Théâtre du Châtelet, Concert hall and opera theater in Place du Châtelet, Paris, France.
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a large opera house and concert hall located at Place du Châtelet in Paris's 1st arrondissement. The building displays a classical facade with broad arcades, and its interior offers spacious seating with modern comfort and excellent acoustics designed for diverse performances.
Built between 1860 and 1862 by Gabriel Davioud for Baron Haussmann, the theatre replaced the Cirque Olympique on the Boulevard du Temple, demolished for the new Boulevard du Prince-Eugène. It opened on 19 April 1862 as the Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet with Rothomago, in the presence of the Empress. The name lost 'Impérial' after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870.
Nine ceiling cartouches name the genres once staged here: dance, opera, féerie, music, drama, tragedy, comedy, vaudeville and pantomime. The theatre also hosted masked balls during the Paris Carnival, which opened each year on 11 November, Saint Martin's Day. Since 2019 the Ballon d'Or ceremony has been held here annually.
The theatre faces the Théâtre de la Ville across Place du Châtelet, with the Seine quays a short walk away. Métro lines 1, 4, 7, 11 and 14 stop at Châtelet and Hôtel de Ville. The main auditorium seats 2,500, so check the entrance and floor shown on your ticket before the doors open.
A notable production was the stage adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, which ran at the theater for many years in the early 1900s. This long run shows how audiences returned to see the same beloved work repeatedly.
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