Customer Reviews

Disney's Der Gloeckner Von Notre Dame (1999 German Stage Version)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! Contrary to popular opinion, I always believed that "Hunchback" was one of Disney's finest soundtracks. Sure, the songs weren't as catchy as Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, but the score was so rich and had such a dark, medieval edge to it, it sent shivers up the spine.

Now Disney's richest score has just got richer! Thanks to a 50 piece orchestra, the sound from this stage production is phenomenal! All of the old songs have been improved and added upon except for "Court of Miracles," the only song I DIDN'T like from the movie, which has been trashed - yippee!) and the new songs are all fitting as well. In particular, I love the "Hoch Uber Der Welt" song ("Top of the World") and the Act I finale, "Esmeralda."

Menken has done it again! If you even half enjoyed the music to the Hunchback movie, you must own this! Now we just have to wait for an English version so that we can understand what on Earth these people are singing! (It's not that bad, most of the time you can guess) As it is currently though, I'm learning quite a bit of German from it.

The whole tone of the show seems much darker than the movie. The gargoyles are more than just comic relief - in fact, I'm not sure if they're comic relief at all anymore.

And the ending! In the movie, where Esmeralda died, and... came back to life... followed by when Frollo... fell... off of the cathedral... the stage show has Esmeralda STAYING dead (the music is beautifully tragic) and Quasimodo going beserk and hurling Frollo from the tower, just like in the book! Thus, the stage show has a much darker, gloomier ending than the movie, which works wonders! It fits the tone of the story much better! I'm just stunned by this C.D., and recommend it wholeheartedly. By the way, I contacted lyracist Stephen Schwartz himself, and the English titles to the new songs are: "Zuflucht" - "Sanctuary" "Tanz Auf Dem Siel" - "Balancing Act" "Ein Bisschen Freude" - "Rest & Recreation" "Hoch Uber Der Welt" - "Top of the World" "Trommeln In Der Stadt" - "City Under Siege" "Weil Du Liebst" - "Out Of Love" "Wie Aus Stein" - "Made Of Stone" Hope that helps a bit!

I can't express how much I love this special soundtrack. I even burnt 2 copies just to avoid overusing the original. And I absolutely think the price is more than appropriate for this astounding classic. Anyway, here's my review:

The Bells of Notre Dame(Die Glocken Notre Dames) *****
- This piece was amazing to begin with and, with the extended dialogue, still remains perfect. The choir is very powerful.

Sanctuary(Zuflucht) ****
- An extended version of Frollo's part in Outhere. The lyrics are amazing and the melody is equally astounding (the gargoyles are a welcome addition, too) but there's a minor piece in the melody that oddly sounds 'happy' in contrast to the rest. Just a minor quip, though.

Out There(Draussen) *****
- Identical in every way to the original. Still excellent.

Rest And Recreation(Ein Bisschen Freude) ****
- Phoebus' theme now with sharp and witty lyrics! Fits perfectly for his character and fairly catchy, especially the end.

Balancing Act(Tanz Auf Dem Seil) *****
- Intersting at first, but it grows on you. The intgration of Esmeralda's theme is seamsless and adds an amazing touch. Once again, the choral ending and the chorus is the highlight.

Topsy Turvy(Drunter Druber) *****
- The biggest improvement among the original songs! The addition of Quasimodod's 'Outhere' and the new ethnicized dance theme of Esmeralda are fantastic and the whole song now feels more upbeat and alive.

God Help The Outcasts(Helf Den Verstoss'nen) *****
- Minor additions, notably Quasimodo's duet with Esmeralda in the middle. Otherwise, identical to the original.

Top Of The World(Hoch Uber Der Welt) *****
- A great new song for Esmeralda and the Gargoyles. It's very upbeat and pleasant, remiding me of 'Somthing There' from Beauty and the Beast.

Heaven's Light(Das Licht Des Himmels) ***
- The weakest song, in my opinion, because of it's short length. No changes whatsoever. The melody is still charming, though.

Hellfire(Das Feuer Des Holle) *****
- Almost identical to the original, only for some odd reason it's now more powerful especially at the end.

Esmeralda *****
- SPECTACULAR! My absolute favourite song by Menken. The power this song delivers is simply indescribable and definitely unsurmountable. The highlight is the last half of the song when Frollo, Phoebus and Quasimodo sing together along with the masterful choir. Simply perfect.

City Under Siege(Trommeln In Der Stadt) *****
- Another amazing improvement on the already amazing 'Sanctuary' instrumental sequence of the original. Mainly just the choir. My second favourite song right after Esmeralda.

A Guy Like You(Ein Mann Wie Du) *****
- Almost identical save the wittier and appropriate lyrics and the fact that Quasimodo joins in at the end. Nay sayers of the original will definitely have a change of heart.

Out Of Love(Weil Du Liebst) *****
- Great melody and even greater lyrics for Quasimodo and Phoebus. The diagologue is suprisingly amazing and the entire song is almost as emotional as 'God Help the Outcasts'.

