Notre-Dame de Paris: Version anglaise, also marketed as simply Notre-Dame de Paris, is an album containing a cast recording of the English-language adaptation of the musical Notre-Dame de Paris. It was released in 2000 in France on the Pomme Music record label and internationally by Sony's subsidiaries Epic Records and Columbia.
Background The musical was translated into English by American lyricist Will Jennings, who, according to comparative analysis carried out by a Concordia University master's student, "reproduce[d] the style and content of the source text as closely as possible". Most of the English-language album's recording cast remained intact from the original French version. As noted by William Ruhlmann in his review for AllMusic, the French singers "adapt[ed] to the change in language without much trouble", "perhaps in part because Jennings' translations [were] so spare and simple."
The album also featured a "guest star", Celine Dion, who opened it with her rendition of the song "Live for the One I Love", repeated further on as sung by cast member Tina Arena.The album's covers. Dion's recording of the song, an English-language version of "Vivre", was previously available on her 1999 compilation titled All the Way... A Decade of Song.
Critical reception
The AllMusic website rates the album 3 stars out of 5. William Ruhlmann begins his review by noting that the original musical and its recordings were an "enormous" hit in France, but fails to understand "what the French found so compelling". He writes: 'This [album] makes [the musical] sound like a ballad-heavy show. Song after song is taken at a slow pace, with brief melodic motifs repeated over and over," and concludes that, based only on the album, he is "left wondering what all the fuss in Paris was about, since the show seems to drag along for most of its length." Among the cast, he singles out Garou, "who has a gravelly, Joe Cocker-like voice appropriate for the long-suffering Quasimodo." As for Tina Arena, he assesses her performance as "fine" and adds that he considers her version of "Live for the One I Love" to be better than that by "characteristically overexcited" Celine Dion.
On the other hand, in another review on the AllMusic website, Heather Phares describes the musical as "vivid and memorable" and Richard Cocciante's songs as "evocative".Attention: The review's text corresponds to the English version and doesn't match the cover and the track list.
Track listing CD – Pomme Music 952 612
Cast Esmeralda: Tina Arena Frollo: Daniel Lavoie Gringoire: Bruno Pelletier Quasimodo: Garou Phœbus: Steve Balsamo Clopin: Luck Mervil Fleur-de-Lys: Natasha St-Pier
Charts Chart (2000) Peakposition
References