Enhance Your Experience

Music, Reading & Resources

Opera Parallèle presents

La Belle et la Bête

by Philip Glass

Libretto by the Composer

based on the film by Jean Cocteau

These resources are to enhance your experience of La Belle et la Bête. Different versions of the fairy tale exist across different cultures, but the version best known in western traditions was first written in 1740 as a comment on the place of women in European society. Since then, the magical tale of a woman who promises herself as bride to the monster has inspired a diverse range of creators.

Poetry & Readings

Cast & Creative Team Interviews

Source Material – Film

Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau worked across almost every artistic discipline, exploring writing, painting and drawing, theatre and film, linking disparate forms of art making in explorations of myth, contemporary life, dream and sexual identity.

Original Film

Explore the original trailer

Philip Glass

In his own words - from the Edinburgh International Festival

Source Material – ORIGINAL STORY

The Women behind Beauty and the Beast

The Women behind Beauty and the Beast

  • Click to read more about the first iterations of the now classic tale.
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve

  • Click to read an original version from 1740.
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

  • Click to read the adapted version from 1756.

Panel conversation

A Tale as Old as Time:

Exploring Queer History and Identity Through Beauty and the Beast

From ‘the first gay character’ in a Disney movie in 2017 to Jean Cocteau’s relationship with his leading man Jean Marais (pictured right) in 1946 to Howard Ashman writing his timeless songs while dying of AIDS in the 90’s, Beauty & the Beast has a deep Queer history. Using the classic tale as a leaping point, Opera Parallèle and The Academy SF bring together an exciting and surprising panel to explore the themes of identity and perceptions of beauty in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.

Date: June 29, 2022,  6:30pm – 8pm

Venue: The Academy SF, 2166 Market St, San Francisco

Moderator: Michael ‘Mojo’ Mohammed

Panellists: Dr. Ellie Zara Ley, Hadleigh Adams – Baritone,Prof. Nicholas L. Baham, III , Ph.D.

Watch the full conversation here:

Jean Cocteau & Jean Marais on the set of La Belle et la Bête

READINGS on IDENTITY & Queer History

OTHER WORKS inspired by la belle et la bête

STAGE

Disney's Beauty & the Beast - Olney Theatre Center

'La Fauvette' from 'Zémire et Azor' - Pacific MusicWorks

DaNCE

Bruce Wells' Beauty & the Beast - Pacific Northwest Ballet

TORO: Beauty & the Bull by Carlos Pons Guerra for DeNada Dance Theatre

Literature

The Tiger's Bride

The Tiger's Bride

by Angela Carter

Beauty & the Beast

Beauty & the Beast

by H. Chuku Lee, Illustrations by Pat Cummings

 

  • A remarkable retelling of Beauty and the Beast flavored by the art, architecture, and culture of West Africa Click to learn more.

Popular Music

Film

'Beauty & the Beast' - Stevie Nicks

'Beauty & the Beat' (Album) - Edan

'Send me an Angel' - Real Life

'Beauty & the Beast' - Alec R. Costandinos

'Belle' - Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu

'Panna a netvor' - Czech Adaptation 1978