第293期:曲外之音-弑兄夺王位,动物世界版的哈姆雷特
日期:2022-01-10 13:32

(单词翻译:单击)

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Welcome back to our new segment, the Sound of Musicals. Welcome back to the studio, Oliver.

Thank you. I'm excited to talk about today's musical again.

The Lion King.

The Lion King definitely.

You know, first of all, I would like to say either the movie or the musical, what really attracts me is how exotic it looks. I know they’re supposed to be lions and animals, but it's this whole African theme behind it.

Yeah, the whole idea of this kingdom of lions and animals in the heart of Africa, and the music has African influences, especially the Circle of Life, the big opening song has lots of Africa influences to it.

Beautiful.

It's fantastic music, it really is. And yes the whole show, the whole musical has got a lot of African influence.

Especially the costumes, right? Everyone who has been to the actual performance, the actual musical performance of Lion King, they raved about how great the costumes look.

Yes when I went to see this, the thing I came away remembering the most were the costumes, because it's a … the movie was a cartoon, it was animation you could do what you want. But how do you make people into lions and giraffes and zebras and all of the different animals, and they did it fantastically with some amazing masks and costumes.

And even at one point people had grass on their head to show the Savannah, the land that Simba and his father had. They walked across with grass on their head, which is fantastic. It's such a nice way of showing the setting, the place and the show itself.

Yeah I mean this is the magic of stage performance, because it sounds, I mean, when we are talking about it, people with grass on their heads, it sounds like a kind of a funny idea, but it really when you actually see it really just all blends in together. When you're actually in the theater, you could really feel that is all tied in together with this one theme, with this one story.

Uh, by the way, just wanted to ask you, your theater group probably have never done Lion King, but with other sorts of musicals or theater performance, how did you deal with the costume issue? That must be very difficult with limited budget.

Sometimes it was yes. As a youth theater group, we had the benefit of parents to get involved. So lots of the costumes and the people who made our costumes, they were parents of the children in the show itself. And sometimes for some costumes, we had to find somewhere to hire them. We rented them for a week or two. And then we gave them back. But for most of them, especially with musicals in a modern setting, the parents could make the clothes or find the clothes and they worked very, very hard. There was sometimes 20 to 25 children in the show and each one may be needed two or three different sets of clothes to wear, which is a lot of clothes to make for two or three parents, that's a lot of work to do. So they worked very very hard.

Yeah, so you gotta be both very good at sewing, making clothes and also be very enthusiastic or very supportive of your kids.

You do definitely. And very well organized too. I couldn't have done it.

Exactly. So dragging our talk back to the actual music.

So there are so many wonderful pieces. I mean, I have to admit a lot of these I got into the music when I was watching the movie, the original the 1994 Lion King Disney film. Even the first time I watched the movie, I was immediately drawn to some of the musical pieces like Hakuna Matata. That was just such a happy tone.

It is a fantastic song. Yes, it's very very good.

Let's listen to that bit.

Great.

You know it's almost like one of those songs that you can just hum to.

You can. I think when you hear a few times, it never really leaves your head. I could hum it very easily right now and I haven't heard it for …

Yeah, what a wonderful phrase Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze, it means no worries for the rest of your days. Every time I feel down, I listen to the song, it's such a pick-me-up.

It is. It is a fantastic pick-me-up. It's a great feel-good-song about forgetting about your worries. Responsibility and problems, nah, forget about them, relax, means no worries.

Exactly. And I think that was originally from Swahili, African language, and it actually does mean no difficulties, no problem.

I did not know that, learning something as well.

The other score (电影配乐) that I really like is Circle of Life, because to me, that is, compared to Hakuna Matata is more like a really light hearted piece, the Circle of Life, it just paints this grand picture of life and death and of nature and human beings maybe, or how every creature sort of features into this whole big white world. What do you think?

I completely agree, the Circle of Life is a fantastic way to open the show, and it just makes you think of how big, how vast but how connected the world is and everything in the world. The Circle of Life has the king at the top but everybody is important. Everything underneath has its place. It has a responsibility and a duty. As we were talking about with conflicts, they have their place. It's a fantastic opening for a show I think, yes.

Yeah, it's fantastic, it's grand and it's very powerful. And let's listen to that.

I like this whole, I'm not sure, I think they're more like the African language, some sort of African language or languages. Then when you have the chorus in the very beginning, it just immediately gets you into that exoticness of it.

It does, yes. It shows you straight way that this is Africa. This is Africa, the chanting at the beginning, the instruments they use, everything just shouts Africa. And then you see the animals, you see the place and it is, it's a gripping opening for a show and for a movie. Yeah.

So we mentioned this Hakuna Matata, Circle of Life. Any other musical score that really impressed you?

Well one that really got me was Scar’s song to the Hyenas Be Prepared.

Oh, I love that one!

Because it's the complete opposite of the Circle of Life and Hakuna Matata, these songs about responsibility and duty, and then Hakuna Matata with relaxed don't worry. You've got a military song, Be Prepared where Scar is preparing to take over. It's very very different.

Yeah, I have to say if you think about it, obviously when Disney was trying to show all these funny characters and then have this song, you feel like it's comical, somewhat comical or it's scary but not in that realistic way. But if you think about it, it's certainly I don't know, it certainly bears some sort of resemblance to some parts of history when you think this military marching was somewhat of a dictator there, and that kind of scares me.

Yes, when you think about it, it’s a very unsettling song, everything else talks about the Circle of Life we work together, but Be Prepared is Scar is the boss, you do what he says. That's it. There is no questions, there's no working together. This is the order, this is it and certainly from the movie the scene I remember is Scar standing on the rock and the hyenas marching underneath him. That is a very unsettling and scary reference to history. Yes.

I always remember when these idiotic hyenas were like “no king, no king, la la la …” and Scar says “Idiots! There will be a king! I will be king!” And then he says, the Lyrics goes on, “Of course, quid pro quo you're expected. To take certain duties on board. The future is littered with prices; and though I'm the main addressee, the point that I must emphasize is, you won't get a sniff without me!”

It's just this whole, really this tyrant, this dictator image. And do you know, in the movie, Scar, the one who dubbed Scar is Jeremy Irons, one of these all-time favorite actors.

He is a fantastic actor and I think Scar is one of his very very good roles for him. It was very good. He did the menacing side with the hyenas, but also the sort of the underdog side with Mufasa quite well. So played along with Mufasa, but he was menacing when he needed to. It was a very good part.

Exactly, and to mention that Jeremy Irons was classically trained started off in Old Vic actually. All right let's listen to that. Let’s listen to Be Prepared. And I actually chose the Jeremy Irons’ version.

Oh fantastic.

Because it's a powerful piece, very different mood and vibe.

It is very good.


All right, I think we're approaching the end of today's show, but just to end on a slightly more romantic and more light hearted warm notes rather than be prepared a military March, let's end with another very popular, almost so popular people forget it's from Lion King. They think it's a perhaps more like a just like, a generic romance song, pop song. This is Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

And on that note, thank you so much, Oliver, for coming to the studio again, certainly had a lot of fun talking to you about musicals.

Yeah, thank you for having me back. This is always a big enjoyment for me to come and talk about the musicals that I enjoy. Yes.

So after that, let's think about our next musical.

Meanwhile, if you guys have any ideas or you would like for us to talk about any particular musical that you like, that your favorite, leave us a comment in the comment section. Also tell us what you think about. Lion King the musical. See you next time. Bye.

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