Hotel de Bourgogne

Bourgogne, Hôtel de 

French theater. It was founded in Paris in 1548. In the beginning the owners of the building, members of the Confraternity of the Passion, presented mysteries, farces, morality plays, and soties; in 1578 they began renting the premises to French and Italian troupes. The troupe of Valleran-Leconte, who created the first permanent theater in Paris, began playing in the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1599. This troupe’s repertoire included plays by A. Hardy, and later by J. Rotrou, G. Scudéry, P. Du Ryer, and others. P. Bellerose was popular in roles of gallant lovers; the actors Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, and Turlupin developed a tradition of popular farce theater. In the 1640’s the Hôtel de Bourgogne became the chief theater of the classical school; J. Racine’s and P. Corneille’s tragedies were staged here, and the leading actors were Floridor, M. Champmeslé, and Z. Montfleury. In 1680 the Comédie Française was created through a merger of the Hôtel de Bourgogne troupe with the Molière troupe and the Théâtre du Marais, which had merged earlier. The Comédie Italienne presented plays in the Hôtel de Bourgogne until 1783. The Hôtel de Bourgogne was demolished in 1866.

REFERENCE

Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskogo teatra, vol. 1. General editor S. S. Mokul’skii. Moscow, 1956.