Out Of Love - Reprise (Weil Du Liebst - Reprise) *****
- Excellent reprise, this time concentrating on Esmeralda and Phoebus' love, and Quasimodo's pain. More emotinonal amd powrful than the first.

Made Of Stone(Wie Aus Stein) *****
- A dark and bitter song similar to 'Hellfire' and will definitely take you a while to get used to. The lyrics are its most powerful aspects. You will definitely learn to love this piece.

Someday(Einmal) *****
- Now more effective and powerful than the original. This song is sang by Esmeralda, Phoebus and the choir culminatiig in a painfully powerful end.

Grand Finale(Finale Ultimo) *****
- A chimera of most of the songs sewn together seamslessly by amazing lyrics and integrated dialogue. An equally powerful ending fitting perfectly to an equally powerful soundtrack.

There are no words to describe this fantastic musical experience. I'm listening to the CD as I write this. It's perfect. The only thing that could make it better is if it were in English. Disney has to make this into a Broadway show! They're missing out on a huge opportunity to rake in the big bucks with this. I bet it would beat out The Lion King in a heartbeat if it were only given the chance. Until then, we have this beautiful cast recording. I also recommend the wonderful soundtrack to the Disney movie.

Superb.

If there's currently a copy being offered at a reasonable price on this product page, I'd take the opportunity and order it immediately. Prices seem to fluctuate at a moment's notice, so steal it while you can.

I would like to take the time to explain this CD's overall production and mixing, since other reviewers' have done an excellent job reviewing the songs themselves. If you read the German equivalent of this product page, you'll notice criticisms regarding how the CD is mixed. While some of them are a bit exaggerated, I feel the CD does have one mixing flaw. I'm not sure how to explain this, but the whole sound seems to get progressively louder as the CD moves forward. I find my self turning down the volume after track six or seven. Another point that was mentioned earlier was the lack of the fullness found in the original movie's soundtrack. I don't fault them there, since the orchestra had space constraints during the original production. It's just a different sound you'll get used to. After all, they had the requirement of performing this nightly when the show was active.

In terms of the overall CD, I feel this recording is much more complete than the movie's original soundtrack which (lyrically) leaves you scratching your head in terms of character development. However, if you're into orchestration by itself without any voices, this CD isn't exactly for you - and rightfully so. There's perhaps only one song on this CD without the actors' involvement. I'd be disappointed if this stage recording was a simple rehash of the movie score - and I'd also be disappointed if the soundtrack was exactly like the stage recording, leaving no room for the fullness of the score by itself.
If you have a chance, buy both the score and the stage recording. They complement each other beautifully.

If not, this CD is perfectly fine by itself. It's a phenomenal production, and it's a farce that Disney won't continue the production in another location.

First, I'd like to dispute the notion that the cast's voices are lifeless. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Drew Sarich (Quasimodo) sings with so much emotion and heart, giving little personal touches here and there. In "Out There" for example, he purposely breaks his timing with the orchestra for a split second, giving a sense of genuine excitement. When singing the final note in "Wie aus Stein", he brings his voice to a slow grind, giving Quasimodo's anguish epic proportions. When singing of Esmerlda's falling in love with Phoebus in the reprise of "Weil Du Libest", the notes are almost spat out in disgust.

Songs from the movie have been touched up here and there to accomodate the larger range of orchestration present Der Glockner. "The Bells of Notre Dame" and "Topsy Turvy" have cut back on the folk instrumentation. "Heaven's Light" is lifted by a few extra chords on piano, and "A Guy Like You" is no longer decadently sprawled across multiple genres, as the lounge music segement of the original is cut. In addition, that irrelevant, Sorcerer's Apprentice clone, "The Court of Miracles", has been replaced by an instrumental performance of the gypsies' theme, "Tanz auf dem Seil", rendered in a wild, Arabesque dance for the orchestra. All these touches help the new songs blend in, as with the exstistential "Wie aus Stein" with it's modern, atmospheric orchestrations, the pop-ish "Weil du Liebst" with its electric pianos and vibraphones and what not, and the tradional Disney light-hearted romance in "Hoch Uber der Welt." Don't worry though, the Gothic edge of the movie is still intact, in fact, the role of the chanting choir has been expanded to the vernacular as well as Latin.

Because the orchestra had to be shrunk down for the stage and performed live, several differences are apparent in the overall sound of this recording. For one, there is far less bass. The voices of the cast and sections of the orchestra are more cohesive. Some synthesizers are used to accomodate (you think they can fit an pipe organ in a pit?) However, the scope and complexity of the composition is far greater than the movie, and the moods are far more consistent, without that rift between kiddy and mature we all remember from the film. Check it out.

