Old style chairs, respectful of tradition, for the Opera Comique of Paris

The Opera Comique of Paris was founded during the reign of Louis XIV, on December 26, 1714 by Catherine Baron and Gautier of Saint-Edme from street performers that performed during the city’s large annual fairs.

One of the troops from the Saint-Germain fair took the name of the Opera Comique.

Phase 1 of the Opéra Comique renovation began in 2005. Quinette Gallay had been selected for this operation to provide a new chair, which preserved the old style, history and beauty of the site.

Quinette Gallay’s Renovation team took on the challenge to realize an old style chair, respecting the rules of art and using traditional materials and methods. The filling notably called for the olde-world suspended spring mattressing method and the use of natural materials like burlap, horsehair …

1000 seats and 200 four-legged chairs were thus installed.

Phase 2 started in 2015, with a further refurbishment of the building (asbestos removal, electricity, air-conditioning) and an up-date to building standards. Quinette Gallay was entrusted again, in collaboration with OPPIC (heritage and cultural real estate projects operator) and Pierre-Antoine Gatier, architect in chief of historical monuments, to undertake the removal of the chairs and create disabled spaces in its future configuration.

The critical point in the process was to ensure traceability of each chair so it could retain its original position knowing that the layout of 1,000 seats has a hundred or so different spacings. The seats were dismantled (each part was labeled), altered, cleaned and will be reassembled once the works are completed.

At this stage of the project, the chairs are being refurbished in our workshop. Installation is scheduled to coincide with a reopening of the theatre early 2017.