Paris districts 9 (south) – 12

wordbestand ontbreekt

Birthplace of the composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979).

The first concert hall of the piano firm Pleyel was opened at this address in 1830. Chopin gave his first recital in Paris in 1832; also Felix Mendelssohn and Kalkbrenner appeared here.

Pleyel had a larger concert hall built in 1839, nearby at 22 rue de Rochechouart; Stravinsky, in the 1920s, had the disposal of a studio there. This building, of which no trace is left, was in use until 1927, when the present  Salle Pleyel was opened (>fp3).

House of Claude-Joseph Rouget de l’Isle (1760-1836), the composer of the Marseillaise.

The portico also gives entrance to the Passage Saulnier, where Offenbach lived from 1844; in 1855 he started his productions at the Bouffes Parisiens, which were so successful that he could move to a more spacious apartment

The Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909) lived in Paris during the 1890s. His best known work is the great piano cycle Iberia.

Georges Bizet was baptised in this neo-classical church in 1838. In the same year Aristide Cavaillé-Coll made here his first organ in Paris. The instrument was spoiled during a restoration in 1975 but the damage could be partly repaired in 2020. Present disposition III/p/38. César Franck was the organist from 1846 to 1852; it was his first appointment. He married here in 1848, during the revolution and being impeded by street barricades.

House of the popular composer of opéras comiques, Adolphe Adam (1803-1856).

Richard Wagner stayed at this address during the winter of 1860/61.

This beautiful closed square was created in the 1820s as a part of the project La nouvelle Athènes, to bring together a number of purveyors of art and culture – artists, writers, musicians. The pianist Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann lived here from 1832; his salon was visited by Rossini, Liszt and Berlioz. Inhabitants in the 1840s – mostly for a short time – include Georges Sand (nr 5), Chopin (nr 9), Pauline Viardot, the dancer Marie Taglioni and three of Zimmermann’s pupils: Alkan, Kalkbrenner and Marmontel. Access is not easy to gain today.

Two great opera composers lived here: Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1662) in the 1840s and Charles Gounod (1818-1893) in the 1860s.

The Parisian pied-à-terre of the composer Félicien David (1810-1876) during the 1850s and 1860s, while also living in Saint Germain-en-Laye (<fr2).

Georges Sand moved to this address in 1839, Chopin followed but stayed officially at rue Tronchet (>fp3). In 1842 both moved to apartments at the nouvelle Athènes (>963).

House of Benjamin Godard (1849-1895), a successful composer in his time, today more associated with salon music and the popular Berceuse de Jocelyn.

House of Berlioz with his mistress Marie Récio from 1849 until 1856. After the death of his wife Harriet Smithson in 1854, the two could marry. Composition of L’enfance du Christ.

Birthplace of the composer Lili Boulanger, born in 1893; she lived here until 1904.

The Rumanian violin virtuoso and composer George Enescu (also spelled ‘Enesco’), born in 1881, lived in Paris since 1895 and in this house from the 1920s; at first in a chic apartment on the third stock, in his last years on the ground-floor. His pupil Yehudi Menuhin was a frequent guest. He died in 1955 in a hotel (>fp3).

Berlioz and Harriet Smithson lived in this street between 1834 and 1844 at three addresses: nrs 31, 34 and 35; all demolished.

The Cavaillé-Coll organ from 1869 was much altered and provided with electric action; at present III/p/61. The choir organ by the same maker from 1870 is in a more original state; II/p/15.  The most prominent organists were Alexandre Guilmant, 1871-1901, and Olivier Messiaen, from 1931 until his death in 1992. All of his numerous organ works have their roots in this church.

The marriage of Berlioz and Marie Récio and the funerals of Rossini, Bizet and Lili Boulanger took place here.  

The Czech composer, theorist and teacher Antoine [Antonín] Reicha (1770-1836) lived in Paris from 1806. As professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Conservatoire, he had numerous pupils; also Berlioz, Liszt and Franck followed lessons with him. From his vast oeuvre especially his wind quintets are still being performed.

