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Tristan and Isolde
Salvador Dali • Painting, 1944
Description of the artwork «Tristan and Isolde»
The figures depicted on this canvas were painted by Dali in 1944 for the production of the ballet Mad Tristan to music by Richard Wagner. There are two versions of this composition - a small (26.6 x 48.5 cm) oil painting on canvas, exhibited at the Musée Theater in Figueres, and a huge (9 x 15 m) performance set, now owned by a private collector.
Mad Tristan was the third ballet that Salvador Dali created in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Leonid Myasin. The precursor to the production was Bacchanalia to music from the first act of Wagner's opera Tannhäuser. The libretto and design for her were made by Dali, and the costumes were sewn by Coco Chanel, using real ermine and precious stones. The war prevented the premiere of Bacchanalia in Paris, and the "first paranoid performance" was shown in 1939 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
The second venture of Dali and Massine, the ballet Labyrinth, was released in the same place in 1941, after which the artist again turned to Wagner's music. He came up with an interpretation of the medieval legend of the Knight of the Round Table, Tristan, who fell in love with his uncle's future wife Isolde. Both mistakenly took a love potion, and the hero of the legend died of despair, and his beloved later committed suicide.
Tristan, in Dali's view, was so distraught with love that he saw in Isolde "a praying mantis devouring its half." While creating the backdrop for the final scene of Mad Tristan, the artist depicted a bleeding hero wearing a dandelion beret. The wound on his shoulder is crawling with ants. A princess is reaching out to the knight with both hands, a cart sticking out of her back. The stage is framed by two crutches.
By the time The Crazy Tristan was staged, Massine had left the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo, whose repertoire included Bacchanalia and Labyrinth, and worked with Ballet International. This company was founded by an impresario of Chilean origin - "the great eccentric marquis" George de Cuevas. The play premiered on December 15, 1944 at the International Theater in New York, which was demolished ten years later.
It is not known how the backdrop ended up in the Metropolitan Opera's props warehouse, but it was there that it was discovered in 2009. It was sold to an anonymous collector in Switzerland, and the amount of the deal is still unknown. The great work, which has not appeared in public since 1944, could have been forgotten behind closed doors, but instead has received a completely unique life. It became the backdrop for an acrobatic circus troupe.
The owners of the painting contacted the Finzi Pasca Company of Lugano, which directed shows for Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Eloise, also for the closing ceremony of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. Collectors loved the performances and gave the directors complete freedom to use the backdrop. It became part of the machinery of La Verità, which premiered at the Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montreal on 17 January 2013. After that, the performance was shown on both continents - in Europe and America.
Mad Tristan was the third ballet that Salvador Dali created in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Leonid Myasin. The precursor to the production was Bacchanalia to music from the first act of Wagner's opera Tannhäuser. The libretto and design for her were made by Dali, and the costumes were sewn by Coco Chanel, using real ermine and precious stones. The war prevented the premiere of Bacchanalia in Paris, and the "first paranoid performance" was shown in 1939 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
The second venture of Dali and Massine, the ballet Labyrinth, was released in the same place in 1941, after which the artist again turned to Wagner's music. He came up with an interpretation of the medieval legend of the Knight of the Round Table, Tristan, who fell in love with his uncle's future wife Isolde. Both mistakenly took a love potion, and the hero of the legend died of despair, and his beloved later committed suicide.
Tristan, in Dali's view, was so distraught with love that he saw in Isolde "a praying mantis devouring its half." While creating the backdrop for the final scene of Mad Tristan, the artist depicted a bleeding hero wearing a dandelion beret. The wound on his shoulder is crawling with ants. A princess is reaching out to the knight with both hands, a cart sticking out of her back. The stage is framed by two crutches.
By the time The Crazy Tristan was staged, Massine had left the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo, whose repertoire included Bacchanalia and Labyrinth, and worked with Ballet International. This company was founded by an impresario of Chilean origin - "the great eccentric marquis" George de Cuevas. The play premiered on December 15, 1944 at the International Theater in New York, which was demolished ten years later.
It is not known how the backdrop ended up in the Metropolitan Opera's props warehouse, but it was there that it was discovered in 2009. It was sold to an anonymous collector in Switzerland, and the amount of the deal is still unknown. The great work, which has not appeared in public since 1944, could have been forgotten behind closed doors, but instead has received a completely unique life. It became the backdrop for an acrobatic circus troupe.
The owners of the painting contacted the Finzi Pasca Company of Lugano, which directed shows for Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Eloise, also for the closing ceremony of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. Collectors loved the performances and gave the directors complete freedom to use the backdrop. It became part of the machinery of La Verità, which premiered at the Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montreal on 17 January 2013. After that, the performance was shown on both continents - in Europe and America.
