L'Oiseau Bleu
Encyclopedia
The Blue Bird is a 1908
play
by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck
. It premiered on 30 September 1908 at Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre
and has been turned into several films
and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera
(first performed at the N.Y. Metropolitan in 1919) based on Maeterlinck's original play.
The story is about a girl called Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl seeking happiness, represented by The Blue Bird of Happiness, aided by the good fairy
Bérylune.
Maeterlinck also wrote a relatively little known sequel to The Blue Bird, entitled The Blue Bird and the Betrothal.
's 1908 play The Blue Bird (L'Oiseau Bleu) has been adapted numerous times for film and television:
:Blue birds appear as symbols and one of the characters is named "Michiru", which is the Japanese
name for Mytyl.
Eureka Seven
: Three of the characters were named after the author's name, his surname
being divided: Maurice, the eldest of Eureka's children; Maeter, the second oldest; and Linck, the youngest. The book itself also appears briefly in the series being read by one of the characters.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Kyon seemingly randomly asks Haruhi if she has read The Bluebird of Happiness. This initially appears to be a random reference, however it has since been noted that the Land of Memory, the Palace of Night and the Kingdom of the Future which appear in L'Oiseau bleu may each correspond to one of Haruhi's three unusual companions (the aliens, the espers, and the time travellers, respectively.) This is also a reference as to how what Haruhi is searching for (aliens, time travelers, espers, or anything out of the ordinary) is around her every day. In the manga, Kyon comments on it as a "children's book". He refers to his "Bluebird of Happiness" on several occasions later in the novel.
Ballet Shoes
: In the novel Ballet Shoes
by Noel Streatfeild
and the television adaptations of it, Pauline and Petrova Fossil play Tyltyl and Mytyl in their ballet academy's production of "The Blue Bird".
K-PAX
: Prot helps one of the patients by assigning him three tasks, the first of which is to find the Bluebird of Happiness.
L'Oiseau bleu/Aoi Tori: Japanese TV drama from 1997 telling a "tale of tragic love between Yoshimori, a station employee at a quiet, rural station, and Kahori, the wife of the heir to a family fortune." Kahori's daughter Shiori is reading "L'Oiseau bleu" as a child and the story is cited several times during the 11 episodes.
Yellow Submarine:At the end of the movie, the Chief Blue Meanie
says that "My cousin is the 'Bluebird of Happiness'". It also shows bluebirds on his head when he says this.
Birds in the Future: In this manga by Osamu Tezuka
, one chapter is directly inspired by the play.
Jean Libon, Belgian painter : He uses to call one of his exposition "L'oiseau bleu". Until this day, "L'oiseau bleu" is the symbol of his work, full of mystic and magic.
Pokémon: In Try for the Family Stone!, 616th episode of the anime featured in the twelfth season, two siblings called Ltyl and Mytyl (in the Japanese version) search for a Dusk Stone in order to evolve a Murkrow. The Pokémon Swablu and Altaria are also references to the titular bird, and were named "Tylt" and "Tyltalis" respectively in Japanese.
school types Mytyl schools and Tyltyl schools are named after Mytyl and Tyltyl: they are for children with a physical disability and for children with both a physical and mental disability, respectively. The Scouting Nederland
section for children with special needs (Extension Scouting
) is named: "Blauwe Vogels" (Blue Birds).
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of "Maurice Maeterlinck's greatest contemporary success The Blue Bird", as it was termed, his play was selected as the main motif of a high-value collectors' coin: the Belgian 50 euro Maurice Maeterlinck commemorative coin, minted in 2008.
1908 in literature
The year 1908 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Afawarq Gabra Iyasus - Libb Wolled Tārīk , the first novel in Amharic*Leonid Andreyev - The Seven Who Were Hanged...
play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
. It premiered on 30 September 1908 at Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
and has been turned into several films
The Blue Bird (film)
Maurice Maeterlinck's 1908 play The Blue Bird has been adapted numerous times for film and television:*The Blue Bird , a silent film starring Pauline Gilmer and Olive Walter...
and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera
L'oiseau bleu
L'oiseau bleu is an opera in four acts by the French composer and conductor Albert Wolff. The libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck is based on his 1908 play of the same name.-Performance history:...
