History of musical

This is a tale that takes its place.
In Paris fair, this year of grace.

Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris is a sung-through French-Canadian musical which debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris. It is based upon the novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) 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.

Notre-Dame de Paris, according to the Guinness Book of Records, had the most successful first year of any musical ever. The score has been recorded at least seven times to date (2007): the original French concept album, which featured Israeli singer Achinoam Nini (aka Noa) as Esméralda was followed by a live, complete recording of the original Paris cast. A complete recording of the score in Italian was made, along with a single disc of highlights in Spanish from the Barcelona production. The original London cast album featured several of the original Paris stars, but only preserved a fraction of the score in English. The orchestral group I Fiamminghi recorded a CD of melodies from the score. A complete set of instrumental backing tracks has also been released.

The original production of Notre-Dame de Paris made musicals fashionable again in France and, since its inception, has spawned a number of other notable productions. As part of the publicity prior to the Paris opening three songs were released as singles: Vivre, Le Temps des cathédrales, and Belle. "Belle" became a huge hit, and was named Song of the Year in France, and nominated for Song of the Century. An English version of "Vivre" (Live for the One I Love) was released by Celine Dion, and appears on the original London cast recording, even though she did not participate in the musical.

Director Gilles Maheu staged the show in concert style, with the principal singers standing downstage center, with non-singing dancers upstage providing visual, but not dramatic, excitement. The orchestra and chorus were prerecorded; the principals wore very obvious boom mics.