Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris 1830 - 1890

Curator: Looking at this architectural sketch, one gets a real sense of a classical past being re-imagined for the spectacle of the Paris Opéra. Editor: There’s an appealing roughness to it. The pencil on paper reveals a certain…tentativeness, despite its scale, hinting at the raw labor behind stagecraft. Curator: Exactly! What we see here is Eugène Cicéri’s "Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris," created sometime between 1830 and 1890. He was a leading designer, whose work shaped how the 19th century envisioned historical settings. It’s now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The lack of precision also makes it intriguing; not quite a finished drawing, it’s almost like an unfinished structure exposing how something grandiose starts so humbly—graphite and paper—before labor and set hands transform this to what appears to the eye. Curator: True. The cityscape presented isn't a faithful rendering, but rather an idealized backdrop meant to evoke the grandeur and historical weight associated with operatic narratives. Think about the audiences; this aesthetic tied directly to aspirations of high culture within Parisian society. Editor: Did Cicéri’s design influence how those aspirations trickled down into mass production? Perhaps even influencing set design beyond just opera? Curator: Absolutely. His atelier system facilitated mass production, influencing not only theatre, but also popular entertainments and even urban design itself, establishing visual standards. Editor: Considering how the visual arts inform design—including what one encounters on the street—seeing Cicéri's process is pretty illuminating. Curator: It really showcases how closely entwined the dreams of an era are to the stage sets that framed them. Editor: Indeed! One gets an acute understanding of craft versus illusion here, that shifts the entire frame of our conversation.