Mademoiselle Saigon?

November 12th
Did you know that once upon a time Vietnam was a French colony?
I didn't! No idea in fact! So I write to you this post in the hopes that I may impart some knowledge of the history of French involvement in Vietnam as well as how I came across this knowledge.
So from the 17th century to the 19th century France was in Vietnam trying to convert the people to Christianity and helping them to see the light of God. Under the pretext of protecting the work of Catholic missionaries in the 19th century France was able to form the French Indochina which was part of the French colonial empire in South Asia and France ruled Vietnam until they lost the French Indochina war in 1954...
Some of you may be sitting there, scratching your head and thinking to yourself "France had an empire?" Well it would appear so and it would appear that our teachers have been holding back on our learning of other countries.
But why is this relevant to me?

Well I was researching for my Commercial Theater essay that's due in December and I have to do a lot of research on Miss Saigon, a megamusical set during and after the Vietnam war with America that began in 1965. That's 11 years after Vietnam became it's own country suddenly the American's are descending upon them. But in this musical there is a character named the Engineer and he's a half-French half-Asian character.
His race alone caused enough trouble in American media but the funny thing about this man is his tendency to throw in little french mannerisms and sayings here and there in his songs. I couldn't for the life of me think why or why his french mother would happen to be in Vietnam in the first place to get pregnant with a Vietnamese man....it's all been explained now.
It is also very important I think to mention since this blog is for a french class that the writer and composer of  Miss Saigon were both Frenchmen. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. These were also the creators of Les Miserables, another megamusical based on the Victor Hugo novel. An important fact is that these men are french, when they write their musicals they write them in french and then work with a translator to translate them to English and fix all the rhyming and then set it to the music. It is a very long process.
But anyways, just a fun fact about Vietnamese history portrayed through a musical for you readers.
Peace <3
Cecilly

Toreaor, L'amour T'attend!

November 5th
OMG! I am so happy!
So I'm in this opera history class and in September I saw on the syllabus that we were going to talk about Carmen so I have been waiting very impatiently for 2 months and finally! The day is here!
Honestly I could not explain to you my love for this opera. It was the first opera I ever saw and I was about 15 when I saw it but there is something about a woman who can sashay across a stage singing la la la la and still manage to hypnotize men that every woman should aspire to have. (link)
And also that just because the woman he loves decides she no longer wants to be with him drives Don Jose so crazy that he kills her! Cause that makes sense.
Can't have the woman you want? Better kill her.
Also I think it's the only opera in French I've ever seen. Sure there are lots of operas that take place in France, La Boheme and La Traviata but very few come to mind that are actually in French. Of course, it's set in Spain because of the exoticism that Spain has and because of the sensor laws in place in France during the 1800s.
I think this would have to be attributed to how opera originated in Italy. Many composers from the 1600's onward would continue to go back to Italy to learn the style and while there would learn Italian and then compose in Italian. Or German! I can think of quite a few German operas without having to bring in Wagner and his almighty Rhinegold.
Regardless, even if there aren't many french operas that I can think of off the top of my head they have had plenty of other influences on music.
For example, Claude Debussy was a fantastic composer and Giacomo Meyerbeer, though true he was German, wrote plenty of things for the Parisian opera in French.
If it weren't for the french, Grand Opera would have never become a style!
But anyways, basically I am just so happy to be able to dedicate a 3 hour class to watching Carmen drive men crazy and if you ever have the chance to watch a production of it you should absolutely go.
It even has some dialogue in it, which is usually unheard of in opera, and is very easy to follow along to if you speak or understand french. None of that usual ornamentation of words that the Italians do.
So go see Carmen! Or listen to it when you have the chance! You won't regret it! You'll probably even know some of the songs.