Monday, August 28, 2017

Monday, August 28, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2005. We took Mattie to the Los Angeles Zoo and what you maybe able to determine from Mattie's facial expression was that he was hot and not happy with our photograph request! But as usual complied and I am happy he did, because documentation of life with Mattie is crucial to us now.


Quote of the day: Vulnerability sounds like truth and looks like courage. ~ Brene Brown

Today we visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and toured the special exhibit..... Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage. This exhibit highlighted the principal role that music and dance played in Chagall’s artistic practice. The performing arts were a significant source of inspiration for Chagall throughout his long career: he depicted musicians in many of his paintings, collaborated on set designs for the Ballet Russes in 1911, created murals and theatrical productions for the Moscow State Jewish Theater in the 1920s, and designed costumes and monumental sets for ballet and opera in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

The exhibition concentrated on Chagall’s four productions for the stage—the ballets Aleko, set to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1942), The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky (1945), Daphnis and Chloé by Maurice Ravel (1958), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (1967). The exhibition features the artist’s vibrant costumes and set designs—some of which have never been exhibited since they appeared on stage—and also presents a selection of iconic paintings depicting musicians and lyrical scenes, numerous works on paper, and documentary footage of original performances.

Thanks to an invitation from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Chagall and his family, who were Jewish, fled Nazi occupied France and emigrated to the US in 1941. The following year, the American Ballet Theatre commissioned Chagall to design the scenery and costumes for Aleko.

Touring these large exhibit halls was a sensory experience as the music from the ballets and opera depicted in Chagall's scenery and costumes was piped in. So not only was it a visual experience but also an auditory one.

These painting served as mock ups for the LARGE wall sized set designs for the ballet, Aleko. I have to admit I have never heard of this ballet. But basically it features Aleko, a young Russian aristocrat who falls in love with Zemphira, daughter of the chief. Aleko tries to court her, but she falls in love with someone else. Aleko is not happy and lands up having nightmares which involve animals attacking him. Eventually he lands up killing Zemphira and her lover.

Each of these paintings served as the mock up of costumes for the ballet Aleko. It is remarkable how closely the costumes resemble the sketches.

Check out this sketch and two photos down you will see the actual costume that Chagall produced.

Sketches of Zemphira and others that Aleko came across in his dream.

The violin and cello costume were eye catching!

Costumes from Aleko featuring (from left to right) a fortune teller, blue fish, a black bat, and I forgot the name of the costume on the right. Nonetheless, every costume had a matching sketch and the incredible hand painted details were truly remarkable to see. I have never seen art featured on a costume.

These are paintings that served as models for the backdrop sets of the ballet, Daphnis and Chloe. Remember that a backdrop is HUGE, wall sized or bigger. This was the backdrop for scene one. The bright and happy colors depict the connection and love between goatherd Daphnis and shepherdess Chloe.

The backdrop for scene two isn't as happy. Because Chloe gets kidnapped by a band of pirates. The fish depicts the pirate camp, where Chloe is taken.

Daphnis and Chloe are reunited thanks to the fearsome god Pan (half goat half human). It is hard to see in this photo, but Pan is featured at the top of the backdrop. You can't miss his goat like head with horns.

In 1945, the performing arts impresario Sol Hurok decided to restage Igor Stravinsky’s iconic ballet The Firebird, which had premiered in Paris in 1910 at the Ballets Russes. Chagall re-envisioned the stage curtain, sets, and costumes for the ballet, which debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on October 24, 1945 and was performed in Los Angeles in 1946. The more than 80 costumes Chagall made for the ballet were his most inventive to date, particularly those for the fantastical animals and monsters that abound in the ballet’s narrative. Working with his daughter, Ida—who was integral to the process—Chagall employed new materials and fabrication techniques, including a combination of diaphanous and heavy, richly colored fabrics, collage-like appliqués, and intricate embroidery.

Chagall's wife, Bella, died a year before he was asked to design sets and costumes for the ballet, Firebird. For that year after his wife's death he ceased making art and his work on Firebird was his re-engagement with the art world.

This curtain used in Firebird depicts a woman with her head upside down. The face you see here was supposed to be that of Bella's.

Chagall created dozens of studies for his innovative costume designs for Firebird. He found inspiration in the Russian folklore and Yiddish allegories that had formed his artistic vocabulary since his youth and reprised the hybrid creatures seen in many of his paintings, including anthropomorphized donkeys, roosters, demons, and winged figures.

This ballet features Prince Ivan who gets lost in an enchanted forest and strays into the evil sorcerer's kingdom. In the kingdom he spies a fantastical bird with fiery plumage. He captures the Firebird but agrees to spare her in exchange for a magical feather.

Ivan encounters a group of maidens along his journey and falls in love with one of them. However, she is captured by the sorcerer. Ivan follows the princess back to the sorcerer's palace and is attacked by monsters (which you can see depicted in these costumes). Ivan pulls out his magic feather and puts a spell on the sorcerer and monsters to dance until they fall asleep. Naturally like all good fairy tales, Ivan and the maiden land up together dancing on their wedding day.



Chagall’s last stage adventure would be to create sets and costumes for a new production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera House for its inaugural season at Lincoln Center in New York in February 1967. Widely praised, this was Chagall’s only work for opera. He spent three years designing the 14 sets and 121 costumes, working in close collaboration with members of the Met’s costume and set design workshops. Challenged by the complexity of the opera’s numerous scene changes, stage machinery, and the large number of singers, Chagall conceived aesthetic solutions that emphasized strong color contrasts and striking geometric forms to construct scenic space and communicate the dramatic narrative.

There were costumes from the opera, Magic Flute. This opera also features a prince who is on a journey to rescue the Queen of the Night's daughter. He is accompanied by a mystical fellow who is part human and part bird. With the help of magical musical instruments they undergo a series of obstacles, but are able to over come them all enabling the couple to reunite.