With or without a pandemic, it is a room that rarely receives an audience. Yet paradoxically, the Queen’s Theater built by Marie Antoinette at Versailles never stops being renovated.
“It’s like Sleeping Beauty”, Raphaël Masson, chief curator of the Versailles Heritage, told AFP, referring to this heritage jewel hidden in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, and the secret place of Marie Antoinette.
Right there, in the summer of 1785, the queen, passionate about music and theater, took the stage for the last time to play the role of Rosine in “El Barbero de Sevilla” under the gaze of its author, Beaumarchais.
This theater, built by Richard Mique, the architect of Marie Antoinette, and the only one in France that preserves an 18th century stage in working order, was preserved by the Revolution, which deemed it worthless. In the last 240 years, it has been very little used.
“This theater is a miracle of preservation. In the second half of the 18th century there was a real theatrical mania, and any great businessman or prince would install a theater in his residence, but all have disappeared,” says Masson.
During the health crisis, which prevented guided or school visits, curators and artists have dedicated themselves to reproducing the stage curtain, which was badly damaged.
– Fragments of the scenery –
Installed in mid-December, the new curtain, cobalt blue with gold trim, and full of ornaments, is actually “a painted linen canvas, imitating pleating,” explains the curator.
It is therefore pure illusion, like the room itself, built like a theater set, with fake marble, papier-mâché and cardboard, behind its golden appearance.
As the original curtain was sold after the Revolution, the canvas that is a copy of the curtain “has served under the Empire, was repainted in the Restoration, and repainted under Louis-Philippe. It was already well used and it was absolutely necessary to preserve this authentic testimony “explains the curator.
Another task is to complete the funds for the sets of this theater-museum.
The hall, which in the time of Marie Antoinette could accommodate up to 250 spectators, has three sets that represent a rustic interior, a forest and the temple of Minerva, the oldest complete theatrical set in the world (1754).
This miraculous survival is “a unique testimony to the virtuosity of the 18th century decorators, it is like our Mona Lisa here”, explains smiling Masson. Such is its fragility that it is contemplated to make a copy of it, in order to show it and preserve it.
– “18th century special effects” –
The sets are from the 19th century but work according to a common principle in the 18th century, with a change of scenery “in sight”, that is, with the curtain raised, and before the viewer’s gaze. The frames that support the sets slide on rails, in an ebb and flow that offers the viewer an impressive perspective. “They are the special effects of the 18th century” says Masson.
Thanks to the inventories, the curators try to reconstruct a repertoire set room, “the public square”, of which there are hardly any friezes and a frame left. And they are also going to try to reconstitute a period curtain that allows the decoration of a tree to emerge from a trapdoor.
The room, very fragile despite its restoration in 2001, has never been put in order to exercise its old historical function. “There is a concert every two years, and we are so happy to hear the notes of music emerge in that theater,” recalls Masson.
“The theater cannot be exploited on a regular basis, but we wait for the” health crisis “to end to show it to the public again.”
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