Tea at Trianon: The Theater at Trianon

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, October 4, 2014

The Theater at Trianon

Fabulous detailed photos from Tweedland:

The Petit Théâtre de la Reine (English: The Queen's Theatre) is a small theatre at Versailles near the Petit Trianon. It was designed and built in 1780 on the orders of Marie Antoinette. Her favorite architect Richard Mique did the work. The theatre seats only 100. It was intended for performances by the Queen and her family and friends. At the period, many aristocrats had such small theatres on their country estates to pass the time performing plays and operas.

Mique's exterior is plain, simple, and even severe. The interior is rich with gold, blue, and white decoration. The interior is a wooden room painted to resemble marble. The stage machinery still exists.

In 1780, the Queen and her friends played Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny's Le Roi et le fermier (The King and the Farmer, 1762) in the little theatre. The original forest set and rustic cottage set have survived. They were restored in the 19th century. They were in use in February 2012 for performances of Le Roi at the Versailles Opera. (More here.)