''Opéra Sauvage'' is a soundtrack album by the Greek

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

composer

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

, released in 1979. It is the score for the nature documentary of the same title by French filmmaker

Frédéric Rossif Frédéric Rossif (February 16, 1922 – April 18, 1990) was a French film and television director who specialized primarily in documentaries, frequently using archive footage. Rossif's common themes included wildlife, 20th-century history and conte ...

. It is considered one of Vangelis' best albums, and is his second most successful album in the USA, reaching #42 in the album charts.

Overview

Vangelis produced this album during his electro-acoustic period, which was one of the most productive in his musical career. ''Opéra Sauvage'' is more akin to his classic sound than his earlier nature scores for the same director,

, such as ''

L'Apocalypse des animaux ''L'Apocalypse des animaux'' is a soundtrack album by Greek composer Vangelis. The album's music accompanied a documentary series about the animal kingdom directed by Frédéric Rossif that was first broadcast on French TV in 1970. Track list ...

'' and ''

La Fête sauvage ''La Fête sauvage'' (''The Wild Party'') is an original score album, by Greek composer Vangelis (as Vangelis Papathanassiou in some releases), from the 1975 documentary about animal wildlife ''The Wild Nation, La Fête Sauvage'', by Frédéric R ...

''. A later collaboration with Rossif in the style of ''Opéra sauvage'' was ''Sauvage et Beau''. "Hymne" was re-recorded in choral version for the 1991 Eureka concert by Vangelis in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

Release

The album reached #42 in the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

, and stayed in the charts for 39 weeks.

Instrumentation

Vangelis plays several

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

(featured extensively on "Rêve"), drums, percussion, xylophone, as well as acoustic & bass guitar ("Chromatique"). Jon Anderson is credited with playing

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

on "Flamants Roses".

Composition

The album is full of classical-based and warm melodies, orchestrated with

Yamaha CS-80 The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer released in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of hardwired preset voice set ...

sounds. "Hymne", "L'Enfant", "Mouettes" and "Irlande" build on fairly simple themes that are developed instrumentally. "Rêve" is, indeed, as the title suggests, a dreamy calm piece with the hint of jazz in the climax. "Chromatique" has a chromatic instrumental line with chords on an acoustic guitar. "Flamants Roses", finally, consists of several parts, from slow to upbeat, and finishing off with a bluesy finale;

Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...

features prominently on harp.

Reception

In the

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review it is described as "rich, electronic orchestrations range from grandly symphonic to simple and serene", and as an "excellent introduction to his music".

Track listing

Personnel

–

s and all instruments *

– harp on "Flamants Roses" ;Production *Vangelis – producer, arranger, artwork and cover design *Keith Spencer-Allen, Raphael Preston, Marlis Duncklau – engineers *Raphael Preston, Marlis Duncklau – assistant engineers *Hitoshi Takiguchi – mastering engineer *Veronique Skawinska – photography *Tokiwa Kinoshita – art coordinator *Minoru Harada – product manager

Other appearances

*A documentary on the ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a de ...

'' (1981) special-edition DVD-video relates that director

Hugh Hudson Hugh Hudson (born 25 August 1936) is an English film director. He was among a generation of British directors who would begin their career making documentaries and television commercials before going on to have success in films. He directed the ...

intended to use the 7/4 piece "L'Enfant", which he was particularly fond of, as the opening titles over the first scene on the beach, until Vangelis talked him into letting him compose the iconic ''Chariots of Fire'' theme. The director then had "L'Enfant" being played in the film by a brass band as

source music Diegetic music or source music is music in a drama (e.g., film or video game) that is part of the fictional setting and so, presumably, is heard by the characters. The term refers to diegesis, a style of storytelling. The opposite of source m ...

. A re-recorded version of "Hymne" was used as the score cue for

Eric Liddell Eric Henry Liddell (; 16 January 1902 – 21 February 1945) was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and Christian missionary. Born in Qing China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended boarding school near London, spending time when p ...

's first race in the

Scottish highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. *"L'Enfant" was included in the soundtrack of the film '' The Year of Living Dangerously'' (1982) by

Peter Weir Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born August 21, 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He's known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ''Gallipoli'' (1981), ''Witness ...

. *It was also used as the theme for the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

in USA. *"Hymne" was the tune of

Barilla ''Barilla'' refers to several species of salt-tolerant (halophyte) plants that, until the 19th century, were the primary source of soda ash and hence of sodium carbonate. The word "barilla" was also used directly to refer to the soda ash obtained ...

pasta television advertisements aired in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

throughout the 1980s. In the US, it was the tune for Ernest & Julio Gallo wine advertisements. *"L'enfant" was the main title music of the Hungarian TV program "A Hét" (The Week) in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. * A sample of "Rêve" was used in the 2002 single "Solarcoaster" by ''

Solarstone Richard Mowatt, commonly known by his stage name Solarstone (formerly spelled Solar Stone), is an Irish trance DJ and producer based in Wales. The music project Solarstone was founded as a trio, and also used the pseudonyms Young Parisians, Liq ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

''Opera Sauvage''
at Vangelis Movements {{DEFAULTSORT:Opera Sauvage 1979 albums 1979 soundtrack albums Vangelis soundtracks Vangelis albums Polydor Records albums Polydor Records soundtracks