As a precautionary measure in light of COVID-19, the Gallery has canceled all concerts scheduled through May 17, 2020. Please check nga.gov/calendar for up-to-date information. We hope to welcome you to the Gallery soon and thank you for your support.
Degas spent his life immersed in music, but always as an onlooker. His relationship to the opera, including the dancers, the orchestra, the patrons, and even the actual spaces—stage, backstage, orchestra pit, and boxes—greatly influenced his art. This production uses a contemporary approach to tell the story of those evenings when Degas attended the opera and how they impacted the artist and the Parisian community in the 1870s and 1880s.
Celebrating Degas at the Opéra, on view through July 5, 2020