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The théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique (National Opéra Comic Theatre) is an opera company and opera house
Opera house

An opera house is a theater building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building....
 in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is located in the place Boieldieu, in the IIe arrondissement
IIe arrondissement

rrondissementnumber=2nd|commune=Paris|image=|caption=The former Paris Bourse, located in the 2nd arrondissement.|map=paris_2e_arr_jms.gif|mapcaption=Paris and its closest suburbs|...
 of Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, near the Paris Stock Exchange and not far from the Opera Garnier
Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier, also known as the Op?ra de Paris or Op?ra Garnier, but more commonly as the Paris Op?ra, is a 2,200-seat opera house on the Place de l'Op?ra in Paris, France....
, home of the Paris National Opera
Opéra National de Paris

Op?ra National de Paris is the leading opera company of France. It stages performances at the Op?ra Bastille and Op?ra Garnier in Paris.Other opera houses in Paris are the Th??tre du Ch?telet, Op?ra-Comique and Th??tre des Champs-?lys?es....
.

The Opéra-Comique company was established in 1714 to offer French opera as an alternative to Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 opera that then dominated the continent. Productions at the Opéra-Comique were distinguished from those at the Académie Royale de Musique
Académie Royale de Musique

Th??tre de l?Acad?mie Royale de Musique was the official theatre of the French theatrical institution known as the Acad?mie Royale de Musique from 1821 until 1873, and was principal venue of the Parisian opera and ballet companies until its destruction by fire in 1873....
 by their less formal requirements.






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The théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique (National Opéra Comic Theatre) is an opera company and opera house
Opera house

An opera house is a theater building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building....
 in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is located in the place Boieldieu, in the IIe arrondissement
IIe arrondissement

rrondissementnumber=2nd|commune=Paris|image=|caption=The former Paris Bourse, located in the 2nd arrondissement.|map=paris_2e_arr_jms.gif|mapcaption=Paris and its closest suburbs|...
 of Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, near the Paris Stock Exchange and not far from the Opera Garnier
Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier, also known as the Op?ra de Paris or Op?ra Garnier, but more commonly as the Paris Op?ra, is a 2,200-seat opera house on the Place de l'Op?ra in Paris, France....
, home of the Paris National Opera
Opéra National de Paris

Op?ra National de Paris is the leading opera company of France. It stages performances at the Op?ra Bastille and Op?ra Garnier in Paris.Other opera houses in Paris are the Th??tre du Ch?telet, Op?ra-Comique and Th??tre des Champs-?lys?es....
.

The Opéra-Comique company was established in 1714 to offer French opera as an alternative to Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 opera that then dominated the continent. Productions at the Opéra-Comique were distinguished from those at the Académie Royale de Musique
Académie Royale de Musique

Th??tre de l?Acad?mie Royale de Musique was the official theatre of the French theatrical institution known as the Acad?mie Royale de Musique from 1821 until 1873, and was principal venue of the Parisian opera and ballet companies until its destruction by fire in 1873....
 by their less formal requirements. At different periods, both the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra were united in a common institution.

French opéra comique
Opera Comique

The Opera Comique was a 19th-century opera house constructed between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand, London. The theatre opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway....
, in the 19th century at least, did not have to be comic; the term covered a much wider category of work. Notable composers in the history of the Opéra-Comique include Auber
Daniel Auber

Daniel Fran?ois Esprit Auber was a French composer....
, Halévy
Fromental Halévy

Jacques-Fran?ois-Fromental-?lie Hal?vy was a France composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive....
, Berlioz
Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
 and Bizet
Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet was a France composer and pianist of the Romantic music era. He is best known for the opera Carmen....
.

The Opéra-Comique staged the first performance of Bizet's Carmen
Carmen

Carmen is a French op?ra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Hal?vy, based on the Carmen by Prosper M?rim?e, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem "The Gypsies" by Pushkin....
 on 3 March 1875 and that of Debussy
Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions....
's only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)

Pell?as et M?lisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. It was first performed at the Op?ra-Comique, Paris on 30 April 1902....
, on 30 April 1902. Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust
The Damnation of Faust

La damnation de Faust is a work for orchestra, voices, and choir written by Hector Berlioz .Berlioz read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust Part One in 1828, in G?rard de Nerval's translation; "this marvelous book fascinated me from the first", he recalled in his Memoirs....
 also received its ill-fated première on 6 December 1846 at the Opéra-Comique; it was one of the worst setbacks in his career, leaving him heavily in debt and profoundly affecting his attitude to the performance of his music in Paris.

Between 1900 and 1950 401 works by 206 different composers were performed at the Opéra-Comique, of which 222 were either world premieres (136) or the first performance in Paris (86).

Salle Favart

Although the current building, known as the "salle Favart," was built in 1898, the opera house is in itself the oldest one in Paris. Two previous buildings burnt down in 1838 and 1887, not an uncommon occurrence with theatres before the 20th century.

Directors

1874-1876 Camille du Locle
Camille du Locle

Camille du Locle was a French theatre director and a librettist. He was born in Orange, Vaucluse, France. From 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law Emile Perrin at the Op?ra National de Paris, moving in 1870 to the Op?ra-Comique....

1876-1887 Léon Carvalho
Léon Carvalho

L?on Carvalho was a French impresario and stage director.Born L?on Carvaille in Port-Louis, Mauritius, he came to France at an early age....

1887 May to December Jules Barbier
Jules Barbier

Paul Jules Barbier was a France poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carr?. He was a noted Parisian bon vivant and man of letters ....

