to achieve the proper spectacular settings for these operas, Mazarin imported to Paris Giacomo Torelli, who we have already met as il gran stregoni, the most famous scenic designer in Italy.

 In 1645, Torelli created a permanent, Italian style theatre in the palace next to the Louvre, called the Petit Bourbon (where court spectaculars had been staged as early as the late 1500s), incorporating his own chariot and pole system of scene changing to stun the courtly audiences.  The next year he made similar changes to the theatre at the Palais Royal, so that by 1646 Paris featured, along with two public theatres, two court spaces that produced 

spectacular ballets in which courtiers danced. Operas, along with “machine” plays that were all about the sets and usually designed by Torelli, thrilled audiences not only by chariot and pole changes but also by appearances on stage of the king, who between 1651 and 1660 he frequently made grand entrances and danced as well.  In one ballet he appeared as the “sun” to disperse the darkness. Voila! Le roi du soleil…the sun king.

That strange-looking machine at the top center of
the drawing is a cloud machine, flown in via Torelli's
chariot and pole system

Thus Torelli acquired tremendous fame, but at the same time he acquired powerful enemies.  Perhaps partially in response to Torelli’s enemies, in order to prepare for the wedding of Louis XIV in 1660, Cardinal Mazarin brought in a rival Italian designer, Gaspare Vigarani, to create the required spectacle for this formidable event.  Torelli’s Salle du Petit Bourbon was torn down, and in the Tuileries palace Vigarani built a new theatre, the largest in Europe, called the Salle des Machines. 

If it's difficult for you to "read" this visual - in the right one-third of the drawing
you can see the auditorium, the forestage and the proscenium - the other
two-thirds is backstage where all the machines were displayed.

This gigantic space was 52 feet wide and 252 feet long, it had a proscenium opening of 32 feet and the backstage area was 140 feet deep. Why this ludicrous depth?  Why, for Vigarani’s machines! 

 Although the theatre was finished in time for Louis’ wedding, its first production was not offered until 1662, when Vigarani presented the king with his belated birthday present, an opus called Hercules in Love (for Hercules, read Louis!).  This was an opera with several ballets included, but it was mainly about machines, one of which you might call the mother of all machines – 60 feet deep, 45 feet wide, it flew in the entire royal family and all its attendants!  Unfortunately the Salle was a real lemon...terrible acoustics, awful sight lines, not to mention expensive…and it was seldom used after the 1660s.

   

The good Cardinal Mazarin had hardly intended to replace Torelli with Vigarani, he just wanted something different for the wedding celebration.  But Mazarin died in 1661, and when he died Torelli’s enemies won out and the designer was forced to leave France, somewhat in a disgrace that he didn’t deserve. Vigarani himself 

died in 1663, and his son Carlo took over design for courtly entertainments.  Only after Carlo died in 1680 did a native French designer come to the fore in Paris. Jean Berain, actually a father and son team both called Jean, designed operatic and courtly entertainments in Paris and out at Louis’ new palace, the not-so-shabby Versailles, between 1680 and 1721.

In terms of costumes, actors mostly provided their own, which were paid for by the company.  Plays were performed in contemporary dress (as was the case in England at the time) except for a few which required specialty outfits, and others on classical subjects, when that strange mix of seventeenth century clothing overlaid with emblematic classical pieces was worn, and called habit a la Romaine – “dressed like a Roman.”

      

Actors and Theatrical Troupes

Let’s have a look at theatre companies in Paris, simple enough until the late 1650s, after that rather complicated.  Until that time different actor/managers had run the Hôtel du Bourgogne and the 

The Palais was the home/prison to Louis XVI &
his family during the Revolution, and was
torn down during the Paris Commune in 1871

Théâtre du Marais.  However, when Molière’s company reappeared on the scene in 1658 and made such a hit playing before the king and his brother, they were allowed to play in the Salle du Petit Bourbon, and when they did this space in the palace was opened to the public, creating a third public theatre in Paris. But with a difference, as this one happened to be equipped with Italian-style scenic machinery.  When the next year the Salle was torn down, Molière’s troupe moved to the Palais Royal, and another private theatre was made public. This one also featured the latest in scenic innovations. 

The Palais was occasionally still used for court entertainments, but in addition, Molière, working with the composer Lully devised a series of comédies-ballets, which utilized only the one setting for the acts in the play (cut from five acts to three in this genre), but which transformed into spectacular scene-changing ballets during each of the intervals.  One such was The Imaginary Invalid.  The music for that production, however, was written by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, as Lully and Molière had fallen out. These comédies-ballets began s court entertainments only, but gradually were opened to the public. They quickly became popular with the public, not only for the added dances but also for the impressive a vista scene changes. 

   

Thus in the second half of the century, in addition to the Marais and the Hôtel Molière’s troupe was ensconced at the Palais Royal.  A commedia troupe from Italy was also very successful, though it was forced to move from tennis court to tennis court for performances.  The only other theatre in town was one about which little is known, except that it was located on the Rue Guenegaud (on the left bank of the Seine) and that it housed Lully’s opera troupe until Molière died.

