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

Curator: Looking at "Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris," created sometime between 1830 and 1890 by Eugène Cicéri, what strikes you? Editor: A sort of ghostly, skeletal city emerges—a ruin in waiting or a vision half-formed. It's melancholic, unfinished... Curator: Yes, incomplete, or maybe just barely coming into being. You sense its unrealized potential? It’s executed on paper using drawing and printmaking techniques. Notice the underlying grid, visible even through the watercolor washes? Editor: The grid anchors what would otherwise feel purely fantastical, creating this intriguing tension between control and freedom. You know, thinking of stage design...are we seeing a reflection on the city itself as theater? Curator: Precisely. Cicéri, who worked extensively at the Opéra, seems to propose Paris as a stage—each street a scene, its citizens the players. Editor: The monochromatic palette really reinforces that sentiment; like we're looking at a memory, faded and dreamlike, just catching wisps of architectural detail... almost feels like looking at the foundation for an untold dream. Curator: Consider how the stage set itself functions as a miniature model of power, the set’s implied architecture and the sculptures on display seem to affirm certain hierarchies, inviting the audience to place themselves within that structure. Editor: Power is absolutely right, there’s a real sense of spectacle, but tempered with a deliberate restraint. Curator: Ultimately, I'm drawn to how this study prompts me to reimagine familiar spaces—urban architecture transforming into fleeting emotion on the operatic stage. Editor: Me too. This fragile cityscape feels incredibly rich with implied narratives, potential dramas waiting in the wings. I keep imagining figures animating it.