The Fernando de Rojas Theatre del Círculo de Bellas Artes It shows in its entirety and for the first time in Spain the original curtains, designed and painted by Salvador Dalí for the ballet BacchanaleSalvador Dalí described Bacchanale as the first paranoid ballet. He wrote the libretto himself and designed the sets and costumes. The work, developed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo company, premiered on November 9, 1939, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The success of Bacchanale It was a resounding success and remained in the repertoire from 1939 to 1941, being performed again in 1945 and later in 1967, this time in Monaco, the last time it was seen.

In this ballet, Dalí collaborated with Léonide Massine, choreographer and director of the company. The production also featured other renowned figures such as Coco Chanel, who worked on some of the costumes and accessories, and Barbara Karinska, who ultimately made them. The set design was a close collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Prince Alexandre Schervachidze, who worked faithfully from the model created by the artist. The ballet's music was an adaptation of the opera. Tannhäuser Wagner.

Dalí conceived the show as a trilogy that also included the ballets Labyrinth and Sacrificeof which only the first was carried out. In Maze The “resurgence of tradition” was being staged; Bacchanale was presented as the representation of a “romantic chaos” and Sacrifice It concluded with the “triumph of religion and spiritual values.”

Bacchanale It recounted the arrival of Ludwig II of Bavaria, the work's protagonist and a historical figure, at Mount Venus. Throughout the ballet, Ludwig II, in his madness, identified with Tannhäuser, the protagonist of the medieval legend that inspired Wagner and which Dalí interpreted through his paranoiac-critical method and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. In this sense, the overlapping of characters and images is evident not only in the narrative but also in the set design itself, framed within the painting style Dalí had been developing since the 1930s, where iconography acquires great symbolic power with numerous possibilities for interpretation.

Dalí's set design includes a backdrop and four canvases that reinforce the perspective, with the Mount of Venus as the central element, linked to the myth of Leda and feminine sin. The composition incorporates Renaissance references, such as The Betrothal of the Virgin From Raphael, and contrasts between love and death, accompanied by characteristic details such as unsettling skulls, drawers alluding to the unconscious, and phantasmagorical figures. Dalí employs resources from 15th-century Flemish painting and the Renaissance to explore the limits of vision, overlapping images that combine the sensual with the spectral. The theatrical set design reflects his interest in the gaze as a play of ambiguities and superimpositions.

After the closure of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1968, the sets were donated to Butler University, although the wooden swan that was part of the scenery was destroyed to reduce storage space.

This exhibition can be visited from 11 a.m. to 14 p.m.

To access the exhibition you will need a general admission ticket.

Image: Bacchanale by Jorge Alcolea