2023-09-12 20:13:42
Show fans know the stage curtains are most often red. But there was a time, at the beginning of the 20th century, when some were signed by the greatest artists of the time. In 2022, the Massy opera house received the one produced by Pablo Picasso in 1917 for “Parade”, a ballet written by Jean Cocteau and set to music by Erik Satie. A renewed partnership with the Center Pompidou which lends all week the stage curtain made in 1924, almost a hundred years ago, by Georges Braque for “Salade”, a ballet written by Darius Milhaud.
“In 2022, the Center Pompidou (Editor’s note: which will install its reserves, as well as those of the Picasso museum in Paris in Massy in 2026 at the heart of an Ile-de-France cultural center open to the public) wanted to rent the opera to restore the monumental curtain of Picasso, recalls Philippe Bellot, the director of the Massy opera. I instead suggested that they let the public discover this work which we never see because it is kept in reserves, and to finance a concert given with this curtain on stage. The operation was so successful that the Center Pompidou is renewing it, this time with a curtain by Georges Braque. »
Considered with Picasso as the inventor of Cubism at the beginning of the 20th century, Braque designed a stage curtain in 1924. Hanging on the stage of the Massy opera house since Monday, this work illuminates the room. It gives the illusion of a decor in perspective. Discovered this Tuesday afternoon by schoolchildren from Massy, the curtain fascinates the children. “They are passionate about this stage curtain,” confirms Morgane, speaker at the Center Pompidou.
“This fits perfectly with our mission and that of the Center Pompidou,” rejoices Philippe Bellot: making contemporary art accessible to all. Sunday’s exceptional concert is a flagship event, a perfect foreshadowing of everything that we will be able to develop with the Center Pompidou when it will be installed a stone’s throw from the opera by 2026.”
The curtain is visible until Friday free of charge from 4 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Guided tours are scheduled this Wednesday, September 13 at 10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:45 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (free, by reservation on the opera website or at 01.60.13.13.13.). Concert Sunday at 4 p.m., 10 euros.
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