Théâtre Petit Lazari

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Théâtre Lazari before 1798
Boulevard du Temple with the Théâtre Petit Lazari on the far right

The Théâtre Petit Lazari was a small theater on the Boulevard du Temple , in the 3rd arrondissement in Paris.

history

The theater was founded in 1777 as a rehearsal stage for singing and dancing students at the opera. However, the company was unsuccessful and so an industrialist took over the house in 1780. He also gave up after four unsuccessful years. The reopening took place under the name Lycée Dramatique , which was able to exist successfully for several years.

In 1792 there was another change of ownership. The Italian actor Lazari now called his stage Varietés Amusantes , which should not be confused with the briefly so-called Théâtre des Délassements comiques . Despite the official name, the theater was named Théâtre Lazari after its director and leading actor from the very beginning. In the Lazari, pantomimes, travesty pieces and harlequinads were played, always around the French Revolution , but also ridiculous pieces about the rural idyll, all of which were characterized by cynicism.

In 1798 the building, which was still two-story at that time, burned down completely. Lazari was so desperate about the loss of his expensive theater that he took his own life. After some time, the theater was rebuilt, now with five floors. But they were small one-person plays, the stage hardly allowed any more, still in great demand at the time of the revolution, interest steadily decreased and the Napoleonic theater decree put an end to the decline for the time being. The house has now been turned into a café, where there were singing lectures because the theater decree no longer allowed it.

The theater was reopened around 1815, but as a puppet theater, which was very popular with Parisian children. In memory of the original namesake, the house was now called Petit Lazari.

It was not until 1830 that a former actor from the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique took on the house to bring actors back onto the stage instead of puppets. In the small, dingy hall the audience sat right next to the orchestra and the lamp oil dripped from the kerosene chandeliers onto the clothes of the visitors.

It was a lower class house for the Boulevard du Temple and none of the well-known librettists and composers had their works performed there. But it was a real folk theater that was very popular with ordinary people, not just because of the low entrance fees. There was a regular loud noise during the breaks. There was loud shouting and singing and the snack they had brought along was consumed.

It is therefore not surprising that no big names emerged from the ensemble, apart from the later very successful Alphonsine .

The Petit Lazari shared the fate of most of the theaters on the north side of the Boulevard du Temple and was demolished in the course of Georges-Eugène Haussmann's redesign in 1862.

literature