(first performed at the N.Y. Metropolitan in 1919) based on Maeterlinck's original play.
The story is about a girl called Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl seeking happiness, represented by The Blue Bird of Happiness, aided by the good fairy
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
Bérylune.
Maeterlinck also wrote a relatively little known sequel to The Blue Bird, entitled The Blue Bird and the Betrothal.
Film and TV adaptations
Maurice MaeterlinckMaurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
's 1908 play The Blue Bird (L'Oiseau Bleu) has been adapted numerous times for film and television:
- The Blue Bird (1910 film)The Blue Bird (1910 film)The Blue Bird is a 1910 silent film, based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck and starring Pauline Gilmer as Mytyl and Olive Walter as Tytyl. It was filmed in England.- Cast :*Pauline Gilmer as Mytyl*Olive Walter as Tytyl...
, a silent film starring Pauline Gilmer and Olive Walter - The Blue Bird (1918 film)The Blue Bird (1918 film)The Blue Bird is a 1918 film directed by Maurice Tourneur in the United States, under the auspices of producer Adolph Zukor. The story begins with two children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, whom are sent out by the fairy Bérylune into various lands to search for the bluebird of happiness. Returning home...
, a silent film directed by Maurice Tourneur - The Blue Bird (1940 film)The Blue Bird (1940 film)The Blue Bird is a 1940 American fantasy film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Walter Bullock was adapted from the 1908 play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck...
, starring Shirley Temple - The Blue Bird (1970 film)The Blue Bird (1970 film)The Blue Bird is a 1970 Soviet animated feature film based upon the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. It was directed by Vasily Livanov and made at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. It uses a mix of traditional and cutout animation.-Crew:-External links:*...
, a Soviet animated film - The Blue Bird (1976 film)The Blue Bird (1976 film)The Blue Bird is a 1976 American/Soviet fantasy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes, and Aleksei Kapler is based on L'Oiseau bleu by Maurice Maeterlinck. It was the fifth screen adaptation of the play, following two silent films, the studio's 1940 version...
, a joint Soviet-American production directed by George Cukor - Maeterlinck's Blue Bird: Tyltyl and Mytyl's Adventurous JourneyMaeterlinck's Blue Bird: Tyltyl and Mytyl's Adventurous Journeyis a 1980 Japanese animated television series directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa, with character designs from Leiji Matsumoto. It is based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck...
, a 1980 Japanese animated TV series - Blue Bird, filmed in Togo. Directed by Gust Van Den Berghe and presented at the 2011 Cannes festival.
Mentions in other works
RahXephonRahXephon
is a Japanese anime series about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control a godlike mecha known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey to find a place in the world...
:Blue birds appear as symbols and one of the characters is named "Michiru", which is the Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
name for Mytyl.
Eureka Seven
Eureka Seven
Eureka Seven, known in Japan as , is a mecha anime TV series by Bones. Eureka Seven tells the story of Renton Thurston and the outlaw group Gekkostate, his relationship with the enigmatic mecha pilot Eureka, and the mystery of the Coralians....
: Three of the characters were named after the author's name, his surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
being divided: Maurice, the eldest of Eureka's children; Maeter, the second oldest; and Linck, the youngest. The book itself also appears briefly in the series being read by one of the characters.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Kyon seemingly randomly asks Haruhi if she has read The Bluebird of Happiness. This initially appears to be a random reference, however it has since been noted that the Land of Memory, the Palace of Night and the Kingdom of the Future which appear in L'Oiseau bleu may each correspond to one of Haruhi's three unusual companions (the aliens, the espers, and the time travellers, respectively.) This is also a reference as to how what Haruhi is searching for (aliens, time travelers, espers, or anything out of the ordinary) is around her every day. In the manga, Kyon comments on it as a "children's book". He refers to his "Bluebird of Happiness" on several occasions later in the novel.
