Carnival is a festival season and literally means 'farewell to the flesh'. It occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February or March. It typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations.
Carnival is mostly associated with Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox Christians; Protestant areas usually do not have carnival celebrations or have modified traditions, like the Danish Carnival. The world's largest carnival celebration is held in Brazil but many countries worldwide have large, popular celebrations, such as Carnival of Venice.
Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival Featuring Refugee All Stars, or more simply The Carnival, is the first solo album by Wyclef Jean.
Released shortly after The Fugees' blockbuster hit album The Score, the Carnival became one of hip-hop's most unusual and unique albums, with a guest list ranging from salsa legend Celia Cruz to New Orleans crooners The Neville Brothers. Among the album's many accomplishments were bringing New York underground hip-hop into the mainstream, and introducing America to the sounds of Haiti.
The album begins with a movie-promo like intro, featuring many of the album's guest stars, and establishing one of the album's two major "concepts" — that Wyclef is on trial for being a dangerous influence on society (the other "concept" being the "Carnival" theme). Some twenty tracks later, it "ends" with Wyclef's acquittal, and then appends a coda of Haitian music sung in creole.
Standout tracks include "Gone Till November," which includes a full orchestra (and a video that featured Bob Dylan), "Mona Lisa", an old-school love ballad in the tradition of "Tell It Like It Is", and hit single "We Trying to Stay Alive." With this album Wyclef established himself as arguably one of the most musically-minded producers in hip hop. Moreover, the record went on to become RIAA certified Platinum three times.
In 2005, comedian Chris Rock ranked it 16th on his list of the Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums ever. http://rateyourmusic.com/list/tha_flu/chris_rocks_top_25_hip_hop_albums.
Carnival! is a 1961 musical with book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, starring Anna Maria Alberghetti, James Mitchell, Kaye Ballard, Pierre Olaf, and Jerry Orbach (making his Broadway debut). Gower Champion both directed and choreographed. The musical was based on the film Lili (1953).
Carnival! premiered on April 12, 1961 at the Imperial Theatre, where it played until December 15, 1962, when it moved to the Winter Garden Theatre. The musical closed on January 5, 1963 after 719 performances. A production was briefly mounted in London's West End in 1963, with Champion's staging recreated by Lucia Victor and Doria Avila; it featured Michael Maurel, Shirley Sands, Sally Logan, Bob Harris, Francis de Wolff, and one actor from the original Broadway production, James Mitchell. The show proved unpopular and quickly closed after 34 performances, although not without a cast album. Arthur Freed briefly contemplated a film version, probably with Mitchell and Pierre Olaf, but his plans abruptly collapsed.
Carnival! has been revived twice off-Broadway by the Equity Library Theatre (1977) and the York Theatre Company (1993). In 2002, New York City Center Encores! mounted a concert production with Anne Hathaway as Lili and puppets by the Jim Henson Company, NY Muppet Workshop. (Both the Equity Library Theatre and Encores! stagings were taped for the New York Public Library Billy Rose Theatre Collection archives.) Ben Brantley in his New York Times review praised the Encores! concert, describing Hathaway as convincing in the role even though "Lili may be the most unworldly heroine ever in a Broadway musical, dangerously blurring the lines between innocence and mental deficiency". It was most recently produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC from February 17 to March 11, 2007.
