The most beautiful performance venues in Lausanne

The Opéra de Lausanne

The origin of the Opéra de Lausanne’s building is to be found in the Casino Theatre. Its construction began in 1869 following Jules-Louis Verry’s plans. The venue, seating about 800 people, was inaugurated on May 10, 1871, with a production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville. As from the beginning of the 20^th century, demolition of the building was planned as it had become too small – with rather uncomfortable seats too close together – to replace it with a new construction. Architects De Rahm and Peloux won the design competition that took place in 1912 with a façade similar to the Palais Garnier in Paris. The project was, however, abandoned with the start of the First World War. It was finally in 1931 that the Casino Theatre was renovated and extended following the blueprints of Charles Thévenaz. The venue’s capacity went up to 1,101 and the interior design moved away from red velvet and gilding in favour of an Art Deco style in shades of pink; even the name changed to “Municipal Theatre”. From 1959 to 1969, Charles Apothéloz was its co-director before he was appointed Director of the Théâtre de Vidy. The next name change, inaugurating the Opéra de Lausanne, intervened in 1995 when Dominique Meyer became director. The present 18-metre-high stage house and its mirror façade result from the most recent refurbishments that took place between 2007 and 2012 following Devanthéry & Lamunière’s design. The venue, now seating 962, welcomes every year approximately 45,000 spectators.

The Capitole

A stone’s throw from the Opéra de Lausanne, the Capitole Cinema was also designed by Lausanne architect Charles Thévenaz. To adapt the building to the Avenue du Théâtre’s slope, the Capitole isn’t built upwards but sidewards, so that its façade isn’t as high as you’d expect for a traditional movie theatre. Lausanne’s oldest cinema opened on December 29, 1928, and offered seating for 1,077 people (802 in the parterre and 275 on the gallery). Until 1942, the venue possessed a cinema organ and an orchestra pit, and hosted concerts, shows and conferences. Jean-Paul Sartre performed at the Capitole, among other places. In the 1950s, the first panoramic screen in Switzerland was installed there. The venue now seats 869, which makes it the largest cinema in the country. In 2010, the building was bought by the City of Lausanne and is used by the Swiss Film Archives. It is now undergoing renovations to add a second hall with 140 seats in the basement and will reopen in 2023.

The Salle Métropole

The Salle Métropole is located inside the Bel-Air Tower, Switzerland’s first skyscraper that was built by Alphonse Laverrière and finished in 1932. The building and its 15-floor tower were designed from the start to house offices, flats (equipped with the most modern technologies of the time, such as electricity, fridges, showers and phones), a restaurant and a performance venue. Alphonse Laverrière also designed various decorative elements in the performance venue, such as the brass door handles and the monumental chandelier that extends over several floors and is still in place today. Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong performed in the 1930s in that venue, that was used as a cinema between 1950 and 1988. It was reopened as a performance hall in 1992 and is now home to the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Besides, the venue welcomes various shows, from concerts, theatre plays, dancing and singing to comedy. The Salle Métropole has been renovated several times and now seats between 500 and 2,000 people.

The Arsenic

The building now occupied by the Arsenic was designed in 1955 by architects Brugger, Perrelet, Stalé and Quillet to house the mechanical workshops of the Vocational School for Industry and Crafts Professions (Ecole Professionnelle des Métiers de l’Industrie et de l’Artisanat, or EPSIC). The Arsenic Theatre, which specialises in contemporary dramatic creation, moved there in 1989, sharing the premises with the Western Switzerland School of Arts and Communication (Ecole romande d’arts et communication) and the Vaud Industry Training Centre (Centre de formation vaudois de l’industrie) that used the upper floors of the building’s wings. At the time, only the Municipal Theatre and the Vidy Theatre existed in Lausanne, so the Arsenic provided a platform for local artists who had to evolve outside these two institutions. The building was entirely renovated between 2011 and 2013 by Pont12 Architectes, notably raising the roof and improving the insulation. Today, after these refurbishments, the Arsenic no longer shares the premises and comprises seven rooms, as well as a large café and a kitchen. A veil of perforated, grooved aluminium clads the building’s whole exterior.

Théâtre de Vidy