'The Little Match Girl Passion'

Match Girl by Sarah Gooll Putnam 1874

Hip-hop minimalist award winning choral work, based on Bach's Passion? Not your usual seasonal offering but it sounds like an amazing project we had to look into a bit further this year, as it's not the first - or second - time it has crossed our radar.

This musical work has been performed before in many different ways, using puppets, as well as a more traditional theatrical presentations (one of which you can see some photos of HERE, and another, more contemporary treatment HERE). Every performance has been presented to critical acclaim, but this new staging looks different again, and this time there are dancers.

The teaser trailer doesn't really give much of an idea, unfortunately, but the concept sounds wonderful and potentially very moving. (We're very curious what the dancer roles are...)

From the press release by ArtsWest, in Seattle, CA:

Performance dates: DEC 11 – DEC 22 2016 

Composed by David Lang, 2008 

Based on The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson 

Modeled after Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, The Little Match Girl Passion is a modern, minimalist retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s tragic winter fairy tale. With only matches to keep her warm, a poor young girl, afraid to go home to her abusive father, takes shelter in an alley on a cold winter night. As she strikes each match, wonderful visions appear: when the last match is struck, the girl learns that the end of her suffering – and her life – is near. Featuring four of Seattle’s most critically acclaimed voices and the lyrical, hip-hop choreography of UJ Mangune, our production of David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning masterpiece is an intimate, unforgettable evening of music and dance. 

“The piece is at once an understated narrative and an ethereal meditation.” – The New York Times 

“David Lang’s retelling of Hans Andersen’s fairy tale is an entrancingly beautiful piece.” – The Guardian 

“Minimalist in form and quasi-medieval in its sublime austerity.” – The Los Angeles Times

UNICEF is "Giving Tales" To Help Children Around the World (With Some Help From Celebrity Friends)

Hans Christian Andersen's stories are getting retold to help children, with a little help from UNICEF and their celebrity friends. The project is called GivingTales.

Have a look at the neat behind-the-scenes promo video:

From LookToTheStars (emphasis in bold and underlined, is mine):

Developed in association with Sir Roger Moore, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, GivingTales features the voice talents of world-renowned actors including Ewan McGregor, Unicef UK Ambassador, Stephen Fry, and Dame Joan Collins. Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fairy tales have now been modernised, condensed and paired with vivid illustrations that capture the universal and timeless life lessons synonymous with Andersen’s stories.

“I’ve been a long time admirer of Hans Christian Andersen’s work, and I think it’s a wonderful collection of fairy stories for children and adults alike,” said Sir Roger Moore.

..Three additional stories are available in the first series: The Emperor’s New Clothes (Dame Joan Collins, DBE), The Little Match Girl (Ewan McGregor, OBE) and The Ugly Duckling (Stephen Fry). 

Today’s children are increasingly accustomed to consuming content in one short sitting. While paper books may be giving way to digital versions, classic fairy tales never grow old. There’s a big need to adapt traditional stories into shorter, animated versions, so they can captivate and inspire another generation of young readers.

“Taking care not to lose the essence of what makes Hans Christian Andersen’s stories so great, GivingTales has condensed the stories down so they can be enjoyed in minutes, not hours. Using the voices of renowned actors gives them new life in a memorable and entertaining way,” Jacob Moller, CEO of GivingTales. 

“We’re overwhelmed by the initial support we’ve received, both from the celebrities affiliated with our project, as well as our ongoing relationship with the Unicef UK. Together, we hope to make a difference in the lives of many of children around the world,” said Klaus Lovgreen, Chairman, GivingTales.

These newly retold and illustrated/animated stories have been developed by an award winning team that creates digital entertainment content, by making apps for Apple's App Store and GooglePlay. The first stories are becoming available this weekend (the first with Roger Moore as the narrator, retelling The Princess & the Pea, is free), with more stories and content to come in future weeks and months.

As part of the company’s mission to educate and support children, GivingTales kft is committing 30% of its revenue to Unicef UK to help children around the world.

Happy Summer Solstice Northern Hemisphere! (& news on Jasmine Becket-Griffith's upcoming Faerytale Oracle Deck)

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Just squeaking in super late in the longest day of the year to say Happy Summer Solstice!

This lovely rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream is by the popular and talented Jasmine Becket-Griffith, who is currently working on a new Faerytale Oracle Deck (with author Lucy Cavendish writing).

Being no stranger to using fairy tales as subjects for her work, I'm so curious to see how she portrays fairy tales and which ones she chooses to use.

