Rennes Opera house, Opera house in Place de la Mairie, Rennes, France
The Rennes Opera House is a theater in Place de la Mairie combining Italian architecture with classical design elements, grand columns, and ornate stone decorations across its main facade. The building stands directly opposite the town hall, creating a balanced arrangement with it on the square.
Charles Millardet designed the Italian-style theater, built by Pierre Louise from 1832 and inaugurated on 29 February 1836. A fire in February 1856, caused by a poorly extinguished hearth in the foyer, led to an identical reconstruction. The facade and roofs were classified as historic monuments in 1961, and the building was inscribed in 1975.
The house is named after the Breton word for an opera house, C'hoarigandi Roazhon, and its 642-seat Italian-style hall is nearly always full. Since 2009 the end-of-season production has been broadcast live on Place de la Mairie before 6,000 to 8,000 spectators, and the painted ceiling by Jean-Julien Lemordant shows about twenty dancers in Breton costume with a pair of sonneurs.
The opera forms the eastern side of Place de la Mairie, facing the town hall, and is reached on foot through the pedestrian centre of Rennes. Its entrance opens onto the square; the rear connects to the Galerie du Théâtre, a covered shopping passage. The facade and the painted ceiling of the auditorium are protected as historic monuments.
The opera is fitted into a larger property development: behind it lie dwellings and shopping galleries under a glazed roof, the Galerie du Théâtre. Its projecting front was shaped to answer the hollow curve of Jacques V Gabriel's town hall opposite, so the two buildings mirror each other across the square.
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