Musicals Style 1 : Book Musicals

#MS1 : Book/Content Musicals

One afternoon, Oscar Hammerstein shared with Stephen Sondheim his four approaches to writing musicals:-

Approach 1: Rewriting good drama books;

example:

West Side Story

- Basis: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play
- Book: Authur Laurentsjj
- Music: Leonard Bernstein
- Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
- Direction/Choreograph: Jerome Robbins
- Première: 1957 at Winter Garden Theater (732 performances)
- Film: West Side Story (1961)   

 

 

- Film: West Side Story (2021)  

West Side Story (2021) is directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg.  It is the second feature-length adaptation of the 1957 stage musical of the same name.

Approach 2: Restructuring and rewriting weak drama books;

example:

Candide (comic operetta)

- Basis: Voltaire's 1759 novella Candide
- Book: Lillian Hellman, Hugh Wheeler
- Music: Leonard Bernstein
- Lyrics: Richard Wilbur et al
- Première: 1956 at Martin Bech Theater (73 performances)

 

 

Approach 3: Structuring and writing non-drama (e.g. fiction) books to musicals;

example:

Man of La Mancha

- Basis: Miquel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (17th-century novel)
- Book: Dale Wasserma
- Music: Mitch Leigh
- Lyrics: Joe Darion
- Première: 1965 at ANTA Washington Theater (2,328 performances)
- Film: Man of La Mancha (1972)  

It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.

 

 

Approach 4: Original composition; 

example:

Avenue Q  

(musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors)

- Book: Jeff Whitty 

- Music: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx

- Lyrics: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx

- Premiére: 2003 at Off-Broadway, then Broadway (over 2,500 performances)  

“Avenue Q has received many favorable reviews for its approach on topics like racism, homosexuality, and Internet pornography.”

REFERENCE:

 

文樂(bunraku)是日本三大古典戲劇式之一，

名字來自大阪的「文樂座」劇埸；

也稱為「人形淨瑠璃」：

「人形」指木偶，「淨瑠璃」是說唱的形式 。

Musicals by Oscar Hammerstein II, godfather of musicals:

Première	Title	Composer
1924	Rose-Marie	R Frimi, H Stothart
1925	Sunny	Jerome Kern
1926	The Desert Song	Sigmund Romberg
1927	Show Boat	Jerome Kern
1928	New Moon	Sigmund Romberg
1929	Sweet Adeline	Jerome Kern
1932	Music in the Air	Jerome Kern
1943	Carmen Jones	Georges Bizet
1943	Oklahoma!	Rodgers
1945	Carousel	Rodgers
1947	Allegro	Rodgers
1949	South Pacific	Rodgers
1951	The King and I	Rodgers
1953	Me and Juliet	Rodgers
1955	Pipe Dream	Rodgers
1958	Flower Drum Song	Rodgers
1959	The Sound of Music	Rodgers

Sources: Wikipedia

Reference: Show Time! 音樂劇的9種風情 (邱瑗)

Rose-Marie (1924):

Indian Love Call

South Pacific (1949):

Some Enchanted Evening

The King and I (1951 stage, 1956 film) 

 

Sculpture - Michelangelo

More Sculptures by Michelangelo

WORK IN PROGRESS

Madonna and Child
- Michelangelo
- marble (200 cm) 1501–1504
- Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Bruges)

The Taddei Tondo
aka The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John
 - Michelangelo
- marble (dia. 107 cm) 1504–05
- Royal Academy (London)

Sculpture #9 - 3D Design

Chapter 9 - 3D Design

Design for a Ewer
- Francesco Salviati (1510-1563)
- pen and ink with grey wash,
over black chalk on buff paper (41 x 28 cm) c.1550
- Ashmolean Museum (Oxford U) 

Ewer Sacred to Bacchus
- Wedgwood (1730-1795, British)
- black basalt (40 cm)
- private collection

We've Found the Body of Your Child

- Grayson Perry (1960-, British)

- earthenware (49 x 30 x 30 cm) 2000

- Saatchi Collection

The Persian Wall 
- Dale Chihuly (1941-, American) 2008
- de Young Museum (San Francisco)

Chihuly at de Young 2008

Dale Chihuly

Source: Wikipedia

Reference: Learning to Look at Sculpture (Mary Acton)

Sculpture #8 - Drawing

Chapter 8 - Sculpture & Drawing 


Belvedere Torso

- marble, 1st century BC/AD (copy of an older statue probably dated to the early 2nd century BC)
- Museo Pio-Clementino (Vatican)

A fragmentary marble statue of a nude male, signed on the front base by "Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient literature.