Here are a few works she plans to include so far:

Brother & Sister

Rumpelstiltskin

The Little Match Girl

The Red Shoes

Snow White & Rose Red

Ms. Becket-Griffith's Oracle Deck is due out sometime during 2015 from Blue Angel Publishing.

The Serious Whimsy Of Beatrice Billard

 

Many of these works are a few years old now but the beautiful layering of the mysterious and the slight edge to these whimsical fairy tale paintings by Beatrice Billard never gets old.

Her portfolio included title and description so I thought those the best images to include. Her portfolio and blog have many many more beautiful and fantastic pieces so be sure to go check her out.

Endicott Studio did a short post on her in 2007 which gives us a little more information than is on her website. Check it out to see her artistic influences - you'll find yourself recognizing their influences but also marvel at how she's still made the art very much her own.

Many of these would be lovely as prints for a stairway or perhaps as a frieze for a little girl's room. Either way I'd love to find a set of cards with these tales so I could own a quality set of prints.

Although she has some work for sale in various places I haven't found any recent online activity by her for a couple of years. Hopefully that just means she's hard at work producing more beautiful pieces.

"Little Match Girl" in 3D from Vietnam

 

A new animation company in Vietnam, True-D, has just released a trailer for their first short film, "The Little Match Girl" and it's getting good reviews.

Why, you may ask, is a Vietnamese studio doing a western fairy tale when their own culture is so rich with stories? My guess is to appeal to the western world (ie. market).

Take a look (I've posted the trailer with subtitles and voiceover):



From the article:

True-D Animation’s representative said that “The Little Match Girl” is the first project in which the group’s members practiced their skills. The group now works on the second 3D animation project, based on a Vietnamese story. The company aims to make long 3D cartoons in the future.

True-D Animation is seeking the distributor of its first product this Christmas. If the cartoon cannot go to cinemas, the producer will post it on Youtube as the New Year gift.

 The studio currently has only a 10 or so person crew, so this achievement is additionally impressive. I wish them the best for finding representation.

Stories for the Season: The Little Match Girl

by ArtBIT

You were probably wondering if I forgot this tale but I was just saving it as my 'book end', since it's the first tale I mentioned this month.

by The Enigma (Ella Baru?)

development art from the Disney short directed by Roger Allers

by Jaqueline Hudon-Verrelli

You're most likely all familiar with the story so I won't repeat it except to tell you that the translation of the danish title actually means "The little girl with the sulphur sticks" - which makes it seem even more sad for some reason.

by Miwa Yanagi

In the middle of a stressful season it's good to remember to be thankful for all I have and to remember there are many who aren't nearly so lucky and that if I have the opportunity to help, I should.

by Tekkoman

by Ariel Padilla

I find different images/illustrations bring different emphasis to the story so thought I'd post a few - quite different from each other - that I've found in the past. (The SurLaLune blog has already had a "Little Match Girl" week and highlighted some lovely illustrated retellings so I'm focusing on one-off illustrations, although I've included a couple of classic for comparison.)

album cover for Loren Mazzacane Connors

by Honor C. Appleton


Laetitia Angot plays The Little Match Girl in the theater production by Martin Jaques

scene from the Disney short directed by Roger Allers

by Christian Birmingham


by McLelun

by Robert Dress

And one little charm in a matchbox - a collaboration by Zoe Sernack and Lang Leav.
In addition I found a special Match Girl book, by artist Chloe Lan, which cleverly uses text to both tell the story, set the scene and communicate the mood of the story. I've included one example below. Click to view larger and read the text:

Click HERE to view some other pages and to learn more about the book.

I couldn't complete this entry with at least a little film so found a lovely, 'conceptual art animation' for you by Charlene Wienhold (a.k.a. AuroraInk on deviantArt) who has an amazing portfolio HERE. Enjoy:


I also wanted to mention a story titled Little Piccola by Francis Jenkins Olcott. This story reminds me of The Little Match Girl very much except it has a happy ending - and the girl lives to see another Christmas.

You can read the original poem the story was adapted from HERE.

Piccola, illustration from McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader
St Nicholas Center Collection

Marc Schömann's Match Girl

I found this set of story photos on the Behance Network and it does a brilliant job of telling the story of The Little Match Girl in a modern context, without needing a single word.

The creator is young German photographer and artist Marc Schömann. Click HERE to see his portfolio and, if you like his Match Girl, you can click below the photo set (on its dedicated page) to show your appreciation anonymously.

Hans Christian Andersen set his tale in a snowy, Christmas-time context and both the tale and this photo story remind us to count our blessings and think of others during the season.