Théâtre de la Ville

Gabriel Davioud's house at 2 place du Châtelet, opened on 30 October 1862 as one of a matched pair with the Théâtre du Châtelet across the square, burned during the Commune and reopened on 6 November 1874. It has changed its name more often than any other theatre in this collection, ten times in a little over a century, and twice returned to a name it had already given up. The Opéra-Comique was its tenant from 1887, the second Salle Favart having burned that year, until the third Salle Favart opened in December 1898, which is why the French premiere of La bohème was given here in June 1898 rather than at the company's own house. Sarah Bernhardt took the lease immediately afterwards; whether her name went up in late 1898 or in 1899 is not settled here, and the La bohème premiere falls before either.