Has anyone ripped the audio from the DVD of the 25th anniversary concert to track format yet? I want to listen to that cast in my car and figured I ask here first before I spend the next 4 hours cutting and editing it.

Still loving reading all of these album write ups, Thom_Boyer. Nice job!

Thanks, MSam! I'm aiming to have one or two more up on Thursday and hopefully getting back on a semi-regular schedule with these updates.

JAPANESE TOUR CAST: 1994 RED



Release year: 1994
Toshiba Records, 2CD, TOCT 8375-76
Runtime: 2:27:26

Track listing [English titles are printed alongside the Japanese titles in the track listing. For ease of reference, and because I don't have a keyboard that types Kanji characters, I am only typing the English titles below. Keep in mind that all tracks are performed in (mostly) Japanese.]:

DISC ONE (Prologue/Act 1)
1. The Chain Gang [Omits several bars of the DX-7's preceding the Work Song.]
2. On Parole [Includes "Freedom is mine..." and the farm sequence; omits the scene at the inn.]
3. The Bishop [Complete from "Come in, sir..." through "I have bought your soul for God."]
4. Valjean's Soliloquy [Omits the pulsing strings from the intro.]
5. At the End of the Day [Complete.]
6. I Dreamed a Dream [Omits the intro, from "There was a time..." through "...it all went wrong; starts cold on the strings leading to "I dreamed a dream in time gone by..."]
7. Lovely Ladies (The Docks) [Omits Fantine selling her necklace and the "waiting in the dark" verse, post-hair-selling verse features the UK Tour revisions. Track includes full Bamatabois scene.]
8. Fantine's Arrest [Complete from Javert's entrance through the last "I will see it done!"]
9. The Runaway Cart [Includes scene from the start of the Cart Crash music through "...not even Jean Valjean!" Omits second half of Valjean/Javert exchange.]
10. Who Am I - The Trial [Omits the horns from the intro. Includes part of the transition music to the following number.]
11. Fantine's Death [Full song.]
12. Confrontation [Full song.]
13. Castle on a Cloud (Little Cosette) [Intro plays through a la 2001 cuts. Omits Mme. T's entrance.]
14. Master of the House [Standard album cuts a la OBC.]
15. The Bargain [Omits Valjean and Cosette's "La-la-la..." Complete from "I found her wandering in the wood..." through "Cosette shall have a father now!"]
16. Waltz of Treachery [Full song, then omits most of the waltz transition after "There's a castle just waiting for you," cutting straight from there to the brass swell preceding...]
17. Look Down (The Beggars) [Cuts off just after "...until the barricades arise!"]
18. The Robbery [Full song through "Run for it, it's Javert!"]
19. Javert's Intervention [Full song, cuts the brass transition a la 2001.]
20. Stars [Full song, though it should be noted that Gavroche's "Auntie, dear..." bit and "Eponine's Errand" are both cut entirely.]
21. The ABC Café-Red and Black [Full song.]
22. Do You Hear the People Sing [Full song.]
23. Rue Plumet-In My Life [Full song.]
24. A Heart Full of Love [Full song.]
25. Attack on Rue Plumet [Standard album cuts a la OBC.]
26. One Day More [Full song.]

DISC TWO (Act 2) [Act Two is included in full, so I will not include content notes on its listing.]
1. Building the Barricade
2. On My Own
3. Back at the Barricade
4. Javert's Arrival (Javert at the Barricade)
5. Little People
6. A Little Fall of Rain
7. Night of Anguish
8. The First Attack
9. Drink with Me (The Night)
10. Bring Him Home
11. Dawn of Anguish
12. The Second Attack
13. The Final Battle
14. The Sewers-Dog Eats Dog
15. Javert's Suicide
16. Turning (The Victims)
17. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (The Café Song)
18. Everyday (Marius & Cosette)
19. Valjean's Confession
20. The Wedding Chorale-Beggars at the Feast
21. Epilogue



Japanese troupes had been making annual tours of Les Misérables every year since its premiere at the Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, in June 1987, and two albums from 1994 would mark the first comprehensive recordings of Les Mis in Japanese. There had been one other Japanese recording of the show, released in 1987 through Pony Canyon Records, a 45 featuring Kaho Shimada's "On My Own," with a re-arrangement of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" filling out the B-side. Recorded over four performances at the Chunichi Theatre, Nagoya, between 23-27 February 1994, the Red Cast is my primary focus here, as I've yet to secure a legit copy of the Blue album. (Having heard several extracts, it's just not a high priority for me, especially considering the somewhat astronomical cost of the set.) As such, I'll simply make mention that the casts of the two albums are mostly different, and while both turn in fine performances, in my humble opinion the performances on the Red album simply overshadow those on the Blue, and the Blue doesn't offer enough in the way of interesting variations. The two sets also share the same cuts to the first act, note-for-note.

