This is a slightly modified version of a post I've made to the IMDB message board for the new movie. I know Thom has touched on the album in his excellent post, but I wanted to hear some of your thoughts in depth.

Now that we're all looking forward to this movie, I thought I'd engender a little discussion of where it all began...the 1980 French concept album.

If you don't already have a copy, there are many videos on YouTube that utilize the music. In fact, a user named "mildetryth" has uploaded the original album to YouTube, with stills of different productions and illustrations from the original edition of the novel. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mildetryth

And if you're not fluent in French (as I am not), you'll need translations. A lady calling herself Madame Bahorel, active in the Les Mis fan community, has posted the lyrics and her translations here:http://www.placedauphine.net/translations/ofc.html

So...onward.

There are some hurdles that listeners familiar with the musical may have to overcome. One of them is the sound. While many parts of the score have the lush, stringed sound we're used to, others have much more of a pop-rock sound to them. This was composed at the tail-end of the seventies, and occasionally it shows. This is REALLY apparent in the number "Les Amis d'ABC", which sounds almost disco-ish in some areas. And during some of the students' parts, I wanted to scream at the orchestra to LAY OFF THE DAMN XYLOPHONE ALREADY. To say nothing of the fact that the instrumentations for the early versions of "Little People" and "Master of the House" sound a little TOO wacky and whimiscal. But for the most part, the rock-ish instrumentation, where it's used, serves the score well.

Likewise, some of the voices have a sort of rock-singer sound. This is especially apparent with Javert and Enjolras. (Maybe Russell Crowe's rougher voice is a return to roots? As is Hugh Jackman...the Valjean on this album is a baritone! I understand that Colm Wilkinson was actually a departure from the original intention to cast Valjean as a baritone.)

Another unusual area lies in the fact that there are parts of the OFC score that have no counterpart in the current show. The reunion between Marius and his grandfather, for one (yes, Grandfather Gillenormand was actually part of this version, and so was Auntie!). But the biggest example is most likely "L'Un Vers L'Autre", Eponine's solo as she watches Marius and Cosette together. This serves a similar function to "On My Own", but the mood here is sad and resigned rather than yearning and desperate. It is an EXQUISITE melody and it's a hundred pities that it never found a place in the show as it now stands.

Oh, and the aforementioned "On My Own"? That was originally a song for Fantine right after she was fired: "L'Air de la Misere"-- "Air of Misery" or "Poverty's Song." It's sort of a leitmotif for sorrow throughout this version, whereas in the stage show, it's a leitmotif for longing and yearning.

If there are parts of the OFC that aren't in the show, the reverse is true as well. In fact, you may be surprised by how much is actually left out. There's no prologue with the Bishop, which is surprising because it sets up Valjean's whole moral code. More jarringly, there's no counterpart to "Who Am I?" Which is one of the major moral dilemmas in the whole story! We go to Valjean rescuing Fantine from arrest, and then, bam--suddely we're at the inn with Cosette! Some other things happen "offstage", too...Fantine's death isn't depicted. Valjean just announces her death when he arrives at the Thenardiers'. Moreover, Marius and Cosette's meeting isn't depicted--at the beginning of the cafe scene, Marius is talking to himself about this girl he's seen, and a bit later, his friends tease him about being in love. The death of the students, the rescue of Marius, the meet-up with Thenardier in the sewers...they aren't depicted, just described after the fact. We go right from Gavroche's death to Marius' recovery and reunion with his family. No counterpart to "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" at all. Most interestingly of all, Javert only shows up in all of five songs: Fantine's arrest, Valjean's intervention, "Demain"/"One Day More", his meeting with Valjean at the barricade (where we never hear of his capture or his actual freeing by Valjean--Valjean asks to be allowed to kill him, and next thing you know, he's free and soliloquizing) and his suicide, "Noir Ou Blanc"/"Black Or White." The last is the only song he has all to himself.

This may seem a bit jarring, but it's easier to understand when you realize that Les Mis is practically the national novel of France, so Boublil and Schonberg must have figured French listeners already KNEW most of these plot points and didn't need every single one rehashed.