I can't wait to see what James Lapine is doing with this show. I like parts of the movie better than the whole--but I've always admired the score as Disney's most mature. The new Theatre production is overall great. At first the cuts seem slavish to the movie soundtrack, but it breaks free once it gets past the opening. The orchestrations and orchestra are first rate througout. The added bridges and extentions of original songs are great. The new songs are good--but it's hard to rate them as I don't speak/understand German--so I don't know their context. Some of the new songs (especially towards the end) do tend to sound more "poppy" than the original score, and also a bit out of place. The voices are for the most part great. Esmerelda starts out a bit shakey--but her "God Bless The Outcast" is great. Unfortunately, the later, more "pop" tunes bring her great voice back down to homogenized Broadway (aka "Le Mis" and "Miss Saigon"). I sometimes wished the chorus was a bit bigger--but not too often. And "A Guy Like You" didn't belong in the movie, and it doesn't belong in the play (unless Lapine has hammered it out to make sense!). I understand needing a lighter number at that stage of the play, but this is just too wacky. The recording is bright and clean. Can't wait to hear an English version. Hopefully by that time Mencken and Schwartz will have re-written the more "pop" sounding tunes into ones that sound like they belong in their wonderful original score.

There's an excellent website about this show that details its history, development, and production, and it includes the lyrics in German and English and an English translation of the script. It would do everyone well to research this musical before they criticize it:

[...]

The play itself has a more serious tone than the movie did, which is appropriate for a stage adaptation (much as I loved the movie). Quasimodo is mentally impaired in this version, and while he is unable to express himself to other characters in more than simple sentences, he conveys his pain, anger and frustration through song. Only through song can he articulate to the audience (and the gargoyles, who in the play are conveyed as figments of his imagination he created to ease his isolation and suffering, and who represent different aspects of his id and personality, rather than the crass attempts at humor of the insufferable Jason Alexander voiced gargoyle, Hugo) exactly what he is feeling. Imagine knowing what you want to say but not being able to say it. In "On Top Of The World," this dynamic is made especially clear when he is alone in the belltower with Esmeralda and the gargoyles urge him to say something romantic and clever to her, but he is simply unable to until the end of the song, when he says "It's nice here - the two of us sitting - on top of the world." Drew Sarich, in Quasimodo's role, has a very sweet and pure voice and is able to reach ridiculously high octaves to great emotional effect (although I think he lacked the shattering fragility of Tom Hulce's film Quasimodo). The other singers, most notably Frollo and Phoebus, as well as the supporting choir, are very strong as well. I don't think that the songs are too "pop" sounding, but the danger of becoming that way could be reduced if the supplementary music (like in "Someday") was played on more acoustic instruments and with greater bass, like in the movie soundtrack.

I personally would love to see this musical come to the United States. I don't think it would be a problem having the ending where Esmeralda actually dies, since there are deaths in other Disney productions (like Mufasa in the Lion King), and if they came up with an advertising campaign that made it clear that the play was different than the animated movie in significant aspects, most notably the changed and refined dialogue and additional songs, and that it was geared toward an older audience but was still appropriate for children over the age of 10, they could be very successful. Fans of the movie would definitely see it, and it might appeal to people who didn't care for the movie, because it's an adaptation that's closer to the Victor Hugo novel. Having read the script, I think the English translation could stand a little more refining, but it looks very promising, and I would be thrilled if Disney brought it to the United States. In the meantime, we will just have to watch bootlegged clips of Der Glockner von Notre Dame on YouTube.

[...]

Music is so subjective. When I saw the animated movie, I didn't think it was that great; but I did enjoy the music. As I watched the movie again (and again), both the movie and the music grew on me. I bought the CD of the German production and immediately loved it. The new songs "Top of the World" and "Esmeralda" are marvelous. And, now I know how "Someday" was meant to sound. I've seen the 35-minute Walt Disney World Hunchback stage production over 25 times. It is outstanding. I love "Out There" and "God Help the Outcasts". Also, "A Guy Likes You" is a real winner and fits wonderfully into the show. I can't wait to see a full production on the stage (in English). Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz have done a brilliant job.

This music is incredible! It holds so much power! I think Disney are on to a real winner here, and it amazes me that they don't want to bring it to Broadway. Let's hope it opens somewhere else so we can hear it in English. The new songs are just beautiful, some of them I think are better than the original ones. And kudos for kicking out that stupid court of miracles song. By the way, I found a website that has all the English lyrics if anyone's interested. (It's great, now I can sing along to the C.D.)

I purchased this CD back in December when it was being offered for 50.00 from a marketplace seller. And I do not regret paying for that price, seeing that the price has steadily rose to a near 200.00! :O

I agree with every other review presented on this site about the musical, the translation (if you figure out the English lyrics), and the cast. If there was ONE Disney musical that you would want on-stage, and accept with open arms. It would be this one one, right here.

It's no Mary Poppins, nor is it no AIDA. But it has something. It has heart, and it has a great driven story (no matter how Disney-ified). There were changes to make it more suitable to the original text.

If you take a listen to this CD (no matter what form you end up getting it in), and you don't feel compelled to place this higher among other Disney musicals after "Einmal"/"Someday", then there is something wrong with you.

One can only hope that this year, the workshop goes as intended to Broadway. If not, this is clearly a musical meant in some form or another.