Theater Imperial de Compiegne

In 1866, the Emperor Napoleon III decided to build a new theater. Like Versailles, it is a question of entertaining the court which accompanies the sovereign during his stays in Compiègne. The Emperor chose a site near the Palace, the very one on which stood the Carmelite convent, immortalized by the play by Georges Bernanos and the opera by Francis Poulenc. Work began the following year, when the Universal Exhibition was in full swing.

The architect is called Auguste-Gabriel Ancelet. He was born in 1829 and died in 1895. First a pupil of Baltard, he was a boarder at the Villa Medici. Among his various achievements, notably appear the entrance facade of the Château de Pau and the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. Professor at the School of Fine Arts, Government Architect under the Second Empire, Ancelet's mission was to watch over the Château de Compiègne. Very naturally, he had to be chosen in order to design and build the future Imperial Theater. For the construction of the latter, a sum of 1.371.000 gold francs is committed. The building rises from the ground. Then its exterior parts completed, all the trades concerned begin its development.

Thus the painter Elie Delaunay creates a decoration intended to adorn the circular ceiling of the room. This decor will never be set up. On July 19, 1870, the war between France and Prussia broke out. The Imperial Theater becomes a construction site whose abandonment, provoked by the circumstances, seems at first temporary. But the disaster of Sedan occurs. Now is the time for calamities. The chances of seeing the room open at court one day are gone forever. The Second Empire took with it its pomp and entertainment.

The work of the architect Ancelet therefore remains unfinished and lifeless. However, it is an architectural work of major interest. The Imperial Theater is distinguished first of all by its singular dimensions. Its 13-meter stage opening makes it the equal of the Théâtre du Châtelet. Ancelet also used a daring system of metal constructions for the upper parts of the building. Although particularly representative of the aesthetics of the Second Empire, the theater cannot conceal direct connections that are all as original and strong as each other: The Teatro Olimpico directed by Palladio in Vicenza, the Margravine Theater in Bayreuth, the achievements by Gabriel or Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.

Finally, exceptional for its volume and architecture, the Imperial Theater is also exceptional for its acoustic qualities. All the personalities of the world of music who visited it were amazed and admired. Thus the famous conductor Carlo-Maria Giulini considers the hall "as one of the most perfect in the world, more accomplished than that of the Musikverein in Vienna, yet the benchmark in the field".

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