|
|
Post by digne on Oct 2, 2011 1:30:41 GMT
There are several new French shows coming (or just opened): Anyway, the people who brought us Le Roi Soleil and Mozart: L'Opera Rock have just released the first single to their new show: 1789 - Les Amants de la Bastille. The stage show doesn't open until next September: And Adam et Éve: La Seconde Chance just released their second single: It's nice, but I liked the first single better Rien ne se finitAnd finally Dracula: l'amour plus fort que la mort just opened in Paris. And although most of the songs don't really do much for me. I love this one (even though the lyrics are a little dirty, but hey, it's in context): |
|
|
|
Post by Havanah on Oct 5, 2011 5:24:18 GMT
The French seem to be getting a bit more into musicals at the moment (which can only be a good thing!)
Really looking forward to seeing more of these!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2011 14:02:29 GMT
I think the French like musicals, especially pop/rock musicals like Clepatra, Le Roi Soleil and Mozart. I think Romeo et Juliette and Notre Dame de Paris are two of the few French shows that are not pop or rock.
I am not saying I don't like the other musicals. I like Cleopatra and Le Roi Soleil, and there are a few songs from Mozart I really like. Just saying that there is this pop/rock tendency in French musicals.
|
|
|
|
Post by digne on Oct 14, 2011 1:56:15 GMT
Huh? Romeo et Juliette ... not pop???!!!! That show is made of nothing but pop!  And although it wasn't directly pop "Belle" from Notre Dame de Paris was a HUGE chart topping hit. The pop carts are what made that show the success it became. Anyway, the thing I find the most interesting about French shows is how they do almost everything totally different from the way they are done anywhere else. This is espeically interesting considering how badly musicals have traditionally done there. Even Les Mis was a flop in France! The current trend is to promote the cast of these show is as if they were a pop group. They release singles, music videos, make appearances and after about 9 months to a year the stage show opens. This seems to have been the magic touch in getting French people to go to musicals. Anyway I did a little chart about it in my fair exhibit ( see photo). The books in French shows tend not to be very sophisticated however. Generally speaking, I don't care for the shows that Kamel Ouali has done by himself ( Dracula, Cléopâtre). I find those scores mostly boring (although Ouali's choreography is always incredible!). But I love Mozart, Roméo et Juliette and Le Roi Soleil. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2011 4:47:00 GMT
Huh? Romeo et Juliette ... not pop???!!!! That show is made of nothing but pop! Okay, I suppose you've got a point there. But I think it's less pop-ish then Cleopatra and Le Roi Soleil. And did Les Mis seriously flop in France?!!!!   Don't they know what's good for them?  |
|
|
|
Post by digne on Oct 17, 2011 2:50:11 GMT
I think the difference you are noticing between, say, Le Roi Soleil and Roméo et Julilette is in their books. There is a higher level of book/music integration in R+J than in LRS. The music in LRS -- and the more recent French shows such as Cléopâtre, Mozart -- is more extractable than the music in R+J. R+J's music tends to have more plot specific lyrics (especially "Le duel") and it uses more in the way of reprises, although not much. LRS and Mozart each barely have one reprise.
R+J also uses more choral numbers where as the music in LRS and Mozart is mostly solos and duets.
|
|
|
|
Post by digne on Oct 22, 2011 19:58:44 GMT
I forgot to expand on Les Mis failing in France. It was first done there in 1980 at the Palais des Sport in Paris it played 3 months (selling very well) but was quickly forgotten after that. The show reappeared in London in a production that was greatly reworked and it became the hit that it is today. They decided to return the show to Paris and they opened a production at the Mogador Theatre in Paris in 1991. Sadly, the production flopped. They did booming business for one month after which it completely dried up. The production lost $3.7 million. Cameron Mackintosh, lamented to the New York Times, “The old establishment warned us we were wrong in thinking we could break the [Paris] spell. It was right. Sadly the French don’t want to embrace musicals. ... It’s particularly disappointing for Schönberg and Boublil ... They wrote a worldwide hit that didn’t make it in their own country.” It was really Notre Dame de Paris in 1998 that changed the tide. But it did it by really changing the way musicals were marketed in France: Heavily using the pop-group model and using tours rather than opened ended (stationary) productions. One of the reasons Schönberg cites for the failure of Les Misérables in Paris in 1991 is that French audiences don’t have a tradition of traveling to the city from the provinces to see a show. So limited runs and tours really are the way to go in France. Learning from past mistakes, and possibly inspired by the increased popularity of musicals in France, Cameron Mackintosh brought a touring production of Les Misérables to Paris for a two month run. The run was a big hit, although as the touring company was British the show was in English with French subtitles. I don't know if we'll ever see another production of Les Mis in France in French. But going back to the original "problem" The French really don't have a history of musical theater. There have been few successes — and even fewer successful original French musicals. Irma la Douce in the 1950s is perhaps the only French musical before Les Misérables to be a success outside France. Of American musicals, only the French versions of Hair, Godspell, Fiddler on the Roof and Hello, Dolly did as well in Paris as they did in other major capitals, while many other Broadway hits such as West Side Story, Nine and Jesus Christ Superstar floundered. Sensing doom, Alan Jay Learner would never even allow My Fair Lady to be licensed for a Paris production. Sources: 1. “Parisians Flocking To See ‘Les Miz’” by Alan Riding, New York Times, Oct. 30, 1991, page C15-C16 2. “For Claude Michel Schonberg, It’s C’est la Guerre,” by Stephane Ly-Cuong, www.playbill.com/features/article/64664-For-Claude-Michel-Schonberg-Its-Cest-la-Guerre, Jan. 30, 1998 3. “‘Les Miz’: Of and By But Not For the French,” by Alan Riding, New York Times, May. 16, 1992 |
|
|
|
Post by digne on Nov 12, 2011 6:05:20 GMT
This is a few weeks old but I thought I'd add this here. It's awesome!
And here is this ...
|
|
cen
Full Member
Posts: 244
|
Post by cen on Nov 14, 2011 4:11:49 GMT
*grins* Thanks for sharing those clips! I really like that '1789 Ca ira mon amour' song.
Unfortunately I don't speak more than a handful of words of French... Can anyone summarize what's being said for me please?
|
|
|
|
Post by digne on Nov 14, 2011 18:37:26 GMT
*grins* Thanks for sharing those clips! I really like that '1789 Ca ira mon amour' song. Unfortunately I don't speak more than a handful of words of French... Can anyone summarize what's being said for me please? Here you go: french-musicals.livejournal.com/41343.html (scroll down) |
|
And although it wasn't directly pop "Belle" from Notre Dame de Paris was a HUGE chart topping hit. The pop carts are what made that show the success it became.
Don't they know what's good for them? 
