Charles Ciceri

Ciceri, Charles (fl. late 18th century), scenic designer. Called “the first full‐fledged scenic artist in America,” he was born in Milan and educated in Paris where he learned drawing. Ciceri came to San Domingo as a soldier, but there he purchased his discharge and served as scene painter for the local playhouse. He returned to Europe and worked in Paris, Bordeaux, and at the London Opera House before again coming to America. He was the scene painter at Philadelphia's Southwark Theatre before moving to New York where his first success was his designs for the operatic spectacle Tammany; or, The Indian Chief. Ciceri's scenery was also seen in Hamlet, Henry VIII, The School for Scandal, and Dunlap's André, as well as many of the newly popular adaptations of Kotzebue. He was apparently the first scene designer in America to employ the transparent scrims that de Loutherbourg had perfected in England, and he was famous as well for his artificial figure painting and his transformations, such as the one described for Blue Beard at the Park Theatre in 1802: “On Fatima's putting the Diamond Key to the Door, the Pictures all change to scenes of Horror; the Walls of the Apartment are stained with Blood, and the Door, sinking, discovers the internal of the Sepulchre, with its ghastly inhabitants; a moment after, all resumes its former appearance.” He returned permanently to Europe sometime before 1807.