A bit more problematic is the fact that the story seems to "jump around" a bit. "Rouge et Noir"/"Red and Black" comes BEFORE the "Amis de l'ABC" part. In "La Nuit d'Angoisse"/"Night of Anguish", which includes the "Drink with Me" melody, some of the students already seem to have lost hope in their cause (it's not clear as to whether they're already at the barricade by this point), but then, we go into "Demain"/"One Day More", where Enjolras and the students are on fire with hope and idealism again. In one case of Mood Whiplash, we go directly from Eponine's death to the fiery fanfare of the barricade with no quieter transition. In another, during "Night of Anguish", we go from Enjolras' fast revolutionary theme IMMEDIATELY into the melody that became "Drink With Me." Most unusually of all, we go from Javert's suicide (immediatedly after Valjean frees him) back to the barricade and the death of Gavroche (in this version, he seems to crawl back to the barricade mortally wounded where he shares some dialogue with the students). Gavroche's first lines after this are a mocking of Javert's suicide and a wish that, now that Gavroche is dying, they won't "share the same cell" in the afterlife! How did Gavroche find out about the suicide?

Some of the focus of the songs is a bit different as well. In "La Journee est Finie"/"At The End of the Day", the workers aren't singing about the hardships they endure, they're singing about the small everyday comforts they take to alleviate a grinding workday (the women chuckle that they and their husbands will "do ourselves some good when the children are asleep"). "Like what you have when you don't have what you like," they sing.

Furthermore, "Rouge et Noir" is about 95% about Marius' love for Cosette and maybe 5% about the upcoming revolution, where in "our" version, it's divided pretty equally between the two.

The main thrust of "Mon prince est en chemin", (My prince is on his way), the song which became "Castle On A Cloud", is about the "prince" Cosette dreams will rescue her. The British lyricists thought (perhaps with justification) that an eight-year-old girl wouldn't be dreaming of Prince Charming, she'd be imagining the normal childhood and loving parents she didn't have. (Plus, where would this abused, neglected little girl have heard any fairy tales? Unless she eavesdropped on Madame telling stories to her daughters.) At first, I agreed with them, but now that I've heard the original...I'm not sure I don't like it better than "Castle on a Cloud". I REALLY love the orchestrations of this, especially the woodwind instrumental break in the middle, and the little actress here is just heartbreaking. And I love the line, "All children have a childhood, a family, and toys...but I have neither father, mother, nor doll."

Finally, instead of the big swelling finales of "One Day More" and the stage finale, the OFC's "Demain" and "La Lumiere"/"Death Of Valjean" end very quietly, with a simple repeat of the four-note motif.

Now, I've been detailing all that's DIFFERENT about the OFC. But that doesn't mean that I think it's worse or less than the show. On the contrary, it's excellent in its own right, an unusual interpretation but an effective one. In some ways, the feel of it is a bit more intimate and low-key. And it's a treat to hear ANYTHING in French--the only language in which you can insult someone and it sounds like you're seducing them.

The only things I can say I'm not crazy about is the occasional disco sound (with the aforementioned xylophone), the weird skipping from Javert's suicide back to the barricade, and one story element that really kind of jarred for me. In "La Journee est Finie," it's Madeleine/Valjean that fires Fantine himself, not the foreman ("I don't want a story of this sort in my house! Here are fifty francs, and there's the door!") The other women tattle on Fantine that she's an unwed mother, and Valjean never even gives her the chance to tell her side of the story or speak for herself at all! It seems very, VERY OOC for the compassionate Valjean, and too much of an unexplained reversal when he runs into Fantine later and helps her. I thought the whole point was that he wasn't involved at all, and was ashamed that all this happened to Fantine without his knowledge?

However, those are relatively minor quibbles in what is an excellent album. Best of all, there are a few more elements taken directly from the Brick. The chorus of "La Faute A Voltaire", the melody which became "Little People", is taken almost word-for-word from the song Gavroche sings at his death in the novel. Other bits are also nearly word-for-word: there's a lyric during Javert's suicide, "To be of granite, and to doubt! To be a guard dog, and lick!" The "Drink With Me" melody features words from a poem the students recite in the book. M. Gillenormand and his daughter, as I said, play a part, and best of all, Eponine's sister Azelma gets a mention, as well as the fact that Cosette's rescue takes place at Christmas: "Azelma, my love, have you done your letter to Santa Claus?" (In that same song, Mme. Thenardier also calls Cosette the same names she does in the novel: "Miss Toad" and "nameless dog".)

So...your thoughts?

I wonder if it'd be possible to produce for example a concert version based only on this version today? I have the cd set myself, and know it is rather different from the final version of the show. It is almost like they are two different shows that can exist side by side.

