The composer of Les Misérables is a man named Claude-Michel Schönberg. Michel Schönberg was born in the year 1944 to Hungarian parents. He began his career in France as a writer, singer, and producer of pop songs. He collaborated with Alain Boublil for the Les Misérables musical. Mr. Schönberg is the book co-writer and the composer of La Révolution Française, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre, and The Pirate Queen. He collaborated with Alain Boublil, Michel Legrand and Herbert Kretzmer to create Marguerite, his new musical in 2008, which opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London. Claude-Michel has done many supervisions overseas at productions and has co-produced several international cast albums of his shows. In 2001 he composed his …show more content…
first ballet score, Wuthering Heights, which was then later created by the Northern Ballet in 2002. In 2012 Claude-Michel co-wrote the screenplay and recreated the music for the Les Misérables musical movie. Mr. Schönberg is a Golden Globe winner, Oscar nominee, and recent Grammy award winner for outstanding contribution to the creative community. Claude-Michel married an English ballerina named Charlotte Talbot, in 2003. Together they have one son and two daughters. Alain Boublil is a musical theatre lyricist as well as a librettist.
Boublil was born in Tunisia to a Jewish family. He is the author of librettos and original lyrics for multiple musicals including: La Révolution Française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996) and The Pirate Queen (2006), all in collaboration with Claude-Michel Schönberg. Boublil won two Tony Awards for best score and best book, two Victoire de la Musique Awards, two Grammys, and a Molière Award for Les Misérables. He co-wrote the screenplay and also co-produced the soundtrack of the Golden Globe winning and Oscar nominated film, Les Misérables. Alain Boublil lives in New York with his wife, an actress names Marie Zamora, and is the father to four …show more content…
sons. The author of Les Misérables is considered "One of the most renowned figures in French literature, Victor Hugo, is also the most widely read French novelist in the English-speaking world, owing to the continuing popularity of his two most important novels, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).” (Laurence M.
Porter.) Victor Hugo was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. He first trained as a lawyer, but never committed to legal practice. He then decided to begin his writing career. He became one of the most important French novelists of his time. Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. “Hugo's innovative brand of Romanticism developed over the first decade of his career.” (Biography.com Editors.) A creative writer, Hugo was known as one of the most praised literary figures in France by the 1840s. “He was elected to the French academy and nominated for the Chamber of Peers.” (Biography.com Editors.) Although, when his daughter and her husband accidentally drowned, he stopped publishing his work. In secret, he started to work on Les Misérables. Hugo moved to Brussels following a coup in 1851 and lived there until his return to France in 1870. A lot of his work published during this time showed his sarcasm and fierce social criticism. One of the works is the novel Les Misérables, which was published in 1862. The book was very popular, and an instant success in both Europe and the United States. It was later reconstructed into a musical and film, Les
Misérables is one of the best-known pieces of the 19th century literature.
A famous man by the name of Kahlil Gibran once said, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” It just happens that Cyrano’s heart shined brighter than anyone I have ever known. Through insecurities and heartbreaks, Cyrano would never forget his pride or the feelings of his friends. He never lost his honor and would always bring light into any situation, even when he was near his death. Cyrano displayed many positive traits and values such as loyalty, devotion, selflessness, knowledge, and pride which all contributed to our sympathy towards him.
While reading Cyrano de Bergerac, I found myself often wondering whether or not Cyrano had led a happy life. Actually, I never once wondered that, but that is irrelevant, because Cyrano’s happiness is the focus of this essay. Was he happy? Truth be told, I cannot say for sure. If we look upon his life, it would seem that he was a bit of a martyr, always sacrificing his happiness for the sake of others. This is probably the case, but I do not believe that he led his life with his happiness as any sort of goal. That will be a defining case in my argument. What I really believe is that he simply did not care about his happiness. In that sense, he did not so much sacrifice it, as he annexed and divided it when he saw fit. To a further extent, this apathy towards himself probably came from a low self-worth, almost certainly spawned not from his elephantine nose, but the fair maiden Roxanne. Finally, the nose itself, the very icon of de Bergerac, was probably not the problem that Cyrano believed it to be. All of this, however obscure it may seem, is crucial to the question posed of me now.
As an aside, I think the party music opened with the same piece played at the bar in the Battle of Algiers bombing scene. Battle of Algiers was made years later so it probably was a coincidental connection, both just played a popular dance song, but the sound of the music accompanied by a visual of young French people dancing in a colonial setting made me think immediatly that the party was going to end up no where good.
Breathless is in many ways the antithesis of the classical Hollywood cinema; the changes have a direct effect on the relationship the film has with the viewer. Classical Hollywood cinema includes standards such as continuity editing, highly motivated, character-driven stories and a coherent narrative structure. Breathless defies these elements of traditional filmmaking, instead defining what we know as French New Wave.
