On December 3, the Marseille Opera celebrated its centenary with a gala concert. The same day on which, in 1924, it was inaugurated with great fanfare with the opera Sigurd by Marseille composer Ernest Reyer (this work will be performed from April 1 to 8). The people of Marseillais, drawn at random from the electoral lists, were invited to this historic moment, which the Municipal Archives are offering to rediscover, through an exhibition visible until April 26. Because, by wandering around this building which gave its name to a district, we almost forget its history and its Art Deco architecture, taken down to the smallest details. This is also the meaning of the seven photographs by Richard Belleudy, which welcome visitors. We discover the care taken in the banister of the staircase or even in the statues arranged in the hall.
Photos, models…
The visit devotes a first room to the reconstruction of one of the oldest provincial opera houses which went up in smoke on the evening of November 13, 1919. Photos and the testimony of music critic Antoine Bouis, seated at a café in the Old Port, illustrate the violence of the fire which, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., ravaged everything. Only the exterior walls and the colonnade remain, still present today. The origin of the fire would be a short circuit after a repetition of The African de Meyerbeer.
As early as 1920, the City, keen to host the 1922 colonial exhibition, quickly launched a call for tenders to rebuild the Grand Théâtre, a photo of which can be seen before its destruction. The exhibition reveals several models: a tiny part of what the Archives contain, explains the curator of the exhibition and responsible for the public, Isabelle Aillaud, “the aim being to make visitors want to go further by consulting the documents in the reading room“. It was the consortium of architects gathered around Gaston Castel who won the contract. For those who did not know, we discover that the architect was very active in Marseille: we owe him the Monument to the Dead of Orient, the Marseilleveyre high school, the Baumettes prison, the building of the general transatlantic company… “It is also a feat of engineer Noël Pellegrinspecifies the commissioner. He used the techniques of the time, reinforcement and reinforced concrete, to design a room offering optimal visibility, without having to resort to columns.“.
Further on, we also appreciate the care taken in the paintings and sculptures. Like those of the sculptor Antoine Sartorio who created the allegorical bas-relief in the attic of the main facade. Thanks to his granddaughter, the preparatory models are on display. “The Opera was truly designed as an object of art, down to the smallest details“, underlines Isabelle Aillaud.
The second room of the exhibition takes a look behind the scenes of creation. Posters and programs fill the windows like those of the Cadet Roussel opera based on drawings by Raymond Peynet, author of the famous “Lovers de Peynet”, dating from 1953.In the 1960s-1970s, under the directorship of Louis Ducreux then Jacques Karpo, there were a large number of creations“, specifies the curator. Hence this space dedicated to the creation of Carmen in 1962, with the American singer Regina Resnik, on sets and costumes by the painter Bernard Buffet, to which all of Paris was invited, as shown in the guest list on display.
Focus on costumes
Interesting, this focus on the costumes presented with their associated models, in particular those – sumptuous – of Tannhäuser by Wagner, by Jean-Noël Lavesvre. A loan from the opera which has 100,000 costumes in its fund. After the presentation of autographed photos from the collector Jean-Robert Cain (one of the youngest subscribers to the Opera, from the age of 11, in the 60s), and a small display on dance which nevertheless occupied an important place in the 60s and 70s, the third room reveals the Archives’ digitization work on a set of recordings of shows in the 80s and 90s. Work is also underway to collect archives from Marseille theaters. A way of “show that the work of archivists is something alive“. An exhibition with a double reading.
