The Rouen Opera House, formally known as Rouen Normandy Opera House - Theatre of Arts (French: ''Opéra de Rouen Normandie - Théâtre des arts'') is a French

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

located in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

. It is home to the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra. It operates a portfolio of concert venues including its headquarters, known as the Théâtre des arts, and the Chapelle Corneille. It is situated next to the Métro and TEOR station ''Théâtre des arts''.

Former halls

The first hall was built between 1774 and 1776 by François Guéroult.Pierre Frantz et Michèle Sajous d'Oria, Le siècle des théâtres, Paris, Paris bibliothèques, 1999, . It was located near today's ''Grand-Pont'' and ''Charrettes'' Streets.« L'Opéra de Rouen: un théâtre-béton » dans ''Côté Rouen'', No. 83, 5 au 11 décembre 2012, . The hall, known as the ''Théâtre des Arts'', was inaugurated on 29 June 1776 with a performance of Corneille's

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

'' Le Cid''. Unfortunately, the entire building was gutted by fire on 25 April 1876. The construction of a new ''

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

'' was commissioned and built according to the plans drawn by Louis Sauvageot. The new hall was constructed on exactly the same spot as the former and was inaugurated in

1882 Events January * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the ...

. In a twist of fate, the building was partially destroyed by fire when hit by shells on 9 June 1940. Performances were held throughout the war until the building was completely destroyed by allied bombing on 10 June 1944, shortly after singer Cécile Sorel left the stage.

Current Hall

The city of

decided to demolish the remnant parts of the building and commissioned the construction of a new one at the bottom of the ''rue Jeanne d'Arc'' (Joan of Arc Street) on the right banks of the city. The construction of the new ''Théâtre des Arts'' had to wait the ratification of the convention on war damages. Construction began in 1952 according to the plan designed by Jean Maillard and Robert Levasseur, in association with scenographer Pierre Sonrel and Lanfry's family-run construction business. In 1954 the construction was interrupted due to a reduction in fundings. The work started again in 1958. The original plan was reworked to meet the new requirements: the plan for a large hall with a capacity of 500 people to be constructed over the ''foyer'' was scrapped. After ten years of work, the hall was eventually inaugurated in the presence of Bernard Tissot, the then Mayor of

and deputy mayor for ''Beaux-Arts'', the doctor Rambert. Since 1962 stands on the hall's Square a bronze statue of

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage ...

by David d'Angers. The statue was situated at the crossing between both spans of the ''pont Corneille'' and the exit towards the ''Île Lacroix''. One of several of its kind in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

, it is one of the few, along with the statues of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

and Jean-Baptiste de La Salle by Falguière, which has not been melted by the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s in order to reuse the metal. In fact, the

block and tackle A block and tackle or only tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, used to provide tension and lift heavy loads. The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is ...

used for lifting the statue off its base yielded, and the statue fell in the shallow water of the river

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

near the edge of the bridge. Then the

s began sawing the statue to get it out of the river before reassembling it. Luckily, the truck hired to carry the statue stopped working. The war over, the statue was saved. In 2012 the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of the hall. As part of the celebrations, the Rouen Opera House asked people in possession of any kind of documents related to the building, such as photographs or films, to be allowed to make copies.

References & Bibliography

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Rouen Organizations based in Normandy Culture of Normandy