1888-1891 Louis Paravey
1891-1897 Léon Carvalho
1898-1913 Albert Carré
Albert Carré

Albert Carr? was a French Theatre director, opera director, actor and librettist. He was the nephew of librettist Michel Carr? and cousin of cinema director Michel Carr? ....

1914-1918 Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi
Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi

Pierre-Barth?lemy Gheusi, also known by the pseudonym Norbert Lor?dan, was a French theatre director, librettist, journalist and writer born in Toulouse on 21 November 1865, and died in Paris on 30 January 1943....
, Émile
Émile Isola

?mile Isola was born on 4 September 1860 in Blida, Algeria and died in Paris on 17 May 1945. Along with his younger brother Vincent Isola with whose life and career he was closely involved, he was a Magic and Impresario in Paris; they were known as the Fr?res Isola ? the Isola Brothers....
 and Vincent
Vincent Isola

Vincent Isola was born on 24 July 1862 in Blida, Algeria and died in Paris on 31 August 1947. Along with his older brother ?mile Isola with whose life and career he was closely involved, he was a Magic and Impresario in Paris; they were known as the Fr?res Isola ? the Isola Brothers....
 Isola
1919-1925 Albert Carré, Émile and Vincent Isola
1925-1931 Louis Masson and Georges Ricou
1931-1932 Louis Masson
1932-1936 Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi
1936-1939 14 member committee presided by Antoine Mariotte
Antoine Mariotte

Antoine Mariotte, born in Avignon on 22 December 1875 and died in Izieux, on 30 November 1944 was a French composer, Conducting and music administrator....

1939-1940 Henri Busser
1941-1944 Max d'Ollone
Max d'Ollone

Maximilien-Paul-Marie-F?lix d'Ollone was a French composer, born 13 June 1875 at Besan?on and died in Paris 1959.He started composing very early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at 6, winning many prizes, receiving the encouragement of Gounod, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Thomas and Delibes....

1944 Lucien Muratore
1944 (Liberation) 4 member committee: Roger Désormière
Roger Désormière

Roger D?sormi?re was a France conducting. He is well known for having directed the earliest complete recording of Claude Debussy's opera Pell?as et M?lisande ....
, Pierre Jamin, Louis Musy
Louis Musy

Louis Musy was a French people operatic baritone and stage director principally active at the Paris Op?ra-Comique. His teacher was L?on David....
 and Emile Rousseau
1945-1946 Albert Wolff
Albert Wolff

Albert Wolff was a French conducting and composer of Netherlands descent. Most of his career was spent in European venues, with the exception of two years that he spent as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and a few years in Buenos Aires during the Second World War....

1946-1948 Henry Malherbe
1948-1951 Emmanuel Bondeville
1952-1953 Louis Beydts
Louis Beydts

Louis Beydts was a French composer, music critic and theatre director born 29 June 1895 in Bordeaux and died on 15 August 1953 at Caud?ran in Gironde)....
 

Music Directors

1849-1868 Théophile Tilmant
1868-1876 Adolphe Deloffre
Adolphe Deloffre

Louis Michel Adolphe Deloffre was a French people violinist and Conducting active in London and Paris, who conducted several important premieres in the latter city, particularly by Gounod and Bizet....

1876 Charles Constantin
1876-1877 Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux

Charles Lamoureux was a French conducting and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a caf?. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854....

1877-1898 Jules Danbé
Jules Danbé

Jules Danb? was a French people conducting, mainly of opera, born in Caen on 16 November 1840, and died 30 October 1905. Trained as a violinist, he was a pupil of Girard and Savard, in 1859 winning a first prize for violin....

1898-1904 André Messager
André Messager

Andr? Charles Prosper Messager , France composer and musician, was born at Montlu?on....

1904-1906 Alexandre Luigini
Alexandre Luigini

Alexandre Clement Leon Joseph Luigini was a French composer.Luigini was born in Lyon, France. His grandparents had moved there from Modena, Italy, when his grandfather took up the post of trumpeter with the orchestra of the Grand-Theatre....

1906-1908 François Ruhlmann
François Ruhlmann

Fran?ois Ruhlmann was a French conductor.He was a pupil of Joseph Dupont in Brussels. As a child he sang in the chorus at the Th??tre Royal de la Monnaie, and at 7 played the oboe in the orchestra....

1909 Gustave Doret
Gustave Doret

Gustave Doret was a Swiss composer and conductor.Doret was born in 1866 in Aigle, Switzerland. He studied at the Berlin Academy of Music with Joseph Joachim, and then at the Paris Conservatory with Theodore Dubois and Jules Massenet....

1910-1913 François Ruhlmann
1914-1918 Paul Vidal
Paul Vidal

Paul Antoine Vidal was a France composer, conducting and music teacher.Paul Vidal was born in Toulouse. He studied at the conservatoires in Toulouse and in Paris Conservatoire, under Jules Massenet in the latter....

1919-1921 André Messager
1921-1924 Albert Wolff
Albert Wolff

Albert Wolff was a French conducting and composer of Netherlands descent. Most of his career was spent in European venues, with the exception of two years that he spent as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and a few years in Buenos Aires during the Second World War....

1924-1925 Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht

D?sir?-?mile Inghelbrecht was a French composer, Conducting and writer....

1925-1932 Maurice Frigara
1932-1936 Paul Bastide
1936-1944 Eugène Bigot
Eugène Bigot

Eug?ne Bigot was a France composer and conducting....

1947-1953 André Cluytens
André Cluytens

Andr? Cluytens was a Belgian-born French conducting.He was born in Antwerp to a musical family. At age nineteen he graduated from the Royal Flemish Conservatory with first prizes in piano, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue....
 

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