Act I, Scene I, is done! (in concept!)

So, I've been pondering over Act I, Scene 1. It's really important to me that I make a good first impression to the audience musically, and remain true to the movie as well.

However, this also involved a little more thought into the background of the staging and actors. What I'm thinking is having six square rooms set up like a 2-story dollhouse on stage; this way, we can have six apartments for the characters to live in. It will look something like this incredibly detailed sketch.

In any case, The lights will only be up in Louison's apartment (at this time in the show, the apartment is not Louison's, since he has not yet been introduced), and in the Delicatessen. An unnamed actor (probably one of the folks who will eventually play a Troglodiste) will be dressing in trash in that room while Clapet sharpens his knives. Musically, there will be a low drone and slow, quiet, menacing statements of Clapet's leitmotif, slowly combining with the "scheme" leitmotif because of the trash dresser's scheme. Eventually, the "fate" leitmotif will begin playing, and intensity builds as the escapist jumps in the trash can and the trash truck comes up. The scene can play out exactly as in the movie, except this time we'll be seeing it from the outside. Clapet throws his cigarette into the trash can and hears the "ow!", which causes him to carry the trash can back inside and pick up his cleaver. When he swings his cleaver into the trash can, the lights go out and the escapist screams.

The lights come up in the outer rooms, where the other actors will be situated with instruments playing a piece in ironic contrast to the previous scene: probably a nostalgic musette which introduces the leitmotifs of Louison and Julie, foreshadowing a Love Duet. This should probably be brief, as overtures tend to bore modern audiences, so I'm thinking a standard ABA' form or something along those lines, which is not uncommon for musettes anyway. The B section may introduce the other characters and their interactions, especially including Aurore and the Troglodistes.

As for what else I'm going to work on, I think what I want to do next is decide where to end Act I and work on a big finale for it. I'm sure there's a perfect scene to do it in, so I'm just going to review my notes. I'm imagining a big ensemble number, though it also occurs to me that I could just do something fantastic with the first appearance of the Troglodistes to leave the audience excited for when everything goes sour.

Thank you all for reading, again. I'm sorry if this got overly musical and esoteric, but I'd still love your input!

And I have a Leitmotif!

So, after pondering further and further on the point of quoting Dies Irae, I think I've got a great way to start the show in a way parallel to the movie. The first scene of the movie is rather vague and dark, establishing the evil that is Clapet. It features him sharpening a knife while an unnamed character in another room dresses himself in trash and hops in the trash can.

Now, establishing this musically can be an interesting thing. The silence of the movie is beautiful--eerie, off-putting, and full of anxiety. So I don't know if it would be distasteful of me to adulterate the silence. However, my goal is to portray the story musically, and I was thinking I could establish Clapet's power by giving him a piano solo on stage while the character dressing in trash monologues about fate.

This gave me a wonderful idea of having all of the actors play instruments respective of their personalities on-stage. It would be fantastic. I mean, Julie already plays the cello in the movie, and Louison the musical saw. I could really bring out the characters through their instruments--I imagine Aurore playing clarinet, her husband Georges on the accordion, and for some reason I think Plusse should play something sophisticated, like the harp. I really think there's a depth of character to Plusse I could really play with.

But as for the opening scene, what I'm thinking is opening with the Dies Irae quote as a big flourish on the piano as if to say "I am Clapet, and I am in charge of this music!" and then going straight into a combination of two leitmotifs I have in mind--a descending chromatic scale representing fate, and another churning, engine-like sound to represent Clapet's scheming. The two come to a head when the trash can workers throw a cigarette into the trash can (in the movie, it's Clapet who does so, but he won't be able to do so on stage when he's playing the piano) and the unnamed character says "ow!" The trash can workers then bring the trash can into Clapet, who suddenly stops the music, picks up a meat cleaver and walks over to the trash can in silence. The lights suddenly go black, and Unnamed Man screams. This is followed by all the lights coming up on stage, and all of the actors start playing a joyous, quirky Musette, highlighting all of their leitmotifs, and I think I'd like to end it with a good ol' fashioned Rossini crescendo à la Candide.