General Question

2davidc8's avatar

Has "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" ever been made into an opera?

Asked by 2davidc8 (10189points) March 23rd, 2014

Or, has “Les Miserables” been made into an opera?

Both novels are quite long, so I guess any opera would have to use only selected passages from these works, but have there been any moderately successful attempts?

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4 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

Are you discounting the long-running and hugely popular Broadway musical Les Miz?érables_(musical)

And the equally long-running and also hugely popular Broadway Notre Dame de Paris?érables_(musical)

They are not officially operas. There have been productions of these all over the world. “Popular songs from the show, such as Belle and Le temps des cathédrales have also been translated into Belarusian, Catalan, Czech, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Dutch and English.” Link listed above.

“The Daily Mail called it ‘concert with dance, lighting effects and a lot of French singers throwing their hair around in a collective display of gravelly-voiced pique.’ ” Link listed above.

A movie was made of the musical Les Misérables.érables_(2012_film) The cast included Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Amanda Seyfried.

gailcalled's avatar

Edit; Correct link for ‘Notre Dame de Paris” is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris_(musical). Sorry.

basstrom188's avatar

Four operas based on the Victor Hugo Novel by not so well known composers:
La Esmeralda (1836) by Loiuse Bertin with libretto by Victor Hugo
Esmeralda (1847) by Alexander Dargomysky with libretto by Victor Hugo
Esmeralda (1883) by Arthur Goring Thomas
Notre Dame (1902) by Franz Schmidt first performed Vienna 1914

2davidc8's avatar

@basstrom188 Thank you for your answer. That’s what I was looking for. I figured they would have to be somewhat obscure works. I do wonder, though, why there haven’t been more successful adaptations of these works as opera.

@gailcalled I am familiar with Les Miz but didn’t know about Notre Dame de Paris, the musical. I don’t consider these “operas”, in the classical sense, however.

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