A NEW OPERA HOUSE FOR PARIS
[ROUSSEAU, Pierre.]
Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra. Novembre 1822.
[Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].
8vo, pp. 15, [1 (blank)]; title from half-title; a good uncut copy, unbound, tacketed at backfold with a curved pin; ‘2me d’auteur’ in ink at head of p. 3, extensive authorial pencil notes to pp. 6, 7, and 15; with a draft autograph letter from Rousseau ‘à S. E. Le Ministre de l’intérieur’, folio bifolium, 2 pp., neatly written in brown ink, some creasing to edges and from folds.
Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter.
The need for a new opera house in the French capital had arisen following the destruction of the Opéra de la rue de Richelieu by order of Louis XVIII after the assassination there of Charles-Ferdinand d’Artois, duc de Berry, in 1820. Rousseau was a highly regarded architect, best known for the Hôtel de Salm (later the Palais de la Légion d'honneur) and for extending the royal apartments at Fontainebleau for Louis XVI.
Here Rousseau suggests building a new opera house on the site of the Banque de France, advises against the use of both exterior and interior columns, and proposes a separate entrance for the king and the royal family from that used by the public. He then describes the layout of his proposed building, and the materials to be employed to render it fireproof. The author’s own pencil notes make interesting changes to the printed text. His project was never realised.
In his accompanying letter, written from Rennes, Rousseau refers to the duc de Berry’s assassination as ‘la malheureuse catastrophe’, summarises his proposal for a new opera house in three points, and gives an overview of his career.
No copies traced in the UK or US. OCLC records only one copy, at the BnF.
