Editing Marc Chagall (section)

====''Aleko'' ballet (1942)====
He was offered a commission by choreographer [[Léonide Massine]] of the [[Ballet Theatre of New York]] to design the sets and costumes for his new ballet, ''Aleko''. This ballet would stage the words of [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s verse narrative ''[[The Gypsies (poem)|The Gypsies]]'' with the music of [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]. The ballet was originally planned for a New York debut, but as a cost-saving measure it was moved to Mexico where labor costs were cheaper than in New York. While Chagall had done stage settings before while in Russia, this was his first ballet, and it would give him the opportunity to visit Mexico. While there, he quickly began to appreciate the "primitive ways and colorful art of the Mexicans", notes Cogniat. He found "something very closely related to his own nature", and did all the color detail for the sets while there.<ref name=Cogniat/> Eventually, he created four large backdrops and had Mexican seamstresses sew the ballet costumes.

When the ballet premiered at the [[Palacio de Bellas Artes]] in Mexico City on 8 September 1942 it was considered a "remarkable success".<ref name=Teshuva/> In the audience were other famous mural painters who came to see Chagall's work, including [[Diego Rivera]] and [[José Clemente Orozco]]. According to Baal-Teshuva, when the final bar of music ended, "there was a tumultuous applause and 19 curtain calls, with Chagall himself being called back onto the stage again and again." The production then moved to New York, where it was presented four weeks later at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] and the response was repeated, "again Chagall was the hero of the evening".<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|158}} Art critic [[Edwin Denby (poet)|Edwin Denby]] wrote of the opening for the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' that Chagall's work:

{{quote|has turned into a dramatized exhibition of giant paintings... It surpasses anything Chagall has done on the easel scale, and it is a breathtaking experience, of a kind one hardly expects in the theatre.<ref>[[Edwin Denby (poet)|Denby, Edwin]]. ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'', 6 October 1942</ref>}}