In a side alley off Haussmann Boulevard stood an unremarkable little theater.
It had been built in the seventeenth century and was now over four hundred years old. For many years, it had hosted performances by small theater troupes.
The theater was dimly lit and had many seats. Ordinary theaters usually had ushers to guide patrons to their assigned seats, and people were not allowed to sit wherever they pleased.
Many small theaters' ushers expected tips, but this theater did not. If the front rows were not full, once all the guests had taken their seats, the staff gave everyone time to change seats before the performance began. In other words, even those who had bought cheaper tickets in the back might get to watch from the VIP balcony.
Run so casually, with no resident stars, it naturally could not become popular.
However, during the rule of the Paris Commune, musicians had once borrowed this theater for meetings.
Although only seventy-two days passed from the uprising on March 18 to the fall of the last stronghold on May 28, the music of the Paris Commune continued to ring through the city.
During the French Revolution, there had been many songs that inspired fighting spirit. The most widely sung and beloved among them was La Marseillaise.
This hymn to freedom had once served as the national anthem. After Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, he stripped La Marseillaise of its status as the national anthem. When Louis XVIII was restored, he changed the anthem to "The Prince of France Returns to Paris." During the July Revolution and the Paris Commune, La Marseillaise once again echoed through the streets of Paris.
This song differed from Baroque splendor, nor was it as melodious as a Mermaid's song.
During the Franco-Prussian War, the government represented by