No, you didn't dream it. Here it is.

viewtopic.php?t=77265

You can also buy both of the French recordings (the original concept and cast album of the staged production) on iTunes.

Thanks for posting about this wonderfull Original "Les Misérables" !

If you don't know it, the songs were in the "correct" order in the "Palais des Sports" stage production. The recording is a mess ! I guess they wanted to reduce the number of vinyl records, and changed the order of the songs in order to make them "fit" in fewer records.

The "Who am I" song is not in the recording, but was in the stage version.

As you said, "Les Miserables" is know by virtually everybody in France. Even those who never opened a book in their life know who is Valjean, Cosette, Gavroche, Javert, Mr & Mrs Thénardier. The other characters are not as well known. Yes, even Eponine !
So they did'nt have to keep some parts that are only necessary to explain who they are. They kept only what could be interesting / Spectacular / Moving / poetic for the stage.
The stage production was HUGE... Robert Hossein, who directed the staging is a huge star in France. He can sell thousands of tickets for an arena / Stadium show only on his name.
The "Palais des Sports" is a 4 000 seats arena, the biggest indoor stage in France at the time. If it was today, think "O2 Arena".
So the production was a huge, spectacular, epic show. It was scheduled for a limited time only, as a "not to be missed" event. Sometimes, you can read on the internet that the original 1980 show was not successful, it is very wrong. The show was a tremendous success.
Again, when I read the "original London Production Team" referring to the original French show as a "Nice little intimate musical series of tableaux", I want to shout "LIARS" as Gravroche would do !
Actually, The London production was a downsized version of the French arena show. But downsizing it was the only way to make a long term running show.
Today, most of the french forgot about the original show, but everybody knows "La faute à Voltaire" (Little people) even if they don't know it is from a musical.

The missing parts of the show can be disturbing because we have one reference : the musical as it is staged today as a 2 acts with a prologue musical.
The original show was a 4 acts show. Some actions are offstage between the acts, as it is in a play or an opera. If you consider it a 4 acts show, it really makes sense, and the structure is even more "solid" than the 2 acts with a prologue one.

If you are interested, I compiled all the french lyrics (in the correct order, with the songs songs missing in the recording) and some picture of that show in a pdf file.
http://db.tt/mQ8yUvEg

Let me know if you like it !

Oh ! I forgot !

The lyrics in the final scene is also an almost "word-for-word" what is said in the novel... And it's so beautiful that it brings me to tears every time I listen to it or when I read the last chapter for the thousandth time...

The OFC :


The novel :

Agreed with all of the above. I also wouldn't be surprised if Trevor Nunn actually knows (or at least knew, when he was interviewed for the Behr book) very little about the original French version. He presumably never saw it, after all: just heard the recording and read a translation of the libretto. The fact that he even claims that the French version ended with Javert's suicide seems to imply that he took Boublil and Schoenberg's advice to "Forget about the French version" and was only speaking from vague, flawed memory in that interview.

wow, thank you for the file Gargamel. Any idea what's going on in that last picture? Why are they all being painted in a portrait?

Well...
They actually adapted it for an Anglo-saxon audience, which was a good idea because it was really needed to be successful for that audience... and they adapted it to "downsize" it from a sport arena show to a Theatre show. Downsized doesn't mean to me less powerfull or not as good as the "big" one.
If so, then I learned some new subtleties in the English language !

I also agree with the fact that "forgetting" the French show was the only good way to make a new show with a new staging for another audience. But in that case, mister Nunn and Caird... don't pretend you know it !

You say that Musical Theatre isn't so well Known in France... Well that's not completely true !
In fact, "Musicals" are (or were) not very known in France.
Opera is part of the musical history in France, and what is called "French Opera" is important in the musical history, as Italian Opera.
Also, a lighter version of musical theatre, the Operettas, were very, very popular in France until only a few decades ago.
So there is a very strong tradition of musical theatre in France, but not in the same way it is in Great Britain or America.

It is changing today thanks to the "Chatelet Theatre" (which was the reference for operettas in the 50's - 60's...)
The Chatelet Theatre had some great succes with "traditionnal" English language musicals in the last years : My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Les Misérables, The Sound of Music, Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, etc.


Well that's a digression, in M. Hugo himself's fashion !

To Ulkis : I have no idea... Looks like it... Maybe that where the "series of tableaux" thing came from !