Page 90 - HandbookMarch1

by the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire until 1967, at which date it was dissolved and
integrated in the Orchestre de Paris). They ceased thereafter, for reasons partly of safety (the
building is of timber), and partly of profitability (the capacity of the hall is limited), but also
because in the meantime the teaching of music had been removed to another place. The paradoxical
result was that a concert hall was bequeathed for the exclusive use of students of dramatic art.

It was at this juncture that the building, which had as it were remained outside time and had
hardly changed since it was built (except for the decoration, which was renewed in 1866),
underwent in 1985 extensive restoration and reconstruction. The shell of the hall itself was
preserved, but the stage was completely rebuilt, from the foundations to the roofing. The frame of
the stage was raised, and the original timberwork was replaced by a concrete load-bearing
structure, with a metal framework and arches, and the stage support was completely renovated
with modern materials. Similarly the set for concerts, which previously was permanently
fixed, was changed into a movable set, similar but resting on aluminium tighteners. As for the
proscenium it was discarded, which restricted the surface of the stage. In the hall itself, broad
velvet armchairs reduced the seating capacity and the arrangement of the seats was itself modified
(only one block of stalls instead of two separated by a passage), and the floor was covered with a
fitted carpet. In carrying out these adjustments, which the age of the building certainly made
imperative, the Monuments Historiques (this is a listed building) seems to have favoured the
decoration (which has been wonderfully restored), but at the expense of the building’s intrinsic
character.

One may therefore raise a number of questions. The materials used (concrete and metal for the
stage, velvet and a fitted carpet for the hall) run counter to current acoustic criteria, at the very
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time when concert halls – the Châtelet, Pleyel, Bastille – are reintroducing timber. The same
applies to the increased height of the stage’s frame. In addition the reduction in the space on the
stage makes large-scale symphonic concerts a virtual impossibility, particularly in the presence of
the set designed for this purpose. It is thus rather unlikely that in present conditions
Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, a symphony with chorus and solo singers, can ever be performed in
the very hall where it was first heard.

The capacity of the hall has constantly declined, from about one thousand places (originally
1,078 to be precise, taking into account the gallery, which subsequently was not used) to about
450 at present. This makes even more illusory any intention of programming genuine symphony
concerts in a hall originally designed for this very purpose. All this is even more difficult to explain
as a renovation carried out with regard to acoustics and the original capacity of the hall could only
have benefited its use as a theatre… What would have been the reaction if the Versailles Opéra (of
which the Conservatoire is a direct heir, as seen above) had been treated in a similar way? One
might be led to suspect a wilful attempt to erase every vestige of a glorious past and any possibility
of ever bringing it back.

Pierre-René Serna