Since Musical Notre Dame de Paris is a French-Canadian debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris it has played in many counties around the world. It is based upon the novel Notre Dame de Paris by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The music was composed by Riccardo Cocciante (also known as Richard Cocciante) and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXeXBpTVOk]

( Quasimodo )

Belle
C’est un mot qu’on dirait invent? pour elle
Quand elle danse et qu’elle met son corps ? jour, tel
Un oiseau qui ?tend ses ailes pour s’envoler
Alors je sens l’enfer s’ouvrir sous mes pieds
J’ai pos? mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
A quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
Quel
Est celui qui lui jettera la premi?re pierre
Celui-l? ne m?rite pas d’?tre sur terre
O Lucifer !
Oh ! Laisse-moi rien qu’une fois
Glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d’Esm?ralda

( Frollo )

Belle
Est-ce le diable qui s’est incarn? en elle
Pour d?tourner mes yeux du Dieu ?ternel
Qui a mis dans mon ?tre ce d?sir charnel
Pour m’emp?cher de regarder vers le Ciel
Elle porte en elle le p?ch? originel
La d?sirer fait-il de moi un criminel
Celle
Qu’on prenait pour une fille de joie une fille de rien
Semble soudain porter la croix du genre humain
O Notre-Dame !
Oh ! laisse-moi rien qu’une fois
Pousser la porte du jardin d’Esm?ralda

( Phoebus )

Belle
Malgr? ses grands yeux noirs qui vous ensorcellent
La demoiselle serait-elle encore pucelle ?
Quand ses mouvements me font voir monts et merveilles
Sous son jupon aux couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel
Ma dulcin?e laissez-moi vous ?tre infid?le
Avant de vous avoir men? jusqu’? l’autel
Quel
Est l’homme qui d?tournerait son regard d’elle
Sous peine d’?tre chang? en statue de sel
O Fleur-de-Lys,
Je ne suis pas homme de foi
J’irai cueillir la fleur d’amour d’Esm?ralda

( Quasimodo, Frollo et Phoebus )

J’ai pos? mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
A quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
Quel
Est celui qui lui jettera la premi?re pierre
Celui-l? ne m?rite pas d’?tre sur terre
O Lucifer !
Oh ! laisse-moi rien qu’une fois
Glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d’Esm?ralda
Esm?ralda

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L24vaxNH91w"]

Belle, is the only word I know that suits her well
When she dances oh, the stories she can tell
A free bird trying out her wings to fly away
And when I see her move I see the hell to pay

She dances naked in my soul and sleep won’t come
And it’s no use to pray this prayers to Notre Dame
Tell, who’d be the first to raise his hand and throw a stone
I’d hang him high and laugh to see him die alone
Oh Lucifer, please let me go beyond god’s law
And run my fingers through her hair Esmeralda

Belle, there is a demon inside her who came from hell
And he turned my eyes from god, and oh, I fell
He put this heat inside me I’m ashamed to tell
Without my god inside I’m just a burning shell

The sin of Eve she has in her I know so well
For want of her I know I’d give my soul to sell
Belle, this gypsy girl is there a soul beneath her skin
And dies she bear the cross of all our human sin
Oh Notre-Dame please let me go beyond god’s law
Open the door of love inside Esmeralda

Belle, even though her eyes seem to lead us to hell
She may be more pure more pure than the words can tell
But when she dances feelings come no man can quell
Beneath her rainbow coloured dress there burns the well

My promised one please let me one time be untrue
Before in front of god and man I marry you
Who’d be the man who’d turn from her to save his soul
To be with her I’d let the devil take me whole
Oh, Fleur-De-Lys I am a man who knows no love
I go to open up the rose Esmeralda

She dances naked in my soul and sleep won’t come
And it’s no use to pray this prayers to Notre Dame
Tell, who’d be the first to raise his hand and

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGdFHJXciAQ"]

“Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived.
I would bare my head and kneel at his grave”
– L.v. Beethoven (1824)

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGKJ9MgCOQ"]

