Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris: Interior with Coiffered Ceiling 1830 - 1890

Editor: Here we have Eugène Cicéri’s “Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris: Interior with Coiffered Ceiling,” made sometime between 1830 and 1890. It’s a pencil and ink drawing on paper, a cityscape really. The cool greys give it a ghostly feel. What grabs you when you look at this, as a finished design? Curator: Ooh, I’m transported. Aren't we all just crafting sets, darling, for our little dramas? Cicéri offers us the backstage pass to Parisian spectacle. It's more than just a city; it’s a theatrical dream. This whispers of grandeur… the gilded age perhaps, shimmering chandeliers, illicit rendezvous… it’s as much about the *idea* of Paris as it is the actual place. Don’t you think? Editor: Absolutely, the 'idea' of Paris. The architecture looks almost… exaggerated. Curator: It is! And that's the delicious trick. He uses that perspective – almost forces it upon you – to create not just space, but a sense of limitless possibility. It's less about accurate depiction, and more about emotional impact, right? What would it feel like to stand on *that* stage? To be *bathed* in that light? To become someone else entirely, for a night, a lifetime, under those coiffured ceilings. *That*, darling, is theatre. *That*, is the Parisian dream. Editor: So it’s really less a blueprint, and more of a mood board? Curator: Precisely! I picture Cicéri almost dreaming it up... A visual poem waiting to be enacted. You feel it too, don't you? Editor: I do. I came in expecting a technical drawing, but it feels…alive, almost. Thanks for changing my perspective! Curator: My pleasure! Art, at its finest, does exactly that.