Reicha’s house was marked by a bilingual plaque (Czech-French) but since the 1980s this has disappeared, as were all other composers’ houses in this street: nr 2 (Rossini from 1857); nr 4 (Grétry); nr 5, Hôtel d’Épinay (Mozart 1778 and Chopin 1833-36); nr 38 (Chopin 1836-39).  

Palais Garnier, named after the architect Charles Garnier, was the Paris opera house between 1875 and 1987. This ‘railway station outside and Turkish bath inside’, as Debussy called it, was for many years the largest stage of the world and its history is filled with highlights.  Its function has changed since the opening of the Bastille opera; now it is a theatre for ballet and less prestigious opera productions.

At the left side (1 place Charles-Garnier) one finds the entrance of the museum, which displays the glorious history of the theatre, and the booking desk for guided tours of the building. Highly recommended!

The probable birthplace of the great song composer Henri Duparc (1848-1933).

Wagner stayed in this hotel, then Le Grand Hôtel, in 1869 and Verdi in 1898 during his last visit to Paris because of the preparations for the premi1ere of Don Carlos. In the 20^th century it was a favourite hotel of opera stars. Some of them are remembered on little bronze plaques in the Café de la Paix, as is neighbour Offenbach.

Last house of Jacques Offenbach, who died here in 1880. Les Contes d’Hoffmann  was composed here.

Famous vaudeville and chanson theatre; next door (nr. 24) is the house of the actress and singer Mistinguett.

During his stays in Paris between 1870 and 1878, Verdi occupied a small four room apartment in Hôtel de Bade. After the hotel had acquired a dubious reputation, he didn’t return. Finally the whole hotel has disappeared.

Four composers lived in this street: Ambroise Thomas at nr 8 (1835-‘55), Louise Farrenc and her publishing house at nr 10 (from 1852 until her death in 1875), Jules Massenet at nr 14 (before 1873) and Adrien Boieldieu at nr 33 (1817-’25). All houses were demolished.

From April 1840 Wagner lived for a year in a spacious apartment on the fourth floor.

Former Hôtel de France, where Wagner stayed in 1850. Liszt’s mistress Marie d’Agoult had a ‘salon’ here.

House of the Italian composer Félix [Felice] Blangini (1781-1841). He lived in Paris from 1799 and was in the service of the Bonapartes.

Next door (nr 3) lived the Alsatian Emil Waldteufel (1837-1915), composer of the famous waltz Les Patineurs and other dance music.

House of Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin (1821-1910), a collector of folk songs and composer of folk like songs and choirs. He was a friend of César Franck.

The composer Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782-1871) died next door (nr 22); the house was demolished, as is the case with nr 8, where the composer Ambroise Thomas died in 1896.

At nr 48 was the establishment Néothermes, where Niccolò Paganini stayed in 1838; Berlioz visited him to thank for the generous gift of 20.000 francs; a sudden change for  the composer, always bothered by lack of money.

At nr 13^bis Verdi and his mistress Giuseppina Strepponi stayed during their first visit to Paris, 1847-49.

Both houses don’t exist anymore.

House during the 1840s of Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, known as Lola Montez (1821-1861). Born in Ireland, she travelled through Europe as a ‘Spanish’ dancer, creating scandals and entering into new liaisons everywhere. As for her part in musical history: She had a stormy affair with Franz Liszt which ended in Bonn in 1845; after the unveiling of the Beethoven monument, she appeared uninvited at the dinner and shocked the guests by dancing on the table.

House of Jacques Offenbach between 1858 and 1876.

Location of the Salle le Peletier, the main opera theatre of Paris; built in 1821 and operating under different names, it was destroyed by fire in 1873. Important premières of Grands Opéras include Guillaume Tell (Rossini), Robert le Diable (Meyerbeer), Don Carlos (Verdi), Faust (Gounod).

House (with altered façade)of Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1862). His best known opera La Juive had its first performance in the Peletier in 1835. He was the teacher and father-in-law of Bizet.

The first house of Frédéric Chopin, in 1831-32. He occupied a small room on the fifth floor with a balcony 'from where I discover Paris', as he declared.

