Eugène Carpezat

Together, Carpezat and Lavastre designed some of the defining Parisian productions – or parts thereof, as was customary – of the late 1870s and early 1880s: the world premieres of Delibes' Lakmé (1883), Gounod's Polyeucte (1878) and Le Tribut de Zamora (1881), Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore (1877), Saint-Saëns' Henri VIII (1883), Verdi's Aida (Opéra premiere, 1880), and the theatrical adaptation of Verne's Michel Strogoff (1880).

Carpezat also became a household name at the Comédie-Française (e.g., Sardou's Thermidor, 1891), Théâtre du Châtelet, Gaîté (Massenet's Hérodiade, 1903), Opéra-Comique (Delibes' Lakmé, 1898; Gounod's Mireille, 1901; Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys, 1888; Massenet's Manon, 1884 and 1898, Cendrillon, 1899 and Werther, 1903), Théâtre des Nations, Porte Saint-Martin (Sardou's Fédora, 1882 and Théodora, 1884, both starring Sarah Bernhardt; Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, 1897), and Variétés.

Numerous scenic designers of note were taught by Carpezat at his workshop at 50 Boulevard de la Villette: Ambroise Belluot, Léon Bouchet, François Carpezat (his son and successor), Demoget, Albert Dubosq, Oleguer Junyent i Sans, Lucien Jusseaume, Olivier Maréchal, Mouveau, Eugène Martial Simas and Victor Lamorte.

In 1975, Donald Oenslager noted that, In practicing their craft, they [Carpezat and contemporary scenic artists] carried on the established formulas and procedures of earlier ateliers.

He had lost himself in imitating former innovations, and in his expanding workshop, while satisfying the demand for popular illusionist techniques, he fell into the trap of scenic cliché and pictorial pastiche.

For instance, while Cambon had mainly used greyish tones, Carpezat painted his scenery in crisp, luminous colors that benefited from electric lighting and catered to the taste of the Belle Époque, and more particularly to contemporary vogues such as the art nouveau (think of Alphonse Mucha), period furniture, and Beaux-Arts architecture.