MARC CHAGALL AND THE OPERA, A LOVE THAT NEVER DIED: A LOOK INTO WHAT INSPIRED MARC CHAGALL’S LITHOGRAPHS

Marc Chagall has had a long and wonderful relationship with the theater that stems from his first designing sets and costumes in Russia in 1914, when his “dreams sprang to life and became an actual movement.”(Cogniat). After leaving Russia, twenty years passed before he was again offered a chance to design theater sets. In the years between however, his works still included harlequins, clowns, acrobats, and musical motifs which Chagall scholar Cogniat notes “convey his sentimental attachment to and nostalgia for the theatre”.

Famous set designs included Aleko, 1942 and Stravinsky’s Firebird, 1945 while he was living in New York, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloë, 1958 in Paris and Die Zauberflöte(Magic Flute) in New York in 1967. With such love and respect for theater, poetry, and music, Chagall wanted to give back to that community and found that though celebrating art and culture by creating murals for theaters, his art could exist in a more significant way.

Such accomplishments include a mural for the Moscow Jewish Art Theatre in 1921, the foyer of the Winter Gate Theatre in London in 1949, the foyer of the Frankfort Theatre in 1959, the ceiling of the Paris Opera in 1963, and in 1966 the foyer of the Lincoln Art Center- Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In this article we will discuss his work on the ceiling of the Paris Opera and the foyer of the Lincoln Art Center which were the inspiration for his most iconic lithographic works Romeo and Juliet, The Magic Flute, and Carmen

Marc Chagall, The Paris Opera Ceiling, 1963 – Romeo and Juliet

Having lived in his adopted country of France for more than five decades, in 1963 Marc Chagall was commissioned to paint the new ceiling for the Paris Opera, a majestic 19th-century building built by Napoleon III and considered a national monument. André Malraux, France’s Minister of Culture wanted something unique and decided Chagall would be the ideal artist after seeing Chagall’s work in Daphnis et Chloe. This choice however caused controversy as some objected to having a Russian Jew decorate a French national monument and others disliked the ceiling of the historic building being painted by a modern artist.

Nonetheless, Marc Chagall continued the project from January to July 1964. The final canvas was nearly 2,400 square feet and required 440 pounds of paint. It had five sections which were glued to  polyester panels and hoisted up to the 70-foot ceiling. Unveiled on September 23, 1964 with a celebratory performance of the same Daphnis et Chloe that inspired his commission, the work drew critical acclaim for its color and poetry. Creating the masterpiece as a gift to Paris, Chagall refused to accept compensation for his work:

“I wanted to represent, as in a mirror, a bunch of dreams, the creations of the actors and musicians; to keep in mind the colorful clothes of the audience stirring on the lower level. To sing like a bird, free of any theory and method. To render homage to the great composers of operas and ballets.”

https://www.masterworksfineart.com/blog/marc-chagall-and-the-opera-a-love-that-never-died-a-look-into-what-inspired-marc-chagalls-lithographs/