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

Editor: Here we have Eugène Cicéri’s “Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris: A Tent,” created sometime between 1830 and 1890, using pencil, drawing and printmaking techniques. It’s held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There's a dreamlike quality to this sketch... What’s your interpretation of the scene? Curator: It is, isn't it? This drawing offers us a glimpse into 19th-century Orientalism as filtered through the Parisian opera. Cicéri’s design, while seemingly a simple “tent,” stages a complex intersection of colonialism, fantasy, and cultural appropriation. Consider the palm trees, the implied exoticism of the architecture, the reclining figures... Editor: So it’s not just about the visual, but also the narrative? Curator: Precisely! The narrative it *implies* is vital. The scene isn't just a backdrop; it's a statement. What kind of stories were being told on that stage? Were they reinforcing colonial power structures, or perhaps subtly critiquing them? We need to unpack the social and political context of the opera itself to fully grasp what Cicéri is doing here. Editor: That's interesting... It shifts my perspective. I was seeing it as just a nice sketch. Curator: Many only see it that way, but as art historians, our work demands a deconstruction of that initial assumption. Consider the power dynamics at play within this ‘design’. Who is in control of this constructed image of the ‘Orient’? Who profits from its staging? And who is rendered invisible? What happens on stage—and backstage—rarely tells the whole story. Editor: Thank you; you’ve given me a lot to think about – far beyond just the lines and shading. Curator: Excellent. Art isn’t made in a vacuum. Hopefully we can approach artworks while acknowledging the broader discourses and social issues shaping them.