sophia_sol | Les Miserables Original French Concept

What I did today: Listened to La Faute A Voltaire wayyyyyyyyyy too many times. Um.

So, if you are familiar with Les Mis recordings, you might be able to infer from this that yesterday I introduced myself to the Les Miserables Original French Concept album. And I just can't do the same sort of Thoughts about it that I've been doing for the other cast recordings I listen to, because it is SO VERY DIFFERENT that I get all caught up in that and cannot give my opinions of any of the character portrayals.

IT IS SO DIFFERENT OMFG. I just have no opinions whatsoever right now, because I'm too busy going WHAT IS GOING ON???? I need to read the English translation of the lyrics to make sense of things, it is clear. (I think I have the translations open in one of my tabs right now? I'll get to it. Sometime.)

So most of my thoughts, actually, are on the subject of my reaction to the fact of it being in French. Because it was weirdly less weird for me to listen to than the Spanish! When I listened to the Japanese Red Cast, it was all nonsense syllables to me, so I could ignore the words entirely in favour of paying attention to everything else. When I listened to the Madrid Cast, it was juuuuuuuust recognizable enough as being Almost Actual Words that I kept on having my brain getting tripped up on it.

But listening to the OFC? It was actually pretty much just like listening to something in English for me, even though I don't actually KNOW French. Here is why: I'm not actually very good at keeping my attention focused on the lyrics of songs I'm listening to (thank you, ADHD), so generally speaking when I listen to songs in English they osmose into the back of my head but I couldn't tell you what's going on unless I'm working really hard at Paying Attention. So I catch the odd word or phrase here and there but mostly my brain is like OH HELLO TANGENT I AM GOING TO WANDER DOWN, WHAT, I'M NOT LISTENING TO MUSIC WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. So pretty much what I hear is YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS.

And as a person who lives in Canada and has thus studied the requisite years of French in elementary school and high school, I have heard enough French in my life that my brain parses French as YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS. It sounds like entirely familiar language to me. So. I listen to the OFC and even if I am paying very close attention by brain comfortably feels the same as if I were not-really-paying-attention to a song in English. Because I catch the occasional word or phrase and the rest of it is just YEP WORDS.

It's kind of disconcerting how not disconcerting it is.

(okay I have to mention one other thing, which is that pilferingapples' Disco Amis were what inspired me to finally get around to listening to the OFC and wowww yep I started giggling when I reached the line "Lamarque est mort". That is QUALITY ART DEPICTING QUALITY TRUTHS ABOUT A CERTAIN SONG ON THIS ALBUM OMFG)

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It is really a TOTALLY different beast. (Here are the translations again if you need them.) It is one of my favorite recordings, though, in part because it's so different and in part because Jacques Mercier is increasingly the Javert of my heart. No "Sous les Etoiles" for him, nope.

Plus, you know, Les Amis du Discothèque, sob sob. I love them.

SO SO DIFFERENT. I don't think I have the focus tonight to pay proper attention to the lyrics and so forth, but thanks for linking the translations again, because upon going through my tabs I discovered I DIDN'T still have them open! NOW THEY ARE IN A TAB which means I WILL get to them at...some point.....

Les Amis du Discothèque are the best

I have a feeling I will be attempting some kind of comparison with the soundboard, although that will be difficult due to my non-speaking of French. I just find the evolution of the show really fascinating, which is probably a sign that I should suck it up and try to track down a copy of the OLC.

You should definitely suck it up and track down a copy! And then write lots of meta about the evolution of the show so I can learn more! :DDD

I bet you a dollar that

10littlebullets/Marianne/OrestesFasting has written that meta somewhere on Abaissé, from the point of view of someone infinitely more knowledgeable and competent in French than I am.

That would be a sucker's bet and I am not taking it. :P

I've read through, um, the vast majority of her lj archive and iirc she didn't say anything there, but I have done very little poking around Abaissé. That would would be a terrible time-sink and I am doing my best to keep myself from falling into it. Sigh. I just want to read all the clever things that clever people say, WHY IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK.

Heh, yeah, I think a lot of her meta is buried in Abaissé threads, but I am afraid to get sucked into reading old threads--I can barely keep up with the Javert meta on Tumblr, and that's all of six people or so.

I HEAR YOU. I've hardly even poked my nose into Javert meta, other than what you blog/reblog, because I'm kept busy enough just with what little les mis stuff I follow. SO MUCH FANDOM, SO LITTLE TIME. (This is one way in which it was nice to be unemployed and out of school last year: I had so much time to stalk fic and meta and stuff! I really don't miss being broke though.)

Oh noooooo I just read the lyrics to the first song on the OFC and I DON'T LIKE THE OFC ANYMORE, NOOOOOO, they made VALJEAN KICK FANTINE OUT FOR BEING AN UNWED MOTHER, THAT IS NOT VALJEAN, I LOVE VALJEAN, HOW DARE THEY ASSASSINATE HIS CHARACTER LIKE THIS :(((((((

MAN WTF I DON'T UNDERSTAAAAND. That's so weird, especially given that a lot of other parts of the OFC are closer to the book.

Upon reading further, I think I kind of understand? It seems to be for the purpose of giving Valjean a moment of changing his heart, since the OFC skips over all of Valjean's backstory and starts with him as M. Madeleine. Because then when he encouters Fantine about to be arrested and dying, he can be all "oh noooooo I behaved wrongly LET ME LEARN TO BE A BETTER PERSON" or something. Although if this IS what it's going for, it doesn't do a very comprehensive job of it, so I might be reading in more than was intended.

I STILL DON'T LIKE IT THOUGH. SOCIALLY AWKWARD SAINT VALJEAN IS MY FAAAAAVE. (....one of my many faves.)

I read somewhere (on Abaissé, maybe?) that the Bishop part was left out because "everyone knew it"? But the OFC is also a badly edited highlights recording, compared with the soundboard (which predated it), although the Prologue and Bishop sequence weren't in that, either.

I DON'T LIKE IT EITHER.

Les Miserables Original French Concept

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