Opéra Comédie

The Comedy Opera is an opera house located on the Place de la Comedie, in Montpellier.

In 1755, the first scene of a classic style is built on the Place de la Comedie by engineer Jacques Philippe Royal Mareshal. After a fire, it is rebuilt exactly in 1788. It burns in turn 6 April 1881. A temporary theater, wood is then built in 59 days on the Champ de Mars (now known as Esplanade). The construction of a new theater is decided May 24, 1881 under the mandate of Alexander Laissac. The jury which included Charles Garnier, the project chose Joseph Marie Cassian Bernard, an architect who made his debut with Charles Garnier. The project began in 1883.

The great room has a capacity of 1200 seats. The first stone was laid July 14, 1884. The theater was inaugurated by Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots on 1 October 1888, while the work is far from finished. The theater burned wood in turn 6 April 1889. Rules of procedure developed as imposed caps remain in the dressing room and the room is used for other events (conferences, boxing, magic, ...) After the predominance of French and Italian opera, German opera made its late onset: Lohengrin (1892), Tannhäuser (1896). Jules Massenet attends the premiere of Thaïs in 1897 and Camille Saint-Saëns conducted the premiere of his Deianira. The First World War is to halve the representations and after the armistice, it is mainly operettas representing 90% of new books. This decline is increasing between 1945 and 1980, including opera. The will and the municipal establishment of a foundation of the Orchestre de Montpellier mark the beginning of renewal, amplified by the Montpellier Dance Festival and the Festival de Radio France that are emerging. In 1981, that Daphnis and Alcimadure, a chamber opera Occitan Jean-Joseph de Mondonville Cassana is the first spectacle of creation, then in 1985, a full season is restored. In 1988, we celebrate the centenary of the building with the recording of the Huguenots. In 1990, the Opera Berlioz (at Corum) becomes the first operator to co-exist with a precedent in a room that can hold 2,000 spectators. René Koering took charge of Montpellier Opera as well as the Orchestre National de Montpellier. In 2001, the Montpellier Opera becomes a "national opera".

The building houses the original statue of the Three Graces of the sculptor Antoine. Its copy throne opposite the entrance to the opera on the Place de la Comedie.

At the rear of the building is the room of Molière much smaller. It serves as a rehearsal for the choir of the Vienna State Opera and the representation of opera recitals.

Opera has the status of national opera in the region since 2002.