The Japanese Red album is an invaluable record of Les Misérables' original live sound. The mix favors the bass, percussion hits with a ferocity not heard before or since, and some of the tempi chosen by the conductor can verge on the insane (see "Stars" and both Soliloquies), but this *is* the Les Mis of raw DX-7's, when the Barricade sequences were allowed to breathe, and the employment of twenty-five musicians playing John Cameron's orchestrations every show was seen as a draw and not merely a running cost. It doesn't hurt that the cast throws an unmatched raw passion into every little turn of phrase. Takeshi Kaga still manages a vibrant plea in his "Bring Him Home," despite the song being taken down several steps to accommodate his lush baritone (this isn't exclusive to him and his celebrity status, by the way; it's a fairly common practice for Japanese Valjean's), Kaho Shimada is nothing short of mesmerizing in her native tongue, and no one hocks a Fantine loogie on record quite like Yuhko Ema.

The Japanese Red album (and the Blue, to the best of my knowledge) comes in a grey open-face box containing the CD's in two separate jewel cases. The color of the obi band indicates which cast. The back of the box contains basic production and album information:



Each jewel case features the same Cosette-logo-on-a-grey-background image on the front of an otherwise blank insert:



The back of each jewel case features a full track listing for each disc, along with basic production credits:



Also included is a forty-page booklet (the color of the Kanji again indicates which cast this is), containing full lyrics, a synopsis, full cast and production credits, head shots of the principles in character, and several full-page color photographs.



Head shots gallery:





Lyric page sample:



Kaga as Valjean, opposite principle cast list:



More production photographs...:




...including one of my favorite barricade shots:



My biases unabashedly aired, I feel it only fair to mention that there is an ever-present reverberation in this album that can occasionally make the overall sound a bit indistinct. But, just as with the Original Prague album, the entire company is able to overcome these limitations with a raw, often crude intensity and grit, unmatched even on the later Japanese recordings. For this, and for the amazingly comprehensive selections, spread across two discs, this album gets a *lot* of use from me and earns my highest recommendations for the die-hard fans out there.

Great that you found the time to continue! Sadly not so many more to come...however at the end I hope you may include your personal top 5 of the non-english recordings. Some reviews really sound promising.

edit: Anyone who wants to grab the lush CSR LP set, here's your chance for a "I can't believe how cheap that is!!" price: http://cgi.ebay.de/Les-Miserables-Compl ... 5d2f7ca927

Thanks, Barrikaden! I think I'll put together something like that once I've reached the end; of course, if productions worldwide keep pumping them out at the rate they've been doing for the past year, there may not be an end to reach.

IN CONCERT AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL (10th ANNIVERSARY)



Release date: 29 April 1996
First Night Records, 2CD, ENCORE CD 8 (UK); First Night/Relativity, 2CD, 88561-1559-2 (US)
Runtime: 2:21:50

Note: The entirety of the music as performed on this evening is presented on this record. Only the speeches have been cut. Cuts to the standard score reflected in this performance are noted below.

