Which ballet did Salvador Dalí design sets and costumes for in 1939?

Salvador Dalí designed the sets and costumes for the 1939 ballet Bacchanale. The production was created in collaboration with the choreographer and impresario Léonide Massine and was based on Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser.

Bacchanale was presented as a Surrealist interpretation of Wagnerian themes. Dalí’s designs emphasized erotic mythology, theatrical extravagance, and dreamlike transformations. The ballet’s title refers to a bacchanal, a wild celebration associated with the Roman god Bacchus.

The production formed part of Dalí’s work across different media. He did not limit himself to easel painting: he designed theatre sets, costumes, shop windows, jewellery, films, and performance environments. His stage designs allowed him to turn Surrealist imagery into moving spectacle.

Bacchanale is sometimes confused with other ballets involving Dalí, particularly Labyrinth, which he designed later for the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. The 1939 title is Bacchanale, and its Wagnerian source is Tannhäuser.