In 1672, the troupe of the Académie royale de Musique once again relocated into a hall originally built as a court where royal tennis, the forerunner of modern tennis was played.
The Salle du Bel air or Salle du Jeu de Paume de Béquet, across from the Luxembourg Gardens, was converted into a theatre by the set designer and stagehand Carlo Vigarani and served as a theatre for the Paris Opera for just one year.
It was inaugurated on November 15th 1672 with Les Fêtes de l’Amour et de Bacchus, a pastoral by Jean-Baptiste Lully which brought together different pieces and pre-existing ballets. The theatre was comprised of three levels of boxes, two amphitheatres and a parterre in front of the stage where spectators could stand and watch the performance.
The second and final work presented at the Bel Air was Cadmus et Hermione, Jean-Baptiste Lully’s first tragic opera. The king attended the work’s premiere on April 27 1673. The theatre closed its doors in 1673, abandoned by Lully and the troupe who preferred to relocate to the Palais Royal.
