The decor of the auditorium is said to have derived from Ange-Jacques Gabriel's opera house of 1763-1770 in the Palace of Versailles but some believe it to be at least equally based on Victor Louis's 1764 Grand-Théâtre in Bordeaux.
The church was built by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel under commission from Louis XV to provide a suitable place of worship for the court when the king was staying at his newly purchased residence at the Château de Choisy.
His mother was a cousin of Jules Hardouin-Mansart and his father, another Jacques Gabriel was a masonry contractor for the Bâtiments du Roi, the French royal works, and the designer of the Château de Choisy for the king's cousin, La Grande Mademoiselle.
Peter Gabriel | Jacques Chirac | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Gabriel Fauré | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Jacques Offenbach | Jacques-Louis David | Jacques Brel | Gabriel García Márquez | Jacques Lacan | Jacques Derrida | San Gabriel Mountains | Juan Gabriel | Jacques Cartier | Jacques Cousteau | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | San Gabriel Valley | Jean-Jacques Goldman | Jacques Lipchitz | Jacques Higelin | Jacques Dutronc | Jacques Delors | Gabriel | Jean-Jacques Annaud | Jacques Rouvier | Jacques Rogge | Jacques Prévert | San Gabriel | Jacques Villeneuve | Jacques Lanzmann |
The theatre later underwent three substantial transformations: the first in 1763, when it was greatly reduced in size for the Paris Opera (to a capacity of 400 to 500 spectators) by the architects Jacques Soufflot and Jacques Gabriel; the second in 1792, when it was transformed into the hall of the National Convention; and the third in 1808, when Napoleon had a new theatre built to the designs of the architects Percier and Fontaine.
In addition, he designed the headquarters for the Rolls-Royce Limited, a Parisian store for the Duveen brothers (1907–1908) in the form of a Petit Trianon at the rear of a marble courtyard at n° 20 place Vendôme which is now a bank headquarters, and the Duveen Gallery, a large building in the style of Ange-Jacques Gabriel at the corner of 5th Avenue and 56th street in New York City (1909–1910, demolished 1953).