...other than Doyle's actor/instrument productions, what scores repeatedly use a certain instrument when a certain character is onstage?
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas." -Danmeg's 10 year old son.
I always associate Fosca (and Donna Murphy) with a clarinet, or whatever woodwind it is playing her entrance in Passion.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
"Those would be the orchestrations hun, not the score."
A smart answer, but not one that I necessarily agree with. Orchestrations are part of the score, though when it comes to Broadway musicals, they're not usually by written the composer and may be revised or changed entirely in different productions. In opera, of course, they usually are written by the composers.
In opera, where musical themes are more often associated with specific characters, the question comes up of whether it's just the theme that represents the character or whether, in cases where a theme is always played the same instrument or combination of instruments, the instrument(s) can sometimes be thought of as also representing the character. An obvious example is Fafner, the giant who is turned into a dragon in Der Ring des Nibelugen. The tuba is prominent every time his theme is played. So it could be said that both the theme and the instrument are associated with the character.
It's hard to think of any similar examples in musicals though there may be some. As discussed in Stephen Banfield's Sondheim's Broadway Musicals, Sondheim at one time was planning to have each major character in A Little Night Music associated with a specific instrument, but in the end, he abandoned this idea. And this was Sondheim's idea, not Tunick's, though Tunick would have had to execute it.
In the end, it's hard to even say that Fredrika and Henrik are associated with particular instruments, except in purely plot terms, because neither sings all that much.
interesting topic. I was particularly interested in this topic you brought up when I listened to Les Miz and Chess recordings.
One particularly stand out example is the Chess theme in Chess. I always feel the string section represent Freddie and piano represent Anatoly in the game.
And in Les Miz, Fantine is represented by harp. Enjolras is french horn.