DISC ONE
1. Prologue (Work Song - Cuts four bars of the "Uh-uh"s of the convicts; this may have been a cut added late in rehearsals, as a couple convicts can clearly be heard singing "uh" instead of "look" on the fifth bar of vocals.)
2. On Parole/The Bishop (Includes the complete "Freedom is mine..." soliloquy. Cuts four bars of transition music to the farm scene, then cuts the inn scene, replacing Valjean's post-farm scene monologue with the post-inn scene one. Bishop sequence plays through in full.)
3. Valjean's Soliloquy (Full song.)
4. At the End of the Day (Cuts from "And the boss, he never knows..." to the beginning of the following chorus.)
5. I Dreamed a Dream (Full song.)
6. Lovely Ladies (Cuts several choruses, the locket-selling segment, and the pimp segment.)
7. Fantine's Arrest (Cuts from "...had by a rat" straight to Javert's entrance.)
8. The Runaway Cart (Purely instrumental until Javert's "Can this be true?" All chorus pieces cut. Javert and Valjean's exchange is shortened, so it ends at "...not even Jean Valjean!")
9. Who Am I? - The Trial (Full song. Transition music between this and the following scene has been cut.)
10. Fantine's Death (Full song.)
11. The Confrontation (Full song.)
12. Castle on a Cloud (Instrumental intro has been trimmed almost entirely. Mme. T's entrance has been trimmed, between "...scum of the street," and "Still there, Cosette?")
13. Master of the House (Intro has been excised; otherwise, full song from "Welcome, m'sieur...")
14. The Bargain - Waltz of Treachery (Valjean and Cosette's "La la la"s have been cut, as well as the entire piece between Valjean's "...take Cosette away" and the beginning of the Waltz proper. As on most albums, Valjean's post-Thenardier verse to Little Cosette has been cut as well.)
15. Look Down (Standard album cuts a la OBC.)
16. Stars (Full song, including brass transition from the "The Robbery," which had been cut.)
17. ABC Café/Red and Black (Full song.)
18. Do You Hear the People Sing? (Full song, including full and proper transition music into...)
19. Rue Plumet - In My Life (Cuts the entirety of the Valjean/Cosette exchange, plays directly from Cosette's solo verse to Marius, a la OFC.)
20. A Heart Full of Love (Full song.)

DISC TWO
1. The Attack on Rue Plumet (Cuts the Montparnasse bit, then runs straight through, including the full Valjean/Cosette scene post-Attack.)
2. One Day More! (Full song.)
3. Building the Barricade/On My Own (Includes a partial Entr'Acte before cutting straight to On My Own, included in full.)
4. Back at the Barricade (Full song, plus an additional vocal line over what was formerly an orchestral reprise of "Red and Black.")
5.Javert's Arrival/Little People (Cut musically a la 2001, though the students' lines are still sung where Javert's have been placed currently.)
6. A Little Fall of Rain (Standard album cuts a la OBC.)
7. Night of Anguish (Full song. Uses orchestral ALFOR instead of DWM, as had been the new standard by that point.)
8. First Attack (Full song, though the track ends at "The night is falling fast!")
9. Drink With Me (Track starts with the full scene of Valjean releasing Javert. "Courfeyrac, you take the watch..." has been cut, and DWM plays through in full.)
10. Bring Him Home (Full song.)
11. Second Attack/The Final Battle (There is no music from the Second Attack on this track. Only "Final Battle" is performed, though it is performed in full.)
12. The Sewers (Post-Final Battle instrumental, played in full.)
13. Dog Eats Dog (Full song.)
14. Javert's Suicide (Full song.)
15. Turning (Full song.)
16. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (Full song.)
17. Every Day/A Heart Full of Love - Reprise (Full song.)
18. The Wedding Chorale/Beggars at the Feast (Standard album cuts a la OBC.)
19. Epilogue (Finale) (Full song.)
20. Encore 1 - Speeches/Do You Hear the People Sing? (The track title lies. No speeches are made, and no DYHPS is sung on this track. Instead, it remains the only officially recorded capture of the exit music, or at least the exit music as used from 1987 through 2010 or so.)
21. Encore 2 - One Day More (This is where you'll find DYHPS, as sung in about a dozen languages by just about every Valjean on record up to this point, plus several that haven't been, as well a final chorus of "One Day More!" with Valjean's lines sung by every Valjean from the previous song.)



So, sometime in 1995, sixty-nine musicians under the baton of an age-defying wizard, as well as some three-digit number of singers with some vague connection to the miserables showed up at some hall owned by a royal named Albert and jammed for about two and a half hours. It was pretty cool, as anyone who watched anything on a PBS affiliate in the mid-'90s can attest to, and did a pretty keen job of re-kindling/maintaining interest in a certain favorite musical of just about anyone perusing these boards, though it did confuse a good portion of a certain percentage of young, impressionable theatre-goers, as they would enter the Imperial or the Palace, turn to their comrade, and say "Hey, where's the mics at?" In all seriousness, though, love it or hate it, the TAC is exactly what would come to mind for a good deal of my countrymen when one would ask them about Les Mis. For years, this was the public image of the show, with its surprisingly well-balanced seventy-piece orchestra, its ensemble of veterans accustomed to larger roles in the show, and its full regiment of a chorus. May I stress again that this performance is *big*! So big that several subtleties and nuances of the (revised and did-I-mention-expanded for this performance) orchestration do get lost in the echo chamber that is the Royal Albert Hall, but this album captures the acoustically hot atmosphere there better than certain other albums I've heard that use the same venue.

