foreground are distinct, although lacking detail, reflecting the Impressionist aesthetic of the work. In the very background two box seats can be seen overlooking the stage, with patrons, one above the other on a red wall. Degas signed the image at lower left. Degas told Daniel Halévy that the scene depicted is one from a specific opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni. Specifically, it is the end of the first act, with the chorus celebrating the engagement of Massetto and Zerlina. While other works by Degas depict operatic performances, this is the only one that shows only singers, without any dancers. Don Giovanni had not been performed much in Paris until 1866, when Jean-Baptiste Faure, who had commissioned works from Degas, was able to apply his baritone to the title role, after which there were many productions. At the time of Les Choristes, Degas had also illustrated Halévy's father Ludovic's Monsieur Cardinal, which takes place backstage during a performance of the opera. Several of those illustrations depicted dancers preparing for, or in, other scenes from Don Giovanni. Reception and analysis Gustave Caillebotte, a painter who used his large inheritance to support many of the early Impressionists, bought the work from Degas and lent it to the Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877, soon after it was finished. The title was shortened to simply Choristes. Critics at the time saw it as furthering Degas's place as the Impressionist most concerned with realism in his choice of subjects and representation. "And the hideous chorus, bawling in full voice," wrote one admirer, "aren't they real!" Many critics, looking at all of Degas's work in the show, saw the strong influence of caricature on his work. In particular, they compared his figurative stylings to Honoré Daumier, whom Degas admired to the point of owning several of his works. La Petite Republique Française went further, comparing Les Choristes and other paintings depicting performers offstage and on—Café-Concert and Dancers at the Barre among them—favorably with the work of Paul Gavarni and Alfred Grévin. "No one, including [them], has seen the world of the wings and the café-concert in as humorous a fashion", the journal wrote. "[The works] are a collection of true and witty satire." Appreciation for the work, as part of those Degas showed in 1877, did not diminish with the passage of time. In 1897, when the work was put on exhibit at the Musée du Luxembourg,