Notre Dame de Paris
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Wow. From the rich mise-en-scene to the powerhouse vocals of the main actors/actresses to the vigorous dancing of the ensemble. Notre Dame de Paris the musical was just wow.
It was all in French, something I think both held its magic for me as well as hindered it, but on the whole, I'd rather prick my ears and listen to the quick French singing pass me by than read the rather distracting subtitles at the side (even though my French has somewhat turned rusty and has remained stagnant). Given a choice, I would rather have it in French because the singing in the language was simply beautiful. English or any other language would have made the sentimental scenes lose their intended emotions and the raucous scenes their prowess and integrity.
The mise-en-scene was cleverly built such that the transitions between scenes were fantastically smooth from the creation of the effect of the church tower walls to men hanging from the bells to the jail scene. I especially liked the moving gargoyles on tall pillars around the stage. The mise-en-scene was so rich there was always something else to look at other than the actor/actress singing in the spotlight simultaneously, either something in the background or another character's action in the foreground or the intense lighting effect when Esmeralda was singing solo whilst standing on one of the church pillars. And I know this is something most people would miss but I thought it was superbly done: the makeup and costumes. If sitting in front has advantages, it would be to be able to see the characters' faces too clearly. I could see Quasimodo's painted face to look like he had only one good eye and his humped back on one shoulder, as well as Esmeralda's sparkles on her eyelashes which matched her gypsy dress, and Phoebus's and Gringoire's very distinctly drawn eyebrows.
The powerhouse vocals of the actors/actresses captivated my entire attention, so much so that I wanted to just stare at them sing instead of flitting from their faces to the right or left boards for subtitles. And it got to a point that I didn't want to even know what they were singing about anymore, even though throughout Act 1, I was quite focussed on what they were singing and the lyrics were incredibly sentimental to the extent that I felt it was memorialising Victor Hugo's work. I heart the soundtrack, not just because of its meaningful lyrics (in fact there was a strong opinion given on revolution and anti-establishment that I recalled from Romanticism in them I thought, something reminiscent of the book), but also because of the music itself. The delivery was so beautiful and the music even more beautiful, I felt I was floating through another realm altogether.
And even before the end of Act 1, I felt the compelling need to buy the soundtrack during the 20-minute interval, which I did and I heart :) I bought the two-cd compilation of the original first cast from Paris, complete with a pretty packaging and a mini hardcover book containing the lyrics (in French of course) and some pictures of the scenes.
This gets even better when my friend realised he bought the wrong category of tickets and got Cat 2 instead of Cat 4 (and he was nice enough to sponsor the difference on the account of my birthday hur hur) and plus the fact that there were not many people on a weekday night, we were upgraded to about 7 rows from the stage. We also saw MP and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean with a few other distinguished guests seated in the front row, and their bodyguards at the side (the freeloaders! ha)
On another note, the cathedral Notre Dame is every bit as dark as it is portrayed in the musical. I have been there and I could just imagine Hugo's fictionary Quasimodo hanging around the tower up there and all the incestuous relationships centering the cathedral in the middle ages. I especially loved the rose windows and gothic-style architecture, although it probably needs a little painting up of the exterior, because when I last went there about two years ago, it was almost black and they were doing some construction on the left side which made my photos look different from the poster kind of images. Yup I would definitely go back again soon, and will also take the chance to visit the neighbouring sacre-coeur cathedral as well. And this time, I will brush up my French and give the parisien snobs something to take home to tell their children
hur hur.
11:56 pm
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