Rubens’ drawing of the Belvedere Torso

Belvedere Torso
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Flemish)
- pencil & black chalk on paper (38 × 27 cm) 1601-1602
- Rubenshuis (Antwerp)

Michelangelo's drawing of Saint Bartholomew  
..... strongly echoes the Belvedere Torso.

Saint Bartholomew (in The Last Judgement)
 - Michelangelo (1475–1564, Italian) 1535-1541
- Sistine Chapel (Vatican)

Verdi (1813 – 1901) - [Messa da] Requiem 

- Section 2 of 7 - Dies irae (Day of Wrath)

The 13th century Latin hymn describes the day of judgment, the last trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames.

Source: Wikipedia

Reference: Learning to Look at Sculpture (Mary Acton)

Sculpture #7 - Setting

Chapter 7 - Setting


The Chartreuse de Champmol

Portal
- Claus Sluter (1340–1405-06) & workshop, 1391-1392
- Chartreuse de Champmol (Dijon, Burgundy)

L: John the Baptist, Philip the Bold (kneeling)
C (trumeau): Madonna and Child
R: wife of Philip the Bold (kneeling), Saint Catherine of Alexandria

The monastery was founded in 1383 by Duke Philip the Bold to provide a dynastic burial place for the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, and operated until it was dissolved in 1791, during the French Revolution.

The Well of Moses
- Claus Sluter (1340–1405-06) & nephew Claus de Werve
- stone, c.1395/1405
- Chartreuse de Champmol (Dijon, Burgundy)

David and Jeremiah by the Fountain of Life

Holy Blood altarpiece  
St. James (German: St. Jakob) is a historic Lutheran church in Germany

  

 Heilig-Blut-Altar / Holy Blood altarpiece  
- Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531, carver)  

- Würzburg wood, 1499-1505  

- St. Jakob / St. James's Church (Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany)  

The altar includes scenes of the entry into Jerusalem (right wing), Lord's Supper (shrine) with Judas as central figure, and the Mount of Olives (left wing).

Fontainebleau Palace (Paris)  

Villa Barbaro (Maser, Italy)  

Houghton Hall (Norfolk, England)

Palace of Versailles

 (Sculptures in) The Gardens
- L. Le Vau (from 1661) & J. Hardouin-Mansart (from 1678)
- Palace of Versailles (Paris)

Rousham Garden

Statutes of Venus & Swans
- William Kent (1685-1748, English Architect)
- Rousham House (Oxfordshire)

Source: Wikipedia

Reference: Learning to Look at Sculpture (Mary Acton)

Sculpture #6 - Commemoration

Chapter 6 - Sculpture, Memory & Commemoration

Blessed Ludovica Albertoni

Blessed Ludovica Albertoni
- Bernini (1598-1680, Italian)
- marble (over life-size) 1671–74
- Church of San Francesco a Ripa (Rome)

A funerary monument of Ludovica Albertoni (1473-1533), who was an Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman from the Renaissance period.

Tomb of Queen Elizabeth I

Tomb of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1558-1603) of England
- Westminster (London)

Elizabeth had ruled England for 45 years.

In February 1603, when Elizabeth was 69, her health began to fail. At her palace of Richmond, restless with fever, she couldn't eat or sleep, but still she did everything she could to stave off the moment when her kingdom would go on without her, refusing to make a will or to name an heir, or even to move from the floor cushions on which she lay. 

The Death of Elizabeth I, Queen of England
- Paul Delaroche (1797–1856, French)
- oil on canvas (422 x 343 cm) 1828
- Louvre Museum (Paris)

On 24 March 1603, Elizabeth died. And with her died the Tudor dynasty - the family line that her father had gone to such lengths to continue. As Elizabeth breathed her last, horsemen raced North to Edinburgh, to tell James VI, the Stuart King of Scotland, that he was now also King of England.

Summary

Edith Cavell Memorial

Edith Cavell Memorial
- designed by Sir George Frampton
- marble and granite (12 m) 1920
- St. Martin's Place (London)

Dedicated to Edith Cavell (1865–1915), a British nurse who was captured and executed by the enemy in WW1.

