Degas at the Opéra, The Song Rehearsal, c. 1872

KIMBERLY JONES: Music was very much a part of Degas’s life. It was very much part of his interior life. Not just the performances that he sought out at the Paris opera, but these more intimate, homebound experiences that were clearly near and dear to him. KAYWIN FELDMAN: We are not in Paris anymore. A possible clue stands in the corner at left, behind the woman in white: a tropical leafy plant. In 1872, Degas and his brother traveled to New Orleans to visit family—their mother was from the city, a descendant of some of the original French settlers in the Americas. KIMBERLY JONES: We see here two women who are rehearsing a song while a man who’s rather somber, shadow figure, is playing at the piano. This is not a portrait; it’s not meant to depict specific women, but rather to evoke a kind of musical evening in a private home. KAYWIN FELDMAN: Degas’s American cousins and his sister may have served as models for this painting. Scholars think Degas began this painting in New Orleans where he longed for the Paris Opéra. As he wrote to his friends, “the lack of an opera is veritable torture.” He made do with private soirees such as this one, held in home parlors with the furniture pushed back to create a makeshift stage. They probably reminded him of such gatherings in Paris. KIMBERLY JONES: Degas knew these very, very well. Every Monday evening in his father’s apartment, there would be a gathering of friends and family and musical performances to entertain them. KAYWIN FELDMAN: Nearby is a painting of one such performance. His father, Auguste De Gas, listens as Spanish musician Lorenzo Pagans sings and plays the guitar. Pagans was a regular performer at these musical Mondays, and Degas gives us a real sense of the intense concentration involved with making and listening to music. Degas liked this portrait so much he kept it over his bed for the remainder of his life.