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

Eugène Cicéri sketched this stage set design for the Paris Opéra using graphite and blue wash. Note how the forest is represented as a portal, a trope as ancient as civilization itself, signaling the transformative journey that awaits the opera's protagonists. The forest, teeming with symbols of the unknown, has been depicted as a space of both dread and wonder in countless myths. We find it in Gilgamesh's cedar forest, the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, and even Wagner’s dark forests of Germanic legend. The tree itself, reaching towards the heavens while rooted in the earth, symbolizes the connection between the earthly and the divine. This motif has echoed through cultures, from the Norse Yggdrasil to the Christian Tree of Life. Cicéri’s stage set design, with its verdant portal, taps into our collective memory, stirring emotions of anticipation and mystery as the curtain rises and we enter the world of the opera.