On The Aesthetic Characteristics Of "Notre Dame De Paris"

"Notre Dame de Paris", the French musical theatre which is based on Victor Hugo's tale of Quasimodo and Esmeralda, has been a phenomenal success since it was unleashed on the French-speaking world in 1998. The show has so far been seen by over four million spectators with the selling records of over 7 million album copies, over 1 million live video tapes, over 200 thousands DVDs and over 3 million single-song discs. It has been played in many towns and cities all over the world, including the Asian debut with serious repercussions in Beijing, 2002.Different from the musicals of the 20th century produced by Broadway in New York City and West End in London, "Notre Dame de Paris" plays down the function of narrative and puts emphasis on the music and stage performance. Singing and dancing are completely separated as well as relatively complemented. In addition, the stage design is concisely constructed with seldom changes during the show, which bring spectators ultimate pleasure of aesthetic.To the best of our knowledge, there are few work on the deep and concrete analysis of this successful musical interiorly, especially no discussion from the viewpoint of aesthetic and vocality. In the thesis, we analyze the aesthetic characteristics of "Notre Dame de Paris" in respects of basic music style, melodious composition, singing, dancing and tableaux. That is, Elegancy, Spectacularity, Nobility and Characteristic of Tragedy. Our work is conducted to attract more academic attention and study of the French musical, thereby providing enlightenment to the creators and performers of Chinese musical theatre.