From the booming opening chords conjured from David Charles Abell's baton, a rare energy crackles throughout this album. The main cast is a solid cross-section of English-language performers, from the earliest years of the show (Colm Wilkinson, Alun Armstrong, Judy Kuhn, etc.) to then-current (or nearly) casts (Lea Salonga, Jenny Galloway, Ruthie Henshall, etc.), well representing what was already an extremely rich legacy. Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall on 8 October, 1995, ten years to the day after the English-language premiere at the Barbican, this double album presents the third officially released live capture of the score, complete as it was performed in concert. John Cameron is said to have personally supervised programming for the new Kurzweil keyboards (played expertly by Seann Alderking, who himself has a rich legacy with this score) that debuted with this performance and expanded the orchestrations to accommodate the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The result is a mixed bag -- It's big, beautiful, energetic, and showy, to be sure, and makes some segments (IDAD and the post-Final Battle instrumental chief among them) shine like never before, but just as often, it's all a bit too polished and clean (see the Work Song and Dog Eats Dog). There's very little grit to be found in this album, especially where it's needed. That's not to say it isn't absolutely an essential and fully welcome addition to the canon, but it is not truly representational of the score. It's huge, but Les Mis isn't always about being huge, and the resounding reverberation of every note on this disc often comes at the cost of intimacy.



The album itself comes in a double-thick fatbox jewel case, sporting a cover that features a ghostly image of the Royal Albert Hall, having been conquered by Little Cosette with her broom, pasted behind a still frame from the video of the performance and bathed in red, white, and blue. The discs themselves are some of the handsomest that have been pressed for a Les Mis album, featuring the show's logo and little Cosette etched into a deep midnight blue. The back of the jewel case credits the principle cast on a similarly dark blue background:



Included with the album is a thirty-two page booklet featuring a track listing, full cast, orchestra, and production credits, synopsis, essays from Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, Cameron Mackintosh, Edward Behr, Herbert Kretzmer, and Trevor Nunn and John Caird, full-color photographs from productions worldwide, as well as stills from the video of this concert. Here's a sampling:









This album has seen a number of different releases over the years, but my understanding is that little changes aesthetically from one release to the next, though the Japanese pressing does include an obi band, as is customary for music releases over there.

On home video, the film of this concert has been released just as often, originally on VHS in a dark blue clamshell case sporting the Cosette logo on a midnight blue background, and on laserdisc featuring roughly the same art and design. Its first DVD replicated the VHS art, but a 2008 Region 1 re-release, coupled with the old "Stage by Stage" video as a bonus disc, features cover art most closely associated with the Broadway Revival:



A booklet is included featuring the same cover art:



A number of full-color photos are featured inside, along with a synopsis and chapter list. While most of the photos are simply blown-up screen caps off the video, identical to those found on the last page of the CD booklet, two of the included pictures are nowhere to be found on the CD release:





Also featured underneath the disc tray is a beautiful shot of the full stage from the concert:



This is also reproduced as a double-page spread in the booklet:



It should be noted that this particular release of the concert edits out some of the speech footage, as well as a good chunk of "Little People," (to say nothing of the massive edit to "Turning" present in all video releases) presumably to save disc space. I don't know if the Region 2 re-release duplicates these changes to the original contents.

