Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall 

 

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perceived as an expression of  the endless triumph of  genius over frail 

material. The wide coverage of  different styles, national schools and 

historical periods in the fresco testifies to the artistic universalism of  

Chagall’s concept. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Fig. 45. Dome lamp painting. Central circle. Paris, Grand Opera 

 

Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky and The Magic Flute by Wolfgang 

Amadeus Mozart peacefully cohabit the blue sector. Igor Stravinsky’s 

Firebird and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe are located in red sector; 

Romeo and Juliet by Hector Berlioz

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 and Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner 

are located in the green sector. Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Giselle 

by Adolph Adan are presented against a yellow background; Pelleas and 

Melisande by Claude Debussy are depicted against a white background. 

Bizet’s Carmen, Beethoven’s Fidelio and Gluck’s Orfeo are shown in the central 

circle of  the dome (fig. 45), around the lamp. The names of  Jean-Phillipe 

                                                 

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 It should be noted that Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz is not a proper opera. It is work that 

synthesises the traits of cantata, oratorio, operatic scenes and symphony; the composer 

defined its genre as a dramatic choral symphony. However, Berlioz’s music was performed 

on the theatrical stage in ballet shows with the choreography of M. Bezhar, A. Amodio, E. 

Valter, I. Chernyshov, E. Skibin, J. Taras, S. Golovin, V. Skuratov and T. Malanden. It is 

possibly this circumstance that led Chagall to add this work to his opera-ballet pantheon 

painted on the dome. There is also a credible version of events that suggests Chagall, not 

being a professional musician, mixed up an opera Romeo and Juliet by Gunod, which had 

great success in staging of 1897, with the same-name dramatic symphony of Berlioz, 

written in 1839.  

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina 

 

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Rameau and Giuseppe Verdi are also imprinted on the dome, without 

reference to any specific work (Gerard Fonten assumed that Chagall 

reproduced a scene from La Traviata showing Violet with Alfred and 

George Germone, standing behind).

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 The painting also presents sights of  

French capital: the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Concord Square and 

the Garnier Opera building itself. 

Theatrical performances, the majority of  which have a tragic 

conclusion, lose their tragic pathos at Chagall’s whim. The painter depicts 

not the intensity of  emotions, the fatal course of  circumstances, the fight 

for depth and feeling, but an ideal world where the heroes can live tranquilly 

and happily in the absence of  

irreconcilable contradictions. The 

musical-dramatic personages, pairs 

of  lovers, angels, animals, and 

birds, musical instruments coexist 

in the brightly-mottled space of  

the dome lamp. The painter 

himself  is also present with his 

palette and brushes, observing the 

audience from the top. Chagall’s 

universe expresses the ideas of  

fraternal affection and mutual 

understanding through music, in 

artistic language that is clear and 

plain to everyone.

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 The dome 

painting, taken as a whole, sheds light and optimism, inspiring visitors to the 

Opera with the sharp thirst of  life.  

It can be seen that Italian opera is given a rather modest place, despite 

its brilliant history, and the achievements of English and American musical 

                                                 

45

 http://visitepalaisgarnier.fr/en/interior/marc-chagalls-ceiling, accessed 20 June 2014. 

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 Chagall describes his musical theatre experiences in a poem:  

 

“I painted a dome lamp and walls -  

 

the dancers, violinists on the stage,  

 

a green ox, a fey cock ... 

 

I presented you the Spirit of  Creation,  

 

my wordless brothers. 

 

Now - there, to the lands above the stars,  

 

where night is light, and not dark ... 

 

... And our songs, magnificent again,  

 

will be heard in high places 

 

and tribes of  heavenly countries” [Chagall 1989].  

Fig. 46.  Fantasy of St Petersburg. A scenery 

design for the conclusion of the ballet Aleko. 

1942. Paper, gouache, watercolors, pencil, 

38/57.1 cm. New York, Museum of Modern 

Art 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall 

 

97

drama

47

 are not reflected at all in Chagall’s works. This may be connected 

with the musical preferences of the painter, whose favourite composer was 

W. A. Mozart, or to his self-identification as Russian-French with Jewish 

origins. 

              

 

 

 

The significant proportion of works by Russian composers depicted 

can be explained by indelible impression left on Paris audiences by 

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the beginning of the 20

th

 century. The selection 

of works was also influenced by Chagall’s own artistic involvement in 

developing decorative elements of ballets such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Aleko 

(based on Pushkin’s poem The Gypsies) for piano trio, performed by Leonid 

Myasin (1942); Stravinsky’s Firebird with choreography by Michel Fokine 

(1945), revisited by Adolph Bolm and later staged by George Balanchin 

(1950); and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, based on a libretto by Michel Fokine, 

with choreography by George Skibin (1959). 

The painter created numerous decorations, curtains, panels, sketches 

for costumes and masks and advertising brochures for the above-named 

performances, which were staged in the New York State Theatre, Palаcio de 

Bellas Artes in Mexico and the Paris Grand Opera. In Russian ballets 

Chagall revived the image of faraway Russia, lost to him forever, for 

example with the St Petersburg motives in Aleko (fig. 46-48) and fantastical 

metamorphoses in the Firebird (fig. 49-50).  

                                                 

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 Representing no paucity of works of global scale, notable masterpieces of English and 

American opera include works by Purcell, Britten and Gershwin.  

Fig. 48. A sketch for Zemfira’s 

costume for the first scene of “Aleko” 

ballet, 1942. Paper, gouache, 

watercolours, pencil, 53.3/36.8 

cm. Private collection 

Fig. 47.  Aleko and Zemfira in the Moonlight. A 

scenery design the “Aleko” ballet, 1942. 

Paper, gouache, pencil, 38.4 x 57.2 cm. Private 

collection 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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