When the ballet premiered at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on 8 September 1942 it was considered a "remarkable success." In the audience were other famous mural painters who came to see Chagall's work, including Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. According to Baal-Teshuva, when the final bar of music ended, "there was a tumultuous applause and 19 curtain calls, with Chagall himself being called back onto the stage again and again." The production then moved to New York, where it was presented four weeks later at the Metropolitan Opera and the response was repeated, "again Chagall was the hero of the evening". Art critic Edwin Denby wrote of the opening for the "New York Herald Tribune" that Chagall's work: