[ SECRET POST #2241 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2241 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 (minorly sexual, illustrated) - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's written very similar to an opera, which can also sound chaotic and unmelodious. Sometimes you have to listen to something over and over until the melody clicks (and trust me, Les Mis actually has a lot of continuing melodies that repeat. For example, you can hear "On My Own" in Fantine's Death Scene).

[(Anonymous)]

The lyrics only tell about half the story, the melody does the rest.

Here is a very interesting analysis of some of them: http://verit.tumblr.com/tagged/les-mis-motifs (they also include the original French cast in the analysis).

And I'm sorry to say but it does have something to do with the singing. Making sung dialog sound melodious rather than clunky is not as easy as it seems. Try the Complete Symphonic Recording, you'll hear the difference.

Also the movie cut lines in weird places which didn't really help. I'm thinking specifically of "Everyday" where they cut Marius's line and a) the dialog stopped making sense and b) you can hear the glitch in the music where they cut out the line.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I think that's more that they took a ~90 minute original and blew it up into almost 3 hours without creating much new music. SOME of the repetitions work on a thematic level like Fantine's Death/On My Own as you mention, but others are just SUPER lazy writing, like Lovely Ladies/Turning.

[fauxkaren]

Oh. I actually like the Lovely Ladies/Turning repetition because they're both songs about the plight of women.

[(Anonymous)]

Lovely Ladies/Turning is thematic and I love how they are the same, just one is slower and sadder. It gives me chills thinking how that bouncy "happy" tune turns into one of the saddest melodies in the whole thing. (For me.)

[fauxkaren]

I love "Turning" too! Because like everything at the barricade was for naught. Nothing changed. But all these men died, and the women are left behind, and the world goes on.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm surprised to always hear people say Lovely Ladies is bouncy or happy or whatever. Aside from the tune, that song seems awfully sinister and grim to me. It's Fantine's induction into a group of women who have to do a job society thinks makes them subhuman because they have no choice.

[(Anonymous)]

And now that I think on it more, I don't think even the melody sounds happy. It's fast-paced, I guess, but it's atonal and creepy compared to the operatic feel of other Les Mis songs.

[othellia]

Same. I also feel a similar way with the Bishop's song and Empty Chairs. They are both melancholy, but one is full of hope and rebirth while the other is about pointless death and being left behind.

[(Anonymous)]

Wait... ~90 minute original? Isn't the play roughly as long as the movie is? Am I missing something?

[(Anonymous)]

The FRENCH original, before the translation and additional material was closer to 90 min.

[tenlittlebullets]

The cast recording was close to 90 minutes. The original French show itself was two and a half hours long.

[tenlittlebullets]

Repeating this so it doesn't get buried in a subthread: the cast recording was 90 minutes. The original French musical itself was about two and a half hours long, not counting intermission, and structurally very similar to the English adaptation. (The cast recording jumbles the song order; One Day More wasn't actually smack in the middle of Act II.) If you leave aside the addition of a 20-minute prologue, more material was cut than added.

Not that I'm defending Turning; Cameron Mackintosh has admitted it's only in there to justify paying the female ensemble for sticking around through the second act.

[fauxkaren]

On the subject of repeating melodies, this is probably my favorite mirroring:

[alexi_lupin]

Yeah, I love that bit

[(Anonymous)]

I love you

[othellia]

Link to source? That's one of my favorite mirrors too and with my favorite Valjean/Javert singer combo.

[fauxkaren]

http://onthislonelybarricade.tumblr.com/post/39368731357

[othellia]

Thanks! <3

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe it's the inner 10th anniversary fangirl in me talking, but I hated that Norm Lewis sang Javert's Suicide while smiling? He's supposed to be coming to the realization that he's the bad guy, I cannot understand why he looks like he's so triumphant, when imo, the song is pure despair. I liked Phil Quast's rendition a lot better, though I loved Norm's voice too.

[(Anonymous)]

... It was full of despair. That's why he's smiling. His Suicide was Javert struggling with hysteria and empty defiance, before crumpling. The suicide itself has a touch of triumph because it's the one option he has that satisfies both morality and honour, so in a way it's the one option that lets him keep something of himself. Just a touch of triumph, in the midst of despair.

I love Quast's version too, but they were two very different Javerts. Quast's Javert had a much slower-dawning realisation over the course of the song, and he didn't fight it. Lewis', on the other hand, fought the realisation tooth and nail, until he couldn't anymore. Just a difference of approach, is all. Both fit the character.

[(Anonymous)]

Definitely my favourite bit. Also "Yet why did I allow that man / to touch my soul and teach me love" vs. "Yet why did allow that man / to hold dominion over me".

It's a beautiful analysis of the characters and I found it infuriating that they changed the melody in the film.