About the work
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a musical by Alan Menken (music) and Stephen Schwartz (lyrics) with a German book by Michael Kunze, which had its world premiere in Berlin in 1999—a notable fact, as the work was first created in German. It is based on the Disney animated film and Victor Hugo's novel.
Plot
In fifteenth-century Paris, the deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo lives in isolation in the tower of Notre-Dame Cathedral, kept there by the stern archdeacon Frollo. When Quasimodo falls in love with the beautiful Roma woman Esmeralda, he is caught between his own longing, Frollo's forbidden desire, and the persecution of the Roma. As Frollo, torn between piety and lust, grows ever more fanatical, Quasimodo fights to save Esmeralda. The German version follows Hugo's dark novel more closely than the Disney film.
Cultural significance
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is notable in that the musical had its world premiere in German in Berlin and was only later performed in an English version. Menken's score, carried by large chorus and sacred sounds—including Der Glöckner von Notre Dame and Einmal (Someday)—is regarded as one of his most ambitious. The work combines Disney melody with the gravity and tragedy of Hugo's source.