designs of Mansard This was completed in 1764. The Opera project was revived in 1765 and was accelerated in 1770 for the celebrations of the marriage of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, to the Archiduchesse of Austria, Marie-Antoinette. To finish the project quickly and at lower cost, the theater was made entirely of wood, painted to resemble marble, but also giving it exceptionally good acoustics. The theater was in blue and gold, made in shape of truncated ellipse or oval, surrounded by tiers of boxes, decorated with carved and gilded wood, illuminated by three thousand candles whose light was reflected in mirrors. By this time Louis XV had a new mistress, Madame Du Barry, and the royal box, the size of three ordinary boxes, had a grill to protect their privacy. Sculptures by Augustin Pajou and a painted ceiling by Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau completed the interior. Gabriel and his chief architectural engineer, Blaise Arnaud, studied installing a mechanism to hoist the floor of the theater up to the level of the stage, to create an enormous ballroom, but this was never completed. Death His final projects were the completion of the facades of the buildings he designed for the Place de la Concorde; the former Hôtel de Coislin, and the Hotel Crillon, finished in 1770. and the building of what today is the Hotel de la Marine, the headquarters of the French Navy until 2016, which was finished in 1774. He died in Paris in 1782. Style His sober rationality in planning and detail promoted the transition from Rococo to Neoclasscism. He was not especially known for boldness or originality; borrowing extensively from the French classicism and early classical models, particularly from the Louvre. He was known for his craftsmanship, his ability to balance the animation of the Baroque style with the more restrained neoclassicism, the proportions and balance and careful detail of his buildings, and his ability to create dramatic and harmonious ensembles of monumental buildings, as he did in the Place de la Concorde. Major works Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux, 1730–1775, begun by his father, after 1740 completed by Gabriel Extension and transformations at the Château de Choisy, 1740–1777 Château de Compiègne, 1750 onwards The Pavillon du Butard, 1750 at La Celle-Saint-Cloud. Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux, 1755 (as Place Royale) Extension of the Château de Menars (Loir-et-Cher), 1760–1764, for Madame de Pompadour Petit Trianon, at