After the assassination of the Duke of Berry as he left the Opera, the house was deemed cursed and demolished: he built another, the Salle Le Peletier, opened as early as 1821. Meant to be temporary, it served as the Opera for more than fifty years. His restoration of Saint-Denis shook the structure, and Viollet-le-Duc had to redo everything.
The story
Born in 1777, François Debret belonged to the generation of architects trained under the Revolution and employed by the Restoration. He was the brother of the painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, who left for Brazil with the French artistic mission of 1816 — painters, architects and engravers sent to give the young empire institutions on the European model — and became the visual witness of the court of Rio de Janeiro.
In February 1820 the Duke of Berry was assassinated as he left the opera house on the rue de Richelieu. The hall, judged accursed, was pulled down. Debret was charged with building another: the salle Le Peletier, raised in haste and opened as early as 1821. Temporary to begin with, it would remain the Paris Opera for more than fifty years, until it burned in 1873 — it was there that French romantic grand opera was born.
He was professor at the École des beaux-arts, where he trained a generation of architects, and was given the restoration of the basilica of Saint-Denis, the burial church of the kings of France, to be set right after the desecrations of the Revolution. That work brought him the controversy of his career: his interventions, judged clumsy, caused movement in the structure, and he had to give way to Viollet-le-Duc, who would spend thirty years on it.
A pupil of Charles Percier, one of the creators of the Empire style, Debret died at Saint-Cloud on 19 February 1850. His posthumous reputation suffered from Saint-Denis, where the history of architecture long remembered his mistakes rather than his successes, and of his principal work there is nothing left to see: the salle Le Peletier burned, and the Opéra Garnier erased its memory. His own stone has him die on 10 February: the engraver was nine days out.
On site, do not miss
Of his principal work, the salle Le Peletier, nothing remains: it burned in 1873, and the Opéra Garnier erased its memory.
Visitors' questions
Where is François Debret's grave?
In Division 24 of Père-Lachaise, the one where Father Hyacinthe Loyson and Henri Duparc lie. The inscription calls him “architecte du gouvernement, membre de l'Institut” — architect to the government, member of the Institute — and has him dying on 10 February 1850. He died on 19 February, at Saint-Cloud: the carver was nine days out.
Henri DuparcWhat was the salle Le Peletier?
The Paris Opera from 1821 to 1873. Debret built it in haste after the murder of the Duke of Berry and the demolition of the salle Richelieu; meant to be temporary, it housed grand romantic opera for more than fifty years.
François-Antoine HabeneckWhat did he do at Saint-Denis?
He led the restoration, and it was the controversy of his career: his work, judged clumsy, set up movement in the structure. He had to give way to Viollet-le-Duc, who began the whole thing again.
The Duke of MornyWho was his brother?
The painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, who went to Brazil with the French artistic mission of 1816 and became the visual witness of the court at Rio de Janeiro. One left buildings, the other the pictures of a tropical empire.
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