Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Opéra d'Avignon, originally named Théâtre Municipal then Opéra-Théâtre d'Avignon, was built in the 2nd quarter of the 19th century on the Place de l'Horloge. In 1824, the Municipal Council asked architects Ange-Alexandre Bondon and Alexandre Frary to build a theatre on the ruins of St. Lawrence Abbey, adjacent to the Town Hall. The building, in Greco-Roman style, had a facade decorated with colonnades and allegorical statuettes representing Apollo and the Muses. The first performance took place on 30 October 1825.

A fire destroyed the theatre on 26 January 1846. The municipality entrusted its reconstruction to architects Théodore Charpentier and Léon Feuchères between 1846 and 1847. The new facade included the statues of Molière and Corneille, carved by the Brian brothers, then replaced by Jean-Pierre Gras because of the degradation of the material. Medallions representing King René and Petrarch, the work of Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann, completed the decoration. Critics of the time, such as André Hallays and Joseph Girard, praised his elegance and grace.

The opera was first renovated in 1978, adopting a Italian style of theatre still visible today. A second renovation took place between 2018 and 2021, with a reopening in September 2021 after a delay due to the VOCID-19 pandemic. During the works, a temporary opera, the Opéra Confluence, was installed near the TGV station to accommodate the performances.

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