At the center of the recent tragedy in Paris, where attacks on public spaces left 129 people dead and more than 300 injured, was Le Bataclan. On November 13, it was hosting a concert by the California-based rock band Eagles of Death Metal when four gunmen walked into the venue and opened fire on bystanders watching the show.The historic theater, located three blocks from the Place de la République (where people have gathered to mourn the victims), was designed in the elaborate Chinoiserie style and named after an opera by Jacques Offenbach (“Tales of Hoffmann”) by the architect Charles Duval in 1864. It opened a year later and has remained part of the cultural landscape of Paris for more than a century and a half, despite its various transformations. It began as a café-chantant, popular during the belle époque as a sight of lighthearted musical numbers and ribald comedy — the debonair singer and actor Maurice Chevalier became famous there — and remained so until 1926, when the theater was sold to a new owner and turned into a movie theater. It switched owners a few more times over the next several years, moving back and forth between a traditional theater and movie theater, before a fire destroyed parts of the building. It soldiered on as a movie theater, was partially destroyed and renovated in 1950, and showed its last films in 1969. Le Bataclan remained closed for two years before reopening as a concert hall, which it remains today.A few shows continue to dominate the venue’s legacy. Prince’s two-hour encore following a concert in 2002, where he performed a host of instrumental covers, is widely bootlegged and a crucial piece of his unpredictable mythology, while another often-bootlegged show, the semi-reunion of the original lineup of the Velvet Underground — Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico — broadcast on the television show “Pop 2” in 1972, finally saw an official release in 2004. More folklore than anything else (although a short video does exist) is a raucous performance by the MC5 on the same show, only a few months before they broke up.Le Bataclan continues to be a major stop for international acts on tour. American rock band The Deftones were scheduled to play two sold-out shows on November 15 and 16, the soul-blues guitarist Gary Clark, Jr. was set to perform on November 18, and the New York-based rapper Joey Badass was booked for a sold-out show on November 23. As of now, it’s unclear if any of those concerts will happen. “Of course the Bataclan will reopen, it would mean surrender if it did not reopen,” co-director Dominique Revert told the news station Canal +, as quoted in Liberation. In a separate interview, he said there would be a meeting this week about how to move forward. “We will strengthen security, for sure,” he added, “but in any case we will continue.”
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