Georg Friederich H?ndel was born in 1685, a vintage year indeed for baroque composers, in Halle on the Saale river in Thuringia, Germany on February 23rd. His own musical talent, however, manifested itself so clearly that before his tenth birthday he began to receive, from a local organist, the only formal musical instruction he would ever have. Although his first job, beginning just after his 17th birthday, was as church organist in Halle, Handel’s musical predilections lay elsewhere. Thus, in 1703 he traveled to Hamburg, the operatic center of Germany; here, in 1704, he composed his own first opera, Almira, which achieved great success the following year. Once again, however, Handel soon felt the urge to move on, and his inclinations led him to Italy, the birthplace of operatic style. He stopped first at Florence in the autumn of 1706. In the spring and summer of 1707 and 1708 he traveled to Rome, enjoying the patronage of both the nobility and the clergy, and in the late spring of 1707 he made an additional short trip to Naples. In Italy Handel composed operas, oratorios, and many small secular cantatas; he ended his Italian sojourn with the spectacular success of his fifth opera, Agrippina (1709), in Venice.

London Opera Career

Handel left Italy for a job as court composer and conductor in Hannover, Germany, where he arrived in the spring of 1710. As had been the case in Halle, however, he did not hold this job for long. By the end of 1710 Handel had left for London, where with Rinaldo (1711), he once again scored an operatic triumph. After returning to Hannover he was granted permission for a second, short trip to London, from which, however, he never returned. Handel was forced to face his truancy when in 1714 the elector at Hannover, his former employer, became King George I of England. The reconciliation of these two men may well have occurred, as has often been said, during a royal party on the River Thames in 1717, during which the F major suite from Handel’s Water Music was probably played. Under the patronage of the duke of Chandos, he composed his oratorio Esther and the 11 Chandos anthems for choir and string orchestra (1717-1720). By 1719 Handel had won the support of the king to start the Royal Academy of Music for performances of opera, which presented some of Handel’s greatest operas: Radamisto (1720), Giulio Cesare (1724), Tamerlano (1724), and Rodelinda (1725). In 1727 Handel became a naturalized British subject; in 1728 the academy collapsed. He formed a new company the following year. Forced to move to another theater by the Opera of the Nobility, a rival company, in 1734, he continued to produce opera until 1737, when both houses failed. Handel suffered a stroke and retired to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) to recuperate.

Oratorios

In 1738 Handel, as determined as ever, began yet another operatic endeavor, which ended with his last opera, Deidamia, in 1741. During the 1730s, however, the most important directions taken by Handel were, first, the composition of English dramatic oratorios, notably Athalia (1733) and Saul (1739); and, second, the surge of instrumental music used in conjunction with the oratorios, including some of Handel’s greatest concertos-the solo concertos of op. 4 (1736, five for organ and one for harp) and the 12 concerti grossi of op. 6 (1739). In 1742 Messiah, the work for which he is best known, was first performed in Dublin. Handel continued composing oratorios at the rate of about two a year, including such masterworks as Samson (1743) and Solomon (1749), until 1751, when his eyesight began to fail. Handel died in London on April 14, 1759; the last musical performance he heard, on April 6, was of his own Messiah.

Legacy

Throughout his life Handel avoided the rigorous contrapuntal techniques of his compatriot and exact contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach and achieved his effects through the simplest of means, trusting always his own innate musicianship. The music of both composers, however, sums up the age in which they lived. After them, opera took a different path; the favorite baroque genres of chamber and orchestral music, trio sonata and concerto grosso, were largely abandoned; and the development of the symphony orchestra and the pianoforte led into realms uncharted by the baroque masters. Thus, their influence cannot be found in specific examples. Rather, Handel’s legacy lies in the dramatic power and lyrical beauty inherent in all his music. His operas move from the rigid use of conventional schemes toward a more flexible and dramatic treatment of recitative, arioso, aria, and chorus. His ability to build large scenes around a single character was further extended in the dramatic scenas of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Italian Gioacchino Rossini. Handel’s greatest gift to posterity was undoubtedly the creation of the dramatic oratorio genre, partly out of existing operatic traditions and partly by force of his own musical imagination; without question, the oratorios of both the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn and the German composer Felix Mendelssohn owe a large debt to those of Handel. He was one of the first composers to have a biography written of him (1760), to have centennial celebrations of his birth (1784-1786), and to have a complete edition of his music published (40 vol., 1787-1797)-Ludwig van Beethoven cherished his set. Although today, as in the 19th century, Handel is best known for only a few of his works, such as Water Music and Messiah, more and more attempts are being made to bring his other compositions, especially his operas, before the public. Handel’s rich and unique musical genius deserves to be remembered in the extraordinary fullness of its entirety.
via www.8notes.com/