ETA 2 Nov 2011:

The Tenth Anniversary Concert saw a release on laserdisc in 1996 through Image Entertainment (catalog number ID 3465 VL). This remains the only release to include the concert in its entirety in its original aspect ratio of 16:9. The concert comes housed in an LP-sized gatefold package housing two discs (the entire concert is spread across three sides, with a fourth left blank):



The front cover showcases the Cosette logo on a midnight blue background, proudly boasting that this is the "Dream Cast":



The back cover features some copy text, basic cast and production information, and the cast/RAH montage used as the CD album cover:



The inner gatefold features a synopsis, chapter index, and the "Let the People Sing" and "Beyond Our Dreams" notes from the CD, as well as several production stills:

Ah the TAC. "Stars" and "Javert's Suicide" never sounded better IMO. The final battle aftermath...wow. Not to mention the quirkiest "MOH" ever. And I love the the sound effects. I think you mentioned you had that "wait, water flowing??" when you listened to the Amsterdam recording. I had that same moment with the TAC. And the chorus...when they sing "The time is now..." in ODM, it always blows me away. You can really hear how many are in that one-compared to the CSR(mixing!) and the QUAC DVD(O2 is just too large, swallows it all). The booklet is actually a scaled down version of the souvenir brochure from that evening, just omits the actor's biographies. The cover too is adapted, the brochure shows the 1992 tour cast(with Quast, Leyton and Sterling) ODM shot with the Albert Hall+Cosette above them. The cover simply replicated that with the video shot of the concert ODM.

And the video releases. I keep my 1996 VHS because...it is still the only complete one with the speeches. My first DVD(in worries of the condition of my tape) was a DVD5 release, got rid of that cos it was plain, 4:3, cut the speeches and due to the 5, a flipover DVD. Recently got me the 2004 UK double disc release(same version you got, just different packing). Finally in 16:9 but still cut(LP no, speeches yes-argh!) and a horrible way of chaptering the songs. Plus the booklet is a disappointment too, the two new photos are kinda neat, but no actor list?? If I had been in charge for that, or would be for a future Les Mis DVD box containing all the concerts and the movie, I would scrounge the archives for extras(interviews, news footage, photo galleries, biographies), polish the sound up to 5.1 at least(should be easy as they extracted the sound for the CD release anyways!), make an HD master of the full concert(plus the speeches!!), give it proper menus and chapters, a booklet that is a celebration of the first 10 years of Les Mis(as many original production photos as I can find)-so the outcome is a real special edition of the TAC that pleases all fans.

Agreed that the TAC could still stand to have a deluxe release that re-integrates the chopped footage (seriously, what Les Miz fan *wouldn't* agree to that?!), but I'm not sure the market's there for it right now. Give it a couple years, when the movie hits, and as long as the source materials still exist to do so, I could see this getting a pretty solid Blu-Ray release -- maybe not packaging-wise, but certainly content-wise. My understanding is that the concert was one of the first filmed using high-definition digital cameras, so as long as the original footage still exists, there would likely be a visible benefit to the upgrade. A nice booklet with cast list, etc., would certainly be on my wish list, but you'd be hard-pressed to find modern DVD and Blu-Ray releases that include so much as an index card with chapter list inside a keeper case, outside of those giant deluxe boxes that Fox and Warners flood the market with every Christmas showcasing an A-List catalog title (the forthcoming Ben Hur and West Side Story sets come to mind), or releases from boutique labels like Criterion, Eureka, and Oscilloscope. Unfortunately, I don't see our TAC selling well enough to warrant the former, nor do I see it fitting in with the scope of films from the latter.

Considering how well the VHS sold I definitely see the market for a proper re-release of the TAC, as I said combined with the 25AC and the movie it would make a great box set.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure the market's there for a proper re-release, just not quite right now, with the 25AC still relatively fresh on the shelves. When the movie hits in two years or so, the 25AC's standing as the hot, new thing in Les Mis will have settled down, and the home video market will be primed for a bells-and-whistles Blu-Ray release of the TAC, in proper high-definition with commentaries and featurettes on the show, maybe a new, proper documentary chronicling the show's many international incarnations, maybe some of that OFC/OLC/OBC press reel footage that made it into the Matt Lucas doc, etc. It's just that studios tend to see proper booklets as an unnecessary production cost for DVD's and Blu-Ray's. I certainly don't agree with that, but if leaving a booklet out means that there's a space in the release budget to throw in some rare footage, I would certainly pick the latter. Of course, this is all *extremely* hypothetical, and we'll probably just get another bare-bones re-release with a shiny cover to reflect whatever Dewynters' logo-variation-of-the-moment is at the time, but I would love to be surprised.

So would I. Apparently the QUAC is going to have a 2disc release at the end of the year, my guess it's a combination with the Matt Lucas docu. But this is about the albums, so carry on! Awaiting your Duisburg entry with anticipation.