CBS Sunday Morning ran a very interesting piece this week on the connection between painter Marc Chagall and music. That reports features an interview with Anne Grace, the curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. The muesum is hosting “Chagall: Colour and Music” that will move to Los Angeles in July. Here is a link to the story at the CBS website.
Chagall had recurring characters in his paintings. One theme was the wandering Jewish fiddler who floats rootless above the scene. That image, which is embedded in our culture as the fiddler on the roof, seems to be an understandable thought for a Jew living through the middle part of the last century. Chagall was raised in what now is Belarus, lived in Paris and luckily made it to New York City in 1941.
Chagall paimted the sets for the New York City Ballet’s “Firebird” in 1949. Replicas still are used for the presentation.
Above is the video version of the CBS report. Below is the last three acts of Firebird, which was written by Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky conducts the final three sences — after being introduced by a very young Leonard Bernstein — on the program The Creative Performer. It aired on January 31, 1960. Stravinsky was born in Russia and also immigrated to the United States. He live mostly in Los Angeles.
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