about Dream Serenade

In this orientalist painting by Spanish artist Antonio Rivas, a group of women, perhaps a harem are joined together in song, all with mouths wide mid-note.

To the right on a lush settee is a bearded man, the king or a sultan sleeping. He has fallen asleep with the hose of a hookah pipe in his hand. The viewer can discern he is royalty but his grand robe with gold embroidery. The women appear to be an apparition or a dream, none appear to have feet holding them to the ground, and they blur into the background with their gauzy white robes.