Victor Hugo was convinced that his novel Notre Dame de Paris would be ideal for an opera. Later our compatriot, the composer Alexander Dargomyzhsky, wrote the opera Esmeralda on his own libretto. It was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1847, but was not a success. The same could not be said for the great musical, which appeared a century and a half later and for which music was composed by the French master songwriter Riccardo Cocciante.
After the resounding success of Notre Dame, the composer tried his hand at musical theater again, writing several theatrical shows, including The Little Prince and Juliet and Romeo, but they could not beat the success of the “big brother”. “Notre Dame” made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful musical project in history. And today it’s hard to find someone who has never heard the song Belle, in which Quasimodo, Frollo, and Phebe confess their love for Esmeralda in a heartbreaking trio.