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Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri

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Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri, photograph by Nadar
Set design for Act III of Daniel Auber's Gustave III (1833)
Watercolor sketch for the set of the ballet, Manon Lescaut, by Jean-Louis Aumer (1830)

Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri (17 August 1782 – 22 August 1868) was a leading French set designer of his era.[1]

Life and works

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He was chief set designer for the Paris Opera from 1810 to 1847, and created the set designs for over 300 ballets and operas in his long career.[2] In addition to his work at the Paris Opera, he designed for many of the leading theaters in Paris, including the Odéon, Palais-Royal, Comédie-Française, Théâtre des Nouveautés and the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin.[3] As Painter to the King of France, he supervised the decorations for the coronation of Charles X in 1825.[3]

Cicéri designed the set for the first performance of La belle au bois dormant ("Sleeping Beauty"), which opened on 2 March 1825 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris. For La belle au bois dormant Ciceri created a quasi-cinematic motion effect onstage utilizing a treadmill for the actors in front of a moving cyclorama.[2] He also designed the sets for a ballet version of Jocko ou le Singe du Brésil ("Jocko or the Monkey of Brazil") by Frédéric-Auguste Blache, with music by Louis Alexandre Piccinni. The ballet was first performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris on 16 March 1825.

He was awarded a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. His son, Eugène Cicéri, also became a painter, illustrator and set designer.

References

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  1. ^ Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri, Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ a b Lacey, Robin Thurlow (1990). A Biographical dictionary of Scenographers: 500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. New York: Greenwood Press. pp. 125–126.
  3. ^ a b D'Amico, Silvio (1954). Enciclopedia dello spettacolo. Roma: Casa Editrice Le Maschere. pp. 737–8.
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