Stephen Sondheim, the last Broadway legend

“To God in Broadway”

.

One could say of Stephen Sondheim in the world of musical comedy in the United States, the same thing as of Jean d'Ormesson in France for a few decades:

Read also

Stephen Sondheim possessed a rare genius: he was both a man of theater and music. His definition of a good musical?

he replied. Not a word too much in his texts. But not a crooked note either in the scores of someone who admitted to being fascinated by Ravel or Satie. He created a unique and unparalleled blend of swing and contemporary music. With a very precise art of merging notes and words to embody the deep personality of one of his heroes and translate this or that situation.

In France, it was not until the arrival of Jean-Luc Choplin at the head of the Châtelet in 2004 to see his pieces.

Without his name being known, he was already heard there.

The texts of

, that's him.

sung by Sinatra or Barbra Streisand, it's him again.

The same goes for the songs of

, including the famous

, taken up like the others in the version of Tim Burton.

Or

sung by Madonna.

And

with Alain Resnais is also him.

He owes a lot to Oscar Hammerstein II

Sondheim owes a lot to Oscar Hammerstein II. The 10-year-old suffers when his father leaves for another woman. His mother transfers this failure to her only son and mistreats him. She moved to Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Stephen fortunately befriends James Hammerstein, who is none other than the son of Oscar Hammerstein II, the prominent librettist in the musical world. When he meets him, Hammerstein, who notably signed

with Jerome Kern, begins a long collaboration with Richard Rogers. Together they will sign,

,

,

,

,

. Stephen falls in love with this world whose heads, music, and spirit make Hammerstein living room sparkle with glamor and bourbon. And Oscar finds the child - who was put on the piano at the age of four - endearing and unique.

At fifteen, Stephen submits a work of his own to his mentor and asks him to assess it bluntly. "

says Hammerstein, going into details.

Sondheim recalls. To extend the exercise, Hammerstein asks him to compose four

: on a piece he admires, on a piece he loves but considers imperfect, on a non-dramatized novel. A free subject closes the exercise.

Sondheim joined Williamston College in Massachussets. Robert Barrow his teacher allows him to have a revelation:

Sondheim understands that the mathematics that go into the principle of composition are perhaps at least as important as inspiration. He studied music at Princeton. His teacher Milton Babbitt, the American twelve-tone player, had him dissect Rodgers and Gershwin as well as Mozart's Jupiter symphony.

At 20, in 1950, Sondheim graduated. Throughout his studies, Hammerstein introduced him to productions with the role of assistant or coach, notably on

and

. But Sondheim wonders about cinema.

, says Jean Luc Choplin, who at the head of Châtelet then of Marigny programmed musicals of excellence.

In fact, the composer moved to Holywood, setting up a makeshift camp in his father's dining room. He hopes to write for the studios. Failing to break through, he watches films. Not musicals. He prefers the dramas of the 40s and 50s to them. His creations will exploit this vein. Sondheim will be as capable of writing a musical about an unrepentant bachelor (Company) as about a bloody barber who slaughters his clients who are sold in the form of pies (Sweeney Todd), a stroll in nature with Seurat

, a

, or crazy fairy tales (

).

In 57, he was still looking for himself when the playwright Arthur Laurents asked him to work on a new version of

. Bernstein would like a lyricist. Jerome Robbins will regulate the dances. Sondheim ticks a bit because he would like to write music. Hammerstein convinced him to accept.

registered from the first as one of the great successes of the musical. Sondheim, however, is still struggling to see his star shine. He signs his first musical, inspired - you have to expect everything with Sondheim - by the Latin author Plaute:

.

It was

in 1970, with reminiscences of Satie's Gymnopédies, which earned him a consecration with two Tony Awards for lyrics and music. Hal Prince signs the staging like that of most of the shows of this decade. The story takes place in the mind of a bachelor who fails to bond with any woman. Sondheim's originality now has its place on Broadway. It is even celebrated and awaited. The following year he signed

, a tribute to the Ziegfields, then in 1973

, a romantic crossover inspired by Ingmar Bergman's film. The music looks in the direction of Listz and Rachmaninoff. In 74, he worked again with Bernstein for

. In 76, he signed

on the modernization of Japan at the end of the 19th century: Sondheim is inspired by Kabuki - men play the roles of women and students dressed in black come to change the costumes on sight - haikus and Japanese music with shamizen . Once again, as with each of the previous titles, distinctions are raining down. In 1979,

opened

. The mood on stage is the dark and eerie England of the Victorian era that Dickens would celebrate. The music borders on twelve-tone.

In 1984, Sondheim partnered with James Lapine to start

.

A work that takes place entirely - but at a hundred intervals - in the canvas of George Seurat,

.

In 87, he wrote

where Rapunzel and Cinderella rub shoulders in a hilarious scenario with Jack, her beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood.

Read also

His last work for the stage will be

, adapted from

by Ettore Scola. The musical register looks this time towards the opera. In total, Sondheim has a Pulitzer Prize, an Oscar, 18 Drama Desk Award, 8 Grammy Awards, 8 Tony Awards, 5 Laurence Oliver Awards.

“He completely changed the history of musical comedy by inventing musical theater, Du théâtre dit en musique. a modern theater which puts time in abyss, which questions linearity. Characters who made the wrong decisions. So I wanted to program it in Paris "

, explains Jean-Luc Choplin, who presents his works for the first time in France from 2008.

Sondheim was delighted to see his works taken up with big funds, which no longer belong to Broadway, and a Philharmonic orchestra, rather than a simple band of about fifteen musicians. He had a lapidary judgment on Broadway: