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Lausanne District

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LYRICAL ART MADE ITS DEBUT IN LAUSANNE IN 1755
Since the 18th century, lyrical art has had pride of place in Lausanne, where numerous venues have welcomed passing troupes. As in Paris, Grétry, Duni, Montsigny, Rousseau, Gossec, Philidor, Dalayrac, Paisiello, Piccinni were well-known composers there.

Dependent on the program proposed by the troops passing through after the French Revolution, a public extended to circles other than that of the aristocracy thus had the opportunity to applaud certain operas shortly after their creation in the theater of 1,100 squares erected on the current rue de Langallerie, and named "La Comédie" or "salle Dupleix".

FROM 1839
Lausanne residents can appreciate Norma , Don Giovanni , La Muette de Portici ,  Der Freischütz , Fidelio ,  Robert the Devil , La Sonnambula , La Dame Blanche , Le nozze di Figaro ,  Romeo and Juliet , La Cenerentola,  I Capuletti and I Montecchi .

In 1859, the "Comédie" closed and the shows were to be given at the Casino de Derrière-Bourg, the current location of the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. Too small, this hall with barely 400 seats, badly equipped, offers shows of poor quality.

The inhabitants of Lausanne then mobilized to obtain a performance hall capable of hosting performances of the great repertoire.

THE CASINO-THÉÂTRE WAS INAUGURATED ON MAY 10, 1871
Inaugurated on May 10, 1871, it will be an “Italian-style” theatre, decorated by Grasset and decorated by Borschgrave and Bidau, which will offer the population both the classics of the repertoire and recent works. In 1931, a complete restructuring of the theater was started. Original ornamentation and decoration give way to the art-deco style as we know it today. The Casino-Théâtre has lived. The Municipal Theater was born!

The reopening, during the opera season in the spring of 1932, saw the formation of three troupes (opera, comic opera, operetta) and a choir of forty-two singers. Manuel Roth created, in 1955, the Festival of Italian Operas, then, in 1956, the International Festival of Lausanne in the new hall of Beaulieu, the lyrical season of the hall of the Municipal Theater is now almost exclusively devoted to operetta.

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