Founded in 1690 by Louis XIV, the Comédie Française is still going strong as the world’s oldest theater troupe. Their repertoire consists mainly of classic French plays from the 17th and 18th centuries, but they also perform plays by more modern authors. For instance, I once saw them perform what Read More …
In Paris back in 2011 I saw an insightful theatrical revue about the Second Empire, the eighteen-year period from 1852 to 1870 when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte ruled France as Emperor Napoléon III. The musical spectacle “Hugoffenbach” combined texts by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), expressing his outrage at Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte’s seizure of power, Read More …
The composer Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) is best known today for his one serious opera, Tales of Hoffmann, which he composed shortly before his death, based on the life and writings of the German author and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann. But actually Tales of Hoffmann was only one of 102 works for Read More …
In 1966 I went to two plays at the Odéon Theater, but didn’t understand much of either one. The first was Partage de Midi by Paul Claudel (1868-1955), the younger brother of the sculptress Camille Claudel. He was the one who committed his sister to an insane asylum, where she Read More …
Several years ago I wrote that Paris had five opera houses, one of which was the Théâtre du Châtelet. Since then, however, the Châtelet has become more and more specialized in presenting operettas and musicals, so I wouldn’t really call it an opera house any more. It is now subtitled Read More …
La Nouvelle Seine (The New Seine) is a theatre, café and restaurant on a ship that is anchored on the Left Bank of the Seine, just across from Notre-Dame. I don’t know how they got permission to anchor here, but it’s a fantastic setting, at number 3, quai de Montebello, Read More …