Nelson's Column

A victory column dedicated to Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) of the British Navy.

Nelson's Column 

- designed by Wm Railton & sculpted by E.H. Baily

- granite and bronze (51.6 m) 1840-1843

- Trafalgar Square (London)

The pedestal is decorated with 4 bronze relief panels, each 5.5 m square, cast from captured French guns. They depict 4 naval battles, including the one at Trafalgar (above) in which Nelson died in destroying Napoleon's navy.

The four bronze lions around its base were added in 1867.

The sarcophagus of Nelson
in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral

The Cenotaph

The original temporary structure, erected for a peace parade following the end of the WW1, was replaced in 1920 by a permanent structure and designated the UK's official national war memorial.

The Cenotaph
- designed by Edwin Lutyens; unveiled 1920
- Whitehall (Westminster, London)

THE GLORIOUS DEAD

After WW2, it is for the British Empire (later Commonwealth) dead of both World Wars and the British military in later wars.

* Lutyens' cenotaph design has been reproduced elsewhere in the UK and in other countries of historical British allegiance including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Bermuda and Hong Kong (below).

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - John McDermott

The Royal Artillery Memorial

In Proud Remembrance of the 4976 of All Ranks of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Who Gave Their Lives for King And Country in the Great War 1914—1919

The Royal Artillery Memorial
- designed by Charles Jagger & Lionel Pearson
- stone memorial 1925
- Hyde Park Corner (London)

The memorial features a giant sculpture of a “BL 9.2-inch Mk I” howitzer upon a large plinth of Portland stone, with stone reliefs  depicting scenes from the conflict.

Four bronze figures of artillerymen are positioned around the outside of the memorial.

 

i

The Royal Air Force Bomber Command Memorial

Commemorating the sacrifice of 55,573 aircrew of RAF Bomber Command, as well as civilians of all nations killed during raids, in the Second World War.

The Royal Air Force Bomber Command Memorial
- Liam O'Connor (designed memorial)
- Green Park (London)

Sculpture within the memorial
- Philip Jackson (designed sculpture)
- unveiled in 2012 by QE-II

Marking the sacrifice of 55,573 aircrew of RAF Bomber Command (from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and other allied countries) during the Second World War.

Avro Lancaster PA474 bomber 

  

Vietnam Veterans Memorial  

Occupying 2 acres (8,094 m²) in Washington D.C., this U.S. national memorial honors service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for during the war.

The Three Servicemen Statue
(White, Black, Latino)
- Constitution Gardens (Washington, D.C.)

 

Statue of three uniformed women tending to a wounded soldier
- Vietnam Women’s Memorial (Washington, DC)

Looking upward and forward to 'copter transport.

 

  "Reflections of My Life"

The Wall
- Maya Lin (1959-, architect) in 1982
- black granite (two right trapezoids, each 3.1-to-0.2 x 75.2 m )
- Constitution Gardens (Washington, D.C.)

(Maya Lin is a niece of architect 林徽因.)

Source: Wikipedia

Reference: Learning to Look at Sculpture (Mary Acton)

Sculpture #5 - Bust

 Chapter 5 - The Bust: sculpture and the portrait

Sir Christopher Wren
- Edward Pierce (c.1630-1695, English)
- marble (66 cm) 1673
- Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford)

Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) was an English scientist, “as well as one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including ... St Paul's Cathedral”.

The Great Fire of London (1666)

Giovanni di Antonio, Chellini da San Miniato
- Antonio Rossellino (1427-1479, Italian)
- marble (51 cm) 1456
- Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat,
Marquis de Condorcet (1743-94)
- Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828, French)
- marble (78 x 51 cm) 1785
- Louvre (Paris)

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
- Jean Antoine Houdon (1741–1828, French)
- marble (45 cm, w/o base) 1778
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

Portrait of a Lady,
aka La Schiavona
- Titian (c.1490–1576, Venetian)
- oil on canvas (119 × 97 cm) c.1511
- National Gallery (London)

A portrait of an unknown woman from Dalmatia.

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer,
aka Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer
- Rembrandt (1606–1669, Dutch)
- oil on canvas (144 × 137 cm) 1653
－ Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

Aristotle wearing a gold chain and contemplating a sculpted bust of Homer.

Source: Wikipedia

Reference: Learning to Look at Sculpture (Mary Acton)

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