Ballet Shoes
Ballet Shoes (novel)
Ballet Shoes is a classic 1936 children's novel by Noel Streatfeild.Ballet Shoes and the other "Shoes books" have been popular worldwide, since their initial publications from 1936 to 1962.-Plot summary:...
: In the novel Ballet Shoes
Ballet Shoes (novel)
Ballet Shoes is a classic 1936 children's novel by Noel Streatfeild.Ballet Shoes and the other "Shoes books" have been popular worldwide, since their initial publications from 1936 to 1962.-Plot summary:...
by Noel Streatfeild
Noel Streatfeild
Mary Noel Streatfeild OBE , known as Noel Streatfeild, was an author, most famous for her children's books including Ballet Shoes . Several of her novels have been adapted for film or television.-Biography:...
and the television adaptations of it, Pauline and Petrova Fossil play Tyltyl and Mytyl in their ballet academy's production of "The Blue Bird".
K-PAX
K-PAX
K-PAX is the name of the first novel in the K-PAX series by Gene Brewer and a film based on the series:*K-PAX **K-PAX – film*K-PAX II: On a Beam of Light *K-PAX III: Worlds of Prot...
: Prot helps one of the patients by assigning him three tasks, the first of which is to find the Bluebird of Happiness.
L'Oiseau bleu/Aoi Tori: Japanese TV drama from 1997 telling a "tale of tragic love between Yoshimori, a station employee at a quiet, rural station, and Kahori, the wife of the heir to a family fortune." Kahori's daughter Shiori is reading "L'Oiseau bleu" as a child and the story is cited several times during the 11 episodes.
Yellow Submarine:At the end of the movie, the Chief Blue Meanie
Chief Blue Meanie
The Chief of the Blue Meanies is a fictional character from the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. A high-pitched, flamboyant character, he is set on ruling Pepperland with fear and oppression. His most heinous of crimes from The Beatles' point of view, however, is his hatred of music...
says that "My cousin is the 'Bluebird of Happiness'". It also shows bluebirds on his head when he says this.
Birds in the Future: In this manga by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
, one chapter is directly inspired by the play.
Jean Libon, Belgian painter : He uses to call one of his exposition "L'oiseau bleu". Until this day, "L'oiseau bleu" is the symbol of his work, full of mystic and magic.
Pokémon: In Try for the Family Stone!, 616th episode of the anime featured in the twelfth season, two siblings called Ltyl and Mytyl (in the Japanese version) search for a Dusk Stone in order to evolve a Murkrow. The Pokémon Swablu and Altaria are also references to the titular bird, and were named "Tylt" and "Tyltalis" respectively in Japanese.
Other references
The DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
school types Mytyl schools and Tyltyl schools are named after Mytyl and Tyltyl: they are for children with a physical disability and for children with both a physical and mental disability, respectively. The Scouting Nederland
Scouting Nederland
Scouting Nederland is the national Scout organisation of the Netherlands with approximately 110,000 members Scouting Nederland is the national Scout organisation of the Netherlands with approximately 110,000 members Scouting Nederland is the national Scout organisation of the Netherlands with...
section for children with special needs (Extension Scouting
Extension Scouting
Extension Scouting is a programme within Scouting which caters for young people with special needs. Extension Scouting for young people with special needs was originally called Scouts Malgré Tout, which is French for "Scouts Despite Everything"...
) is named: "Blauwe Vogels" (Blue Birds).
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of "Maurice Maeterlinck's greatest contemporary success The Blue Bird", as it was termed, his play was selected as the main motif of a high-value collectors' coin: the Belgian 50 euro Maurice Maeterlinck commemorative coin, minted in 2008.
External Links
- gutenberg.org, Complete Play (Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
)