Théâtre du Châtelet

When Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days opened here in 1876, no one expected it to run for 2,195 performances over 64 years, ending only when Nazi troops occupied Paris in 1940. But the real revolution came in 1909, when impresario Diaghilev insisted the theatre be completely overhauled before his Ballets Russes made its Paris debut. Two years later, in 1911, that same stage premiered Stravinsky’s Petrouchka alongside Nijinsky’s scandalous choreography, and Paris would never be quite the same.

The renovations Diaghilev demanded were not cosmetic. He wanted a wider orchestra pit, a gilded new curtain, extra rows carved out for a bigger house, changes that turned a mid-century opera house into something built specifically to accommodate spectacle. Across the square, Gabriel Davioud’s other theatre watched its twin transform, having been designed by the same architect in the same two years but destined for an entirely different reputation. One building became synonymous with scandal. The other just kept its head down and changed its name five times instead.