Credits, dedications and thanks
Above all, the composer must thank Laurent de Brunhoff, the eldest son of Jean de Brunhoff for his consistent encouragement and help in untying the numerous knots and complex demands of this project. And to Mr. S.T. Semba, for the initial idea of composing the music for this project. A project this large and complex can only be accomplished with the help of many. A partial list of names continues below:
The new HD multimedia uses original watercolors of Jean de Brunhoff for his Voyage de Babar from
The Collection of the BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE
supplemented by additional original Jean de Brunhoff watercolors from
The Morgan Library
The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection
The Charles Collection
and anonymous collectors
Multimedia directed by Raphael Mostel with the assistance of (in alphabetical order):
Jenny Bee
Elliott Forrest
Anna Kiraly
Jack Lindholm
Sharon MacNair
Jeff Young
Dedicatees of the new orchestral version of The Travels of Babar
The entire Babar’s Return to the Land of the Elephants is dedicated to:
ANNA-MARIA KELLEN
Individual scenes of Babar’s Honeymoon are dedicated to (alphabetical order):
Antoinette Wasson Ayres
Alexandra and Meirav Drinkwater
Emma Rose Farrell
Benjamin Lev Farrell
Noah Farrell
Anna-Maria Kellen (two scenes)
Reese, Cole and Drew Miller
Ingeborg Ten-Haieff (two scenes)
Benjamin Michael Trader
Tracey & David Zabar & sons
Raphael Mostel’s score for The Travels of Babar was originally commissioned for a CD release of a reading of the book in Japan by Mr. S. T. Semba, and the music was inspired by the artistry of the pianist Aki Takahashi. Source Music, Inc. produced the recording of the music for this release. The ensemble for the recording was personally selected and conducted by the composer, and included Ms. Takahashi on piano and celesta. Max Wilcox supervised the production sessions and editing. The CD release in Japan wtih the late rock star Kiyoshiro Imawano as narrator, reading the Jean de Brunhoff text.
Prior to the recording, Source Music, Inc. also produced a full performance with multimedia and the composer conducting and Laurent de Brunhoff narrating, for invited audience at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University
The composer is profoundly grateful to Laurent de Brunhoff for his enthusiastic help in acquiring performance rights, which were not included in the original commission from Japan. The late Jacob M. Weinstein, esq. and Jeremy Nussbaum, esq. provided essential and complex legal work
Thanks are due to Kent Nagano for arranging the first public performance of the complete Travels of Babar with musicians of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. Baseball great Tony La Russa narated in the new English translation of Phyllis Rose
The Florence Gould Foundation provided generous funding for the creation of the original full digital multimedia production of the complete work at Florence Gould Hall of the French Institute / Alliance Française in NYC. Laurent de Brunhoff once again narrated his father’s text in the world premiere performance of Mostel’s complete Voyage de Babar in the original French. Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson narrated the other performances. Subsequent narrators have included Phylicia Rashad, Claire Bloom, Bobby Short, Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara
Thanks are due to Paul L King and the education program of the former New York City Opera for the creation of the 80-page study guide to the work, produced with the assistance of education program of the Metropolitan Opera Guild under the direction of David Dik, when the original production was presented for 8,000 students of the New York metro area as an introduction to music and to music-theater. This project and the related study guide remain the one and only collaboration between the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the New York City Opera in history.
The new High-Definition multimedia was created and directed by the composer, who gratefully acknowledges the indispensable help of Laurent de Brunhoff and also the assistance of GOH Productions / Seven Loaves Inc. This HD multimedia required the assistance in particular of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which owns most of the known surviving watercolors of Jean de Brunhoff for his Voyage de Babar. Supplementing these BnF watercolors are all of the other known surviving watercolors, from The Morgan Library, the Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection, the Charles Collection and anonymous private collectors. The composer gratefully acknowledges the assistance and expertise of Michael Patrick Hearn in the discovery of many of the supplemental privately-held watercolors.
Thanks are also due once again to Kent Nagano for arranging the world premiere performance of the new version for full orchestra of Le Retour de Babar aux Pays des Éléphants by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the Maison Symphonique. For the U.S. premiere of Babar’s Return to the Land of the Elephants by the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F Kennedy Center for the Arts, thanks are also due to Deborah Rutter and Gianandrea Noseda.
More thanks coming!
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Contact: info [at] mostel.com