Lyrical drama returns to the Opéra-Comique

When the third Salle Favart on the Place Boieldieu was inaugurated in December 1898, its architect Louis Bernier had created an ambitious decorative program at the request of the Fine Arts Directorate, drawing on the most celebrated artists of the day.

Two female statues completed the vestibule's decor. On the right as you entered, you were greeted by a graceful actress holding a mask by Antonin Mercié representing the 18th-century Opéra-Comique genre. On the left, stood a solemn woman holding a violin by Alexandre Falguière representing the genre "Drame lyric" (Lyric Drama) which had flourished partly under Wagner's influence. This genre offered greater dramatic freedom and placed music at the forefront, from Massenet's Werther to Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. From the very entrance of the Opéra-Comique, repertoire and new creation, tradition and modernity, stood side by side.

In the spring of 1919, in the shadow of the aftermath of the war, the statue Le Drame lyrique was removed and replaced by a Carmen sculpted by Maurice Guiraud-Rivière, a former student of Mercié, while Mercié's own statue was renamed Manon. From that point on, visitors were welcomed by two of the Opéra-Comique's most beloved heroines: Bizet's (1875) and Massenet's (1884).

Returned to state reserves in 1932, Falguière's statue was then transferred to Angers in 1936, where it languished in the courtyard of the Museum of Fine Arts and gradually fell into obscurity.

In 1981, it resurfaced in the inventory of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin under the title The Violinist (Die Geigerin), with the notation "Owner unknown." It had been in Berlin's collections since the war but was recorded only belatedly due to the absence of any evidence of acquisition or donation. In 1992, Anne Pingeot, curator at the Musée d'Orsay, photographed it in storage.

Starting in 2021, a formal investigation brought together Laurent Falguière, the sculptor's great-grandson, the Opéra-Comique, the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap). It confirmed the Berlin statue's origins, though the final stages of its journey could never be fully established.

A restitution request submitted in November 2022 received a positive response from the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) in March 2023. Repatriated to France in December 2024 and restored in 2025, Le Drame lyrique was returned to the vestibule of the Opéra-Comique on March 11, 2026, just a few meters from where it first stood over a century ago.

The three statues are now part of the CNAP’s collections, where they bear the inventory numbers FNAC 2932 (Carmen), FNAC 3674 (Le Drame lyrique), and FNAC PFH-10092 (L’Opéra-Comique, known as Manon).

The Opéra-Comique thanks the donors who supported the return of Le Drame lyrique: Olivier Gayno, Laurent Falguière, and Pierre Martin

Anthony Burban, Frédéric Davias, Capucine Jardy-Colson, Thomas Montpellier, Ivan Piettre, Franck Thevenon-Rousseau, Thierry Vinot

Simone Bateman, Nicolas Baudelot, Denis Berthomier, Christian Bodin, Jean-Claude Chaboseau, Michèle Coubret-Lecadet, Bernard Coudron, Jean-Luc Dubreuil, Philippe Dumont, Bernard Ech, Maxime Lefebvre, Vincent Lenoir, Aldo Manias, Annabelle Marchand, Frédéric Martin, Roland et Geneviève Meyer, Jean-Pierre Nolot, Cécile Rambaud, Nadine Raymond, Marie-José Robatel, Geneviève Sabaton, Laurence Stampf, Henri Zundel

Jean-Claude Bataille, Jean-Christophe Baudequin, Emilie Berthelot, Philippe Blay, Thierry Bodin, Marie-Christine Bonnefond, Edith Buissart, Laurent Cabanès, Rosa Casas, Marie-Christine Degout, Inouk Faugere, Sylvie Gousset, Etienne Hauser, Hervé Jevardat, Marie-Martine Laurenzatto, Thibault Marchand, Frédéric Merian, Yann Moreau, Michel Perrot, Axel Queval, Jean-Alain Rault, Patricia Robert, Muriel Roumier, Gilles Saint-Arroman, Claude Seigneuret, Staffan Strömberg, Nicole Tamburini, Richard Tilly, Charles Wajnberg, Tatiana Wajnberg, David Young, our crowdfunding donors as well as our anonymous donors