Comédie-Italienne
By 1762 the company was merged with the Opéra-Comique, but the names Comédie-Italienne and Théâtre-Italien continued to be used, even though the repertory soon became almost exclusively French opéra comique.
In 1980 the name La Comédie-Italienne was used for a theatre in the Montparnasse district of Paris, which presents Italian commedia dell'arte plays in French translation.
After moving to the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1680 the troupe began presenting scripted plays by dramatists such as Regnard, Dufresny, and Palaprat.
[5] Around the same time the troupe became widely popular, King Louis XIV gave the newly formed national theatre of France, the Comedie Francaise, a monopoly on spoken French drama.
After the period of mourning following the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the oppressive atmosphere of religious devotion characteristic of the latter part of his reign began to lift.
In the spring of 1716 Philippe asked his cousin, the Duke of Parma, to send him a troupe of Italian actors to revive the Comédie-Italienne in Paris, which had been disbanded nearly twenty years previous.
As the competition from the fair theatres increased, the company began presenting similar fare, including French comédies-en-vaudevilles and opéras-comiques.
The combined company opened at the Bourgogne on 3 February 1762 and continued to perform in the theatre until 4 April 1783, after which they moved to the new Salle Favart.
The first was really a play with music, a comédie italienne, which may have been Marco Marazzoli's Il giudito della ragione tra la Beltà e l'Affetto, although this has been disputed.
They were also highly elaborate visual spectacles, several with numerous set changes and scenic effects accomplished with stage machinery designed by Giacomo Torelli.
In particular, in 1752, performances of the opera buffa La serva padrona led to the Querelle des Bouffons, a debate about the relative superiorities of French and Italian musical traditions.
[17] The company first performed at the Théâtre Olympique on the rue de la Victoire, but moved to the Salle Favart on 17 January 1802.
[19] During this early period the Théâtre-Italien first presented opera buffa by Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello, later adding those by Ferdinando Paër and Simone Mayr.
Several of Mozart's operas were first presented in Italian in Paris by the company, including Figaro (23 December 1807), Così (28 January 1809), and Don Giovanni (2 September 1811), the last under Gaspare Spontini, who served as director from 1810 to 1812.
[20] At the time of the Bourbon Restoration, King Louis XVIII wanted to entrust the theatre to the soprano Angelica Catalani.
[23] Several Paris premieres of Rossini operas were given there: Il barbiere di Siviglia (26 October 1819),[24] Torvaldo e Dorliska (21 November 1820),[25] Otello (5 June 1821),[26] and Tancredi (23 April 1822).
[27] His operas were so popular, that some of his Paris premieres were given at the larger Salle Le Peletier, including La gazza ladra (18 September 1821), Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (10 March 1822), Mosè in Egitto (20 October 1822), and La donna del lago (7 September 1824, produced under Rossini's supervision).
[32] Under Rossini the troupe's singers included Giuditta Pasta, Laure Cinti-Damoreau, Ester Mombelli, Nicolas Levasseur, Carlo Zucchelli, Domenico Donzelli, Felice Pellegrini, and Vincenzo Graziani.
[33] Rossini continued to help the Théâtre-Italien to recruit singers, including Maria Malibran, Henriette Sontag, Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni, Filippo Galli, Luigi Lablache, Antonio Tamburini, Giovanni Battista Rubini and Giulia Grisi, and to commission operas, including Bellini's I puritani (25 January 1835 at the first Salle Favart[34]), Donizetti's Marino Faliero (12 March 1835 at the first Salle Favart[34]), and Saverio Mercadante's I briganti (22 March 1836).
