Music of Der Glöckner von Notre Dame“ Part 6

This is the sixth part of my review on the music of Der Glöckner von Notre Dame

Trommeln in der Stadt 

Trommeln in der Stadt (Drums in the City) is a new song that uses Sanctuary from the original soundtrack. This song opens Act 2 and it expresses what the citizens think of Crazy Frollo’s search for Esmeralda. At first when they though it as just about “cleansing” (creepy word choice huh?) the city of Gypsies that was fine but with the all the soldiers, blockages and fire they’re are none to happy about it.

Like I said this song uses the music from Santuary, which is the music playing when Quasimodo is recusing Esmeralda from the Pyre in the movie, so the music is great. It’s dramatic and has high energy which is a great way to start the the second act. It also great to see how the normal people of Paris react to Frollo’s obsession.

 

 Ein Mann wie du

Ein Mann wie du (A Man like you) is A Guy like you. It pretty much the same as the original song but it’s less annoying.  Instead of making visual gags the Gargoyles throw random French words and phases into the song. Which isn’t as annoying as it sounds.

The song has one other difference Quasimodo sings in it. From what I can understand of the lyrics (because my German is non-existence) is that Quasimodo expresses that he wants to believe the Gargoyles but doesn’t quite. Musically I don’t think it adds much  I guess it adds a bit of character development because this musically is a a lot guilty at throwing Quasimodo at the audience but at least he is more interesting here than the Disney movie Quaismodo.

Given that this song in it’s conception is song that provides levity it’s a little awkwardly placed in this musical. As movies have continuous action something was need after Hellfire, the torture of Gypsies, the burning of the house, Phoebus getting shot and falling in the river  to bright up the mood and while I don’t like A Guy like you  at least the placement makes sense. Ein Mann wie du as a song of levity doesn’t really work. It’s the second song in Act 2 so the audience has had  a break and the song prior didn’t have an emotional investment in it as it’s just about the Citizens of Paris.  So ultimately and this pains me to say it’s not as successful as A Guy like you, it’s just better performed and not nearly as annoying.

So it’s mixed I don’t hate this song as I hate it’s Disney counterpart but I dislike the song in the musical as it doesn’t work as it’s concept intended. It hard because I like 10x better than the Movie version.

Next Time-
Weil du liebst
Tanz der Zigeuner
Weil du liebst

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