      

Molière’s death created a real mess, because as already noted Lully managed to get his opera troupe into the Palais Royal, displacing Molière’s troupe. To give Lully what little credit he deserves, the Palais Royal was more appropriate to his operas than to Molière’s one-set comedies. Armande, at the helm the company formerly run by Molière, fought for control of the theatre on Rue Guenegaud, Lully’s old space, but the company playing at the Marais (which had become a tired old out-of-date house) also wanted it.  The king forced BOTH companies to combine and to play at the theatre in the Rue Guenegaud, where they began performances in July 1673.  Louis solved the problem of anyone else wanting the Marais by closing it down! It's interesting to note that the combined company was composed of the finest actors from the two former troupes, so performing increased in quality in the re-tooled group.

      

In 1680, one more merger was made.  The company formed from combining Molière’s with the Marais troupe was forced to combine again, with the troupe at the Hôtel de Bourgogne.  These three former companies together formed a single, very strong acting unit (as weaker performers were dropped), and that unit was given full financial support from the king, who named it the Comédie Française.  In 1689 the Comédie moved out of the theatre in the Rue Guenegaud to a brand new theatre built in the etoile tennis court, and there remained the home of the now “national” theatre, the Comédie Française.  

The Italian commedia troupe also found itself in a permanent home in 1680, because they were allowed the use of the old warhorse, 

the Hôtel de Bourgogne. That is, they used it till 1697, when it was decided that some plays of this commedia troupe mocked Louis’ court more than he liked. As a result the troupe was expelled from France and by the turn of the 18th century, what had been in the 1660s and 70s a highly competitive theatrical market, with several different companies vying for audiences,had turned into a monopoly.  All spoken drama in Paris was performed at the Comédie Française, and all opera was performed at the Palais Royal, which by now had become known as the Opéra.

   

That was easy, right? What a tangled web! But that’s what makes theatre history so interesting to Dr Jack, and he hopes to you as well.

Ttheatrical troupes were organized on the sharing plan. A group of actors controlled a troupe, and like Shakespeare’s company, these actors also shared in the profits. They were called societaires, and only when one of these privileged players retired, resigned, or died was there a vote to determine who would take her/his place.  The choices for replacements were usually filled from the pensionnaires, actors hired annually by the societaires and paid salaries, who had no chance of reaping the profits of a “hit.”  Interestingly enough, the Comédie Française is still structured exactly this way, with a core of societaires who vote on whether to admit pensionnaires to the inner circle.

      

In the seventeenth century many French actors gained reputations, and several became “stars” or “etoiles.”  We’ll focus briefly on a few of the most important performers.  One of the early stars of Paris was Montdory (1594-1654), who led the Marais company, rivals of the Hôtel De Bourgogne troupe. Montdory’s major claim to fame was as Roderigue, the male lead in Corneille’s Le Cid, but he originated many of the serious roles in the new drama of the 1630s, and though bombastic in style, was quite popular.  His career ended sadly and too soon. He suffered a partial paralysis of the tongue and could no longer perform after 1637. 

At the Hôtel de Bourgogne, the most famous male actor after Valleran le Comte (who led that first public theatre company in Paris) was Bellerose, fine in comedy and tragedy, and who was said to have had a “natural” style.  Later Montfleury (not to be 

confused with Montdory) became nearly as popular as Bellerose, performing in the same company. Montfleury was immensely obese and in love with his own bombastic voice, which, if you know it, Cyrano de Bergerac mocks in the first scene of that play (if you don't know it you should!), but bombast did not hurt his popularity. Last but certainly not least was Molière in his “role” as actor. Suffice to say that in addition to being the greatest

 playwright of the era, he was one of its finest performers as well.

The Béjarts we already know for their importance in the life of Molière, but we should remember them as individuals as well. 

Madeleine (1618-1672) was unique in that she was a powerful

manager in a profession run by males, and in a society that thought

 of women on stage as libertines and scarlet women.  Early in Madeleine’s onstage career she played tragic heroines, but she gained her greatest fame acting Molière’s juiciest characters, the saucy maids.  Four other members of the Béjart family were actors, but the only one to achieve the stature of Madeleine was her much younger sister or daughter (as you like it,

 if you like it) Armande Béjart (1642-1700), who married Molière in 1662, and who the next year made her debut in the company, for which she played all the heroines in her husband’s plays. And as a reminder on Molière’s death it was Armande who held the company together.

      

The leading tragic actresses of the century were Mlle du Parc and Mlle Champmeslé.  Du Parc (1633-1668) played the leading tragic

 roles in the Molière/Béjart company until Racine made her is lover and literally wooed her away from the company, using a fine role as well as love for bait.  After this she became leading tragic actress at the Hôtel de Bourgogne.  One year after Du Parc’s death, Mlle Champmeslé (1642-1698), fresh from the provinces, debuted at the Théâtre du Marais and took Paris by storm; within months was thought of as the finest serious actress in France.  She joined the Hôtel de Bourgogne company where among other roles, she created the title role in Racine’s Phedre.

     

Late in the century Michel Baron (1653-1729) inherited the mantle

 of greatest tragic actor.  It has been said that he moved away from bombast and towards a more “natural” style (which is not necessarily all that natural in an age of bombast).  He retired while still in his prime in 1691, but returned to the stage in 1720, old, but still well regarded, and still more “natural” than most of his rivals.

And that brings us, naturally enough, to the end of French theatre. Next time we'll have a look at the theatre of the English Restoration!