Few buildings are as important to the history of modernism as the Theatre des Champs-Elysses in Paris.
Conceived as a veritable temple to art, drama, music and dance, the structure has occupied a key place in the cultural life of our century.
In America only Carnegie Hall is comparable, yet the fame of that building is derived more from the number of distinguished artists who appeared there than from the architectural achievements of the place itself.
The Theatre des Champs-Elysses combines all such aspects with a spirit of innovation. As pianist Arthur Rubinstein wrote, it was ”the last theater worthy of the great city.”
In preparation for its 75th birthday this March, the theater recently underwent an extensive program of restoration and (in the office and backstage areas) modernization. The reopening late last year was marked by several events, not least being the inauguration of a series of compact discs of historic performances and an exhibition at the Musee d`Orsay that traced the building`s splendid history.
Supplementing the show was a new edition of ”The Pavilion of Phantoms,” a collection of memories by the extraordinary man who created the theater, Gabriel Astruc (1864-1938).
Astruc descended from an old Jewish family of Spanish Sephardim; his father was the Great Rabbi of Belgium. In his early years he served as a Parisian journalist but then went on to work with a musical publishing firm before launching a lavish magazine and founding an agency for the performing arts.
Between 1905 and 1912 Astruc organized nearly 1,000 events, presenting such instrumentalists as Wanda Landowska and Rubinstein in addition to the French premiere of Richard Strauss` opera ”Salome” and the world premiere of Claude Debussy`s ”The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian.”
But the greatest artistic successes came from eight seasons of programs by Serge Diaghilev`s Ballets Russes, which Astruc claimed he was the first to urge to come to Paris. Dance historian Richard Buckle has turned up a note that would seem to substantiate this assertion, but whatever the case, Astruc certainly made the events possible by going beyond his role as administrator to raise money.
The first season, in 1909, took place at the Theatre du Chatelet, a shabby, city-owned building that specialized in presenting melodramas. Diaghilev commanded that it be completely redecorated, and so it was, though he arrived in Paris without any money. Astruc had to extend his own credit and later seize Diaghilev`s scenery and luggage to be reimbursed.
”Scheherezade,” the Ballets Russes` first great success, was still a year away, but Astruc scored his own coup on opening night by seating only beautiful young women, blond alternating with brunet, in the front row of the dress circle. Isadora Duncan was among this company, primarily composed of actresses and dancers. The effect proved so stunning that, as Buckle tells us, it changed the language: le balcon (the dress circle) was known thereafter as la corbeille (the flower basket).
Astruc had been working for some time on building his own complex of theaters. The original idea, put forth in two versions by architects Henri Fivaz and Roger Bouvard from 1906 to 1908, was a ”Philharmonic Palace” on the Champs-Elysses across from the Theatre Marigny near the Rond Pont. After the City of Paris refused consent in 1909, the project shifted to the present site on Avenue Montaigne, far west of other Paris theaters.
Henri Van de Velde, leader of the revolutionary movement in Belgian architecture, was consulted in 1910 and charged with the project`s general reorientation. Bouvard wanted a structure looking back to the French Classical tradition; Van de Velde turned it more in the direction of Art Nouveau.
But then came Auguste and Gustave Perret, who were to construct the building using new techniques of reinforced concrete. Early in 1911 Gustave declared that the theater could not be built according to plan, and this was resolved (only after many structural modifications) five months later with the resignation of Van de Velde. Thus the structure always has been credited to Perret.
The result was a large main hall for opera and ballet that could easily be adapted for concerts and a middle-sized theater for drama and comedy. The architectural style prefigured what came to be called Art Deco.
Rubinstein remembered Astruc`s method of financing: ”A project of such magnitude would cost an enormous sum of money,” he wrote. ”In order to find it, Astruc, like Diaghilev before him, tried to obtain financial support mainly from international personalities. He created an Association des Amis de la France to make it look more official. The members were rich foreigners who lived in Paris and whom he know how to flatter by telling them: `You are so Parisian!` ”
Commissions for the building`s decorations were conferred by Gabriel Thomas, president of the Eiffel Tower and founder of the Grevin Museum whom Astruc had named administrator. The most impressive works in the main hall are the symbolist cupola by Maurice Denis and reliefs and frescoes by Antoine Bourdelle.
Edouard Vuillard painted scenes from Debussy, Goethe, Moliere and Tristan Bernard for the foyer of the smaller theater, which also had a spectacular curtain, ”The Cortege of Bacchus,” by Ker-Xavier Roussel. (This is now on view at the Musee d`Orsay with studies for just about everything else; one misses only some documentation of the fresco that caricaturist Sem did for the theater bar.)
The hall opened on March 31, 1913, with a revival of Hector Berlioz`
opera ”Benvenuto Cellini.” Maurice Ravel was in the audience and later wrote to Igor Stravinsky, ”Don`t worry: the acoustics of the Theatre des Champs-Elysses are perfect-one can hear all the subtlety of Berlioz` harmony. The really frightful things are the show, the sets, the audience.”
The same might have been said two months later when, on May 29, Stravinsky`s radical composition, The Rite of Spring, provoked the century`s most famous artistic riot. Reactions certainly were more extrovert than those that greeted the premiere of another modern masterpiece, Claude Debussy`s
”Jeux,” on May 15; during the Stravinsky, Astruc was heard to shout,
”Listen first. You can whistle after.”
At that performance the Comtesse Rene de Pourtales proclaimed she was 60 years old and nobody had dared try to make a fool of her before. Astruc was only 49, and Diaghilev had tried many times but on this visit inadvertently succeeded. At least, that was what Astruc said after declaring bankruptcy in August.
It seems that Diaghilev knew Astruc needed the Ballet Russes to crown his first season in the new theater and so charged double the usual amount per performance. Astruc averred: ”This folly, which I had not the right not to commit, made possible the creation of Le Sacre, but cost me the life of my management.”
Thus, the legendary ”Season Astruc” came to an end on Nov. 6, 1913, having lasted only four months.
According to the World War I diaries of painter Jacques-Emile Blanche, Astruc later spoke ill of even the artistry shown by his theater, particularly in the Bourdelle reliefs inspired by Isadora Duncan on the facade. The remarks Blanche attributes fit into a prevailing reaction against pre-war taste but nonetheless do not sound authentic. Astruc was drawn to opulence and daring. The Theatre des Champs-Elysses heightens them through combination.
Conductor D.E. Inghelbrecht wrote that Astruc`s ”love of jewelry was manifest from the pearl tie pin, the heavy rings on the plump little-fingers of each hand, the emerald cufflinks and the gold bracelet on his right wrist.” This once constituted boulevardier elegance.
The elegance of Astruc`s theater is different. It, too, is a measure of the man, but seeing it as freshened as it is today suggests a higher measure, one beyond fashion, happily, for all time.
