A Midsummer Night’s Virtual Reality (2005)
Music in the Play
According to William Shakespeare, "If music be the food of love, play on!".
I must admit that it would be pretentious to consider music like the food of theatre. However, good pieces of music seem to be important in the annual play.
This year, “A Midsummer Night’s Virtual Reality” was not an easy comedy to accompany with musicians. The thing that was most difficult was to compose for a wide range of ages. We knew that our predecessors generally prefer Frank Sinatra or Miles Davis. On the other hand, most of the pupils are in a trance when they listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers. We decided to choose varied styles of music : classical music, rock, jazz, romantic music... We had the choice between a lot of instruments : cello, violin, guitar, bass, drum, piano, clarinet. Our singer was Nina Olivet whose voice is as everybody noticed, wonderful.
Adrian Comolet and I composed respectively “Rock the Ground” and “Starcrossed Lovers”. However, we also chose well-known songs like “Highway to Hell” by ACDC or George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Classical music accompanied the nobles of the Athenian court. As for the pupils of the College, they performed Green Day’s songs during the interval.
We had a rehearsal each Wednesday in the music room of the Lycée - so I have to thank the music teachers for their kindness and their goodwill! We finally rehearsed with the actors one week before the play in the former station of Pont de Sèvres.
The three performances were intense and brilliant even if there were insignificant technical problems. The SEL helped us as if we were professionals - was, by the way, quite gratifying! The atmosphere among the musicians was unique, and all of us were really excited before each performance.
This play was a very good experience for all the musicians. We thank all the teachers for their patience and their enthusiasm, particularly Paddy who trusted us. To conclude, we are really impatient to enjoy another play next year!
Guillaume BOYER
Dernière modification le 19-05-06 par