Composer-lyricist-librettist of RENT, a rock opera inspired by "La Bohème", Jonathan Larson was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, and raised in suburban White Plains, the second child of Allan and Nanette Larson. Both Jonathan's parents loved music and theatre, and show tunes and folk music were always playing in their home. Jon and his sister Julie took piano lessons during elementary school. He could play by ear, and his teacher encouraged him to experiment with rhythm, harmony, and setting words. By high school, he was called the "Piano Man" after the enormously popular song of that title by Billy Joel; he also played tuba in the school marching band. Active in school and community theatre, Jonathan had major roles in several musicals.
As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As much of this has already been considered, concerning Les Misérables, the purpose of this paper is to compare, contrast, and evaluate Victor Hugo’s use of themes and characterization in his novel, Les Misérables.
“Marie Antoinette” (2006) directed by Sofia Coppola is a drama/comedy, that is centered on the life of the notorious Queen of France, in the years leading up to the French Revolution. Coppola’s film style was very modern avant garde. The film focuses on Antoinette point of view throughout all her adventures and difficulties. She was the character with whom the viewer identified with the most, her observation were the most important (aside from the audience). Therefore there were many close ups and high lighting on her. The film also invokes the lesson that luxuries is not everything that it will not make you completely happy, which makes the audience feel somewhat sympathetic towards the queen. Coppola successfully achieves to use beautiful and extravagant cinematography to tell the story of the late Marie Antoinette. The mise-en-scene of the film that will be discussed is setting, costume, lighting and figure behavior.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a complex and disturbing portrayal of the noble class in pre-revolutionary France. Set in the late eighteenth century during the latter part of the Ancien Regime, Les Liaisons weaves a web of cold, calculated betrayal of the most immoral kind.
Steve Reich was recently called “America’s greatest composer” (The Village Voice). That is exactly what he is. He was born on October 3, 1936 in New York City, NY. Reich had his first big music debut at the young age of 14 when he was introduced to Stravinsky and Bach (Morrison). He went to Cornell University at the age of 16 and received a degree in philosophy (Morrison). After that, Reich entered The Julliard School in 1957. While he was there he studied with a tonal composer, William Bergsma, and pianist, Vincent Perschetti (Morrison). In 1970, Reich went to Africa and studied at the University of Ghana. After spending a few weeks there and listening to the Ghanaian style of music he was inspired to write his musical composition, “Drumming” (Morrison). This happening, and many others helped to develop Reich’s musical style. Reich also wrote his most famous compositions, Music for 18 Musicians, during this time.
Alexandre Dumas was a French play writer and author from the 19th century and was born July 24, 1802 in the Ville-Cotterets in France. He is the son of an inn keeper’s daughter named Mary Louis Labouret and of a general named Thomas Alexandre Davy la Pailletereie. He is the third child born from his mother. Dumas’ father is the son of Marquis Alexandre Davy La Pailleterie who married his grandmother Marie Louise Cessete Dumas, who was a Haitian slave. When his grandparents got married his grandfather took her on her last name of Dumas (“Biography of Alexandre Dumas”; Online-literature.com 126, “Dumas, Alexandre.”).
“It is precisely of him that I wished to speak. Dispose of me as you please; but help me first to carry him home. I only ask that of you.” Upon examination of Les Miserables, it is clearly evident that the elements of Forgiveness, Self – Sacrifice, and Courage are only a few of the main themes Hugo wanted to develop.
Alongside Young, Riley, and Glass, Steve Reich is a lofty name in the formation of American minimalistic music (Mertens, 11). Throughout the 1960s, these composers helped push the boundaries of music as they fused elements of classical, jazz, rock/pop, and world music.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing style in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” utilizes trends from opposite ends of the Victorian Era. Doyle is well known as a late Victorian author and yet he has characteristics in his writing style of the early Victorian era. The literature in the Victorian era had a variety of commonalities focusing on behavior of a man and how views changed over the era. The drive for social advancement, what it is to be an “Englishman”, and rebellion against idealized notions and codes of conduct are the most prominent factors in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and representation of the Victorian era through the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The show is inspired by Maria Von Trapp and her family of Austrian origin, who became famous after fleeing their home country and becoming a touring musical ensemble. Director Vincent J. Donehue first gained inspiration for the musical from Maria Von Trapps memoir “The Trapp Family Singers”, along with the 1956 German film “The Trapp Family.”1, which was the first piece of work to tell the story of the family and slightly fictionalize it. With the thought of putting his good friend Mary Martin, a popular star of the time, in the leading role, Donehue enlisted the help of producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Martin’s husband). Ironically, they originally planned to create the show as a straight play with the exception of some Von-Trapp songs, and a couple of original numbers by Rodgers and Hammerstein. They quickly realized however, that to not musicalize the whole show would be next to impossible; thus sparking the creation of a full-fledged musical.
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian author, one of the greatest authors of all time. Leo Tolstoy was born at Yasnya Polyana, in Tula Province, the fourth of five children. His parents died when he was young, and he was brought up by relatives. In 1844 Tolstoy started to study law and oriental languages at Kazan University, but he never earned a degree. Dissatisfied with the standard of education, he returned in the middle of his studies back to Yasnaya Polyana, and then spent much of his time in Moscow and St. Petersburg.