Les Mis... What's the big deal?

[jbsegal]

So, after The Star Wars Trilogy Musical Edition ganked something like 1/2 its music from Les Mis, I decided it should actually listen to the original.

I borrowed The Complete Symphonic Recording from dancingdeer.

I'm not impressed.

Thoughts: While I'm not much of a fan of opera, so I can't really compare, it really feels to me like 50%+ of the show is recitative and I don't like it.

Related: This is the most un-lyrical musical I've ever heard. Much of the time, it sounds like it wants to be a straight play but someone decided to graft on music.

Yes, musicals often have themes or leitmotifs, it often feels like this show has, alongside the 50% recitative, another 30% made up of the same... 3? 4? songs, reused and reused and reused.

There's not a thing about the recording that evokes 'France' for me. The occasional french phrase feels forced and artificial, especially alongside the cockney accents of the lower-class characters.

The use of synthesizers in the scoring is... anachronistic, in a way I can't let wash over me.

Specific to this recording: I hate Gary Morris' voice/accent. As he's a TX? TN? born country singer, this isn't that surprising.

So, why the heque is this such a popular show? Sure, there are a couple of nice songs, but they're a very small percentage of the whole. Is it totally different live? Really?

Comments

[volund.livejournal.com]

Yes, musicals often have themes or leitmotifs, it often feels like this show has, alongside the 50% recitative, another 30% made up of the same... 3? 4? songs, reused and reused and reused.

Not as bad as the worst of Lloyd Webber's works, which it seems use the same 2 or 3 tunes over and over throughout. I'm thinking in particular of his, IMHO, absolute worst opus ... not Cats (talk about insubstantial stories, as we recall the previous mention of Candide), but ... Aspects of Love.

("Love changes everything ... " indeed! It couldn't rescue this dog.)

Hell, even the best of his stuff, his collaborations with Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita) make heavy use of leitmotifs.

Wagner has a lot to answer for ...

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Even though I don't think I've ever heard any of these but JCS all the way through... but maybe you've just identified what I don't like about ALW. Hm.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Not as bad as the worst of Lloyd Webber's works, which it seems use the same 2 or 3 tunes over and over throughout.

Remember: Copying from others is plagiarism. Copying from yourself is style. ;-)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

What always gets me about the music from "Evita" is the part where you can hear the swiped Emerson, Lake and Palmer riff!