Брюссель опера үйінің тарихы

Opera house in Brussels, Belgium

By the 18th century, La Monnaie was considered the second French speaking stage after the most prominent theatres in Paris. Under the rule of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, who acted as a very generous patron of the arts, the theatre greatly flourished. At that time, it housed an opera company, a ballet and an orchestra. The splendour of the performances diminished during the last years of Austrian rule, due to the severe politics of Emperor Joseph II. After 1795, when the French Revolutionary forces occupied the Belgian provinces, the theatre became a French departmental institution. Amongst other cuts in its expenses, the theatre had to abolish its Corps de Ballet. During this period, many famous French actors and singers gave regular performances in the theatre whilst touring the country's provinces. Then consul Napoleon, visiting Brussels, judged the old theatre too dilapidated for one of the most prestigious cities of his future Empire. He ordered plans to replace the old building with a new and more monumental edifice, but these plans would only be carried out and Bombarda's building demolished in 1818, under the auspices of the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The new theatre was a neoclassical building designed by the French architect Louis Damesme. Unlike Bombarda's building, which was situated along the street and completely surrounded by other buildings, the new theatre was placed in the middle of a newly constructed square. While this also gave it a monumental appearance, the main concern was safety: the building was now more accessible to firemen, and the chance of any fire spreading was reduced. The new auditorium was inaugurated on 25 May 1819 with the opera La Caravane du Caire by the composer André Ernest Modeste Grétry. As the most important French theatre of the newly established United Kingdom of the Netherlands, La Monnaie had national and international significance. The theatre came under the supervision of the City of Brussels, which had the right to appoint a director charged with its management. In this period, famous actors like François Joseph Talma and singers like Maria Malibran performed at La Monnaie. The Corps de Ballet was reintroduced and came under the supervision of the dancer and choreographer Jean Antoine Petipa, father of the famous Marius Petipa. La Monnaie would play a prominent role in the formation of the Kingdom of Belgium. Daniel Auber's opera La Muette de Portici was scheduled in August 1830 after it had been banned from the stage by King William I of the Netherlands, fearing its inciting content. At a performance of this opera on the evening of 25 August 1830, a riot broke out, which became the signal for the Belgian Revolution that ultimately led to the country's independence. Damesme's building continued to serve for more than two decades as Belgium's principal theatre and opera house until it burnt to the ground on 21 January 1855, leaving only the outside walls and portico.

After the fire of January 1855, the theatre was reconstructed after the designs of Joseph Poelaert within a period of fourteen months. The auditorium (with 1,200 seats) and the foyer were decorated in a then popular Eclectic style, a mixture of neo Baroque, neo Rococo and neo Renaissance styles. The lavish decoration made excessive use of gilded carton pierre decorations and sculptures, red velvet and brocade. The auditorium was lit by a huge crystal chandelier made of gilded bronze and Venetian crystals, which still hangs in the centre of the domed ceiling today. The new Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie opened on 28 March 1856 with Fromental Halévy's Jaguarita l'Indienne. The original dome painting, representing Belgium Protecting the Arts, was produced in the Parisian workshop of François Joseph Nolau and Auguste Alfred Rubé, two famous decorators of the Paris Opera House. In 1887, this dome painting was completely repainted by Rubé himself and his new associate Philippe Marie Chaperon, because it was mostly tainted by emissions from the chandelier. This dome painting stayed untouched until 1985, when it was taken down during extensive rebuilding activities and replaced by a bad copy, painted by the painter Xavier Crolls. From 1988 until 1998, the dome painting of Rubé and Chaperon was in restoration, until its final reinstatement in 1999. In 1998, the major part of the vacant Vanderborght department store building and a neoclassical mansion, both situated directly behind the opera house, were acquired by La Monnaie. The edifices were renovated and adapted to house La Monnaie's technical and administrative facilities, previously spread all over the city.

In the last three decades, La Monnaie has reclaimed its place amongst the foremost opera houses in Europe thanks to the efforts of the successive directors Gerard Mortier and Bernard Foccroulle and Music Directors Sylvain Cambreling and Antonio Pappano.

During the 1980s, Gerard Mortier was General Director of La Monnaie. Bernard Foccroulle succeeded Mortier in 1991 and served for fifteen seasons, maintaining and even expanding the reputation Mortier had gained in the 1980s. The current General Director is Peter de Caluwe, who has been in the post since 2007, and is scheduled to conclude his tenure on 1 July 2025. In June 2023, the company announced the appointment of Christina Scheppelmann as its next General Director, effective 1 July 2025, with an initial contract of six years. La Monnaie's Music Directors have always played a major role in Belgium's musical life, since the orchestra also performed in regularly organised concerts, and the quality of the orchestra reached a peak at the end of the 19th century under the baton of composer and musicologist Sylvain Dupuis. La Monnaie gave regular performances of the major works of Richard Wagner as well. During the late 19th century, important French composers such as Jules Massenet and Vincent d'Indy directed the world premieres of some of their operas at this theatre. The high musical quality of renditions was maintained under Corneil de Thoran between the two World Wars, but diminished gradually from the 1950s onwards. At the beginning of the 1980s, Gérard Mortier hired Sylvain Cambreling as La Monnaie's Music Director, and Cambreling restored the orchestra to its former playing level. From 1990, Bernd Loebe was Artistic Director. Antonio Pappano became Music Director in 1991, and during his tenure, the orchestra's symphonic repertoire was further extended and it appeared more often in concerts outside the opera. In addition, Pappano made several recordings with the orchestra. Beginning in 2002, Kazushi Ono served as Music Director. However, in April 2008, La Monnaie announced that Wigglesworth would not take up the position of Music Director, after reports of opposition to him from the orchestra. In June 2011, the company announced the appointment of Ludovic Morlot as its next Music Director, as of the 2012–2013 season, with an initial contract of five years. In December 2014, citing artistic differences, Morlot resigned from the La Monnaie's music directorship, effective 31 December 2014. In September 2015, the company announced the appointment of Alain Altinoglu as its next Music Director, effective January 2016. For performances of Baroque operas, La Monnaie mostly engages guest orchestras specialising in authentic performances on period instruments. Over the past decades, René Jacobs and his Concerto Vocale have been regular guests at the theatre.

Dance and ballet always had their place on the stage of La Monnaie, and during a major part of its history, the theatre housed its own Corps de Ballet. Several members of the Petipa family left their mark in Brussels in the 19th century, but the enthusiasm of the public for traditional ballet performances diminished in the 1950s. In 1959, director Maurice Huisman embarked on a cooperation with the young avant garde choreographer Maurice Béjart. This resulted in the creation of the new Ballet of the 20th Century, which became the theatre's new ballet company until 1987, when Béjart and his Ballet left La Monnaie after a conflict with Gerard Mortier. In 1988, Mortier hired the New York choreographer Mark Morris and his Mark Morris Dance Group. For three years, they were known as the Monnaie Dance Group Mark Morris. Morris directed several productions in Brussels until 1991. Under Bernard Foccroulle, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her company Rosas became the dance company in residence.