Coming face to face with the present Drama Academy CNSAD, the memory of the first Conservatoire de Musique lingers on; until 1911 it was part of it. The former Salle du Conservatoire was one of the best concert halls of Paris from 1811 until 1961 and since then it functions as the theatre for the Drama students. A plaque from 2003 remembers Berlioz premières.

The cradle of the Conservatory stood at 2 rue Bergère. François-Joseph Gossec founded the École Royal de Chant in 1784. In 1792 it became a school for military music in the spirit of the Revolution and in 1795 Conservatoire de Musique. Famous directors were Cherubini, Auber, Thomas and Fauré; during the latter’s directorship, the institute became less conservative and in 1911 it moved to 14 rue de Madrid (>fp3).

Nothing is left of the first building at rue Bergére, nor of Gossec’s house there. Cherubini lived at 19 rue du Faubourg-Poisonnière, at the rear of the institute (the address offers a view on the exterior of the concert hall).  

Candidates for the Prix de Rome had to create the proof of their ability in total separation. Mostly they stayed in a room at the Palais de l’Institut (>fp2), but Debussy was locked up in 1884 in a chapel of this church.

House of Gustave Goublier (1856-1926), a conductor in the Folies Bergère and composer of popular melodies.

Birthplace of the composer Jacques Ibert (1890-1962).

Paul Dukas lived here from 1898 to 1905 and composed his opera Ariane et Barbebleu.

Plaque of Franz Liszt, having lived at the opposite side of the street, 108 rue Lafayette. The place was named after him.

Birthplace of the composer Edgar Varèse (1883-1965). He moved to the USA, but often returned to live in Paris for a short or longer time.

Address of the family of Erik Satie from 1886 to 1893 and of his father’s publishing company. The three first songs by Erik were published in 1887 (with fictitious opus number 20) and a year later the Trois Gymnopédies. Erik himself lived here only one year.

House of the family of Erik Satie from 1883 to 1886. This was the time for his piano study at the Conservatoire and first compositions. During these years the publishing house was at 26 Boulevard Magenta.

Birthplace of the composer Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) in a side street of the Boulevard Magenta which in its total was a property of his rich family.

Monument of the Viennese ‘waltz king’ Johann Strauß. It was erected in 1980, supposedly at the centenary of his first appearance in Paris.

House of the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis from 1954 until 1959, when he studied at the Conservatoire.

The circus theatre was opened in 1852 as Cirque Napoléon, but in 1861 it also became the venue of the Concerts populaires Pasdeloup, low-priced Sunday concerts which attracted thousands of listeners and were continued until  1884. The concerts shortly revived from 1918.

Museum of the singer Edith Piaf, established by her biographer Bernard Marchois -  for appointment: tel. 43555272.

During the Revolutionary years 1793-1802, this church was a Temple de la Liberté et d’Égalité. The black violinist and composer Joseph de Boulogne, chevalier Saint-George (1745-1799) was buried here (grave extant?). The biography of this immigrant from Guadeloupe is fascinating. In 2010 the rue Richepanse in the 8° arrondissement was renamed rue du Chevalier Saint-George.

In the church is a memorial window of the sixteen nuns who were executed at the Barriére du Trône (the present place de la Nation) in 1794; this is subject of Poulenc's opera Dialogue des Carmelites.

Grave of the sixteen nuns, executed in 1794 and subject of Poulenc's Dialogue des Carmelites.  Also the grave of the poet André-Marie Chénier, the protagonist of the opera Andrea Chenier by Umberto Giordano.

House and workshop of the pioneer of ‘musique concrète’, Pierre Henry (1927-2017). Sounds of non-musical objects and electronic noise are the essential ingredients of his compositions. His studio was crammed with thousands of objects. Since his death, the future of this house is uncertain; his studio had been reconstructed in the Music Museum (> fp5.1912).

The new Opéra Bastille was opened in 1989 and is meant to even surpass the fame of the great Opera in the city. With 2400 seats, the hall is one of the largest worldwide.

For more information > www.operadeparis.fr