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Standout moments from "Les Mis" recordings, 1997-'98 (plus one more from '96 that I forgot)
My journey through the many professional and bootleg recordings of Les Mis continues.
Some of these standout moments are things I love, while others I have mixed feelings about, but they all stand out, whether they're big moments or blink-and-you'll-miss-it.
Again, thanks to @professorspork for inspiring me with her similar Wicked Punctum Project.
The surreal Prologue and “Valjean’s Soliloquy.”
This Swedish non-replica production is full of creative staging, but nowhere is it more creative than when Valjean is on parole. The scenes aren’t performed realistically: instead, from “Freedom is mine…” until “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” Valjean stands at center stage, singing his lines looking out at the audience, while the farmer, the laborers, the innkeeper, his wife, the Bishop, and the constables move and sing around him. Maybe it’s a slightly cold way of staging the scenes, but it vividly conveys Valjean’s sense of isolation from the rest of humankind. I only might have liked the Bishop to actually interact with him. But he makes up for it by staying onstage during “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” and as the kneeling Valjean sings the last lines, he stands behind him and holds his hands over his head, while a heavenly light shines onto Valjean’s face, heralding his new life.
Honorable Mentions:
*At the beginning, rather than laboring, the convicts are all chained to a wall, immobilized with their hands above their heads. It creates an even stronger sense of hopelessness than the usual staging.
*In “Lovely Ladies” instead of two random old women, the Pimp and the chief lovely lady buy both Fantine’s locket and her hair. When they see that she’s desperate, they hone in to buy what little she has, and when they see that she has nothing left, then in Hugo’s words, they take “the rest.” And during the hair sale, the Pimp grabs her hair and chops it off onstage as she sings “Ten francs may save my poor Cosette!”
*This is the first production in my watch-through that switches Enjolras and Marius’s first lines in “Look Down,”: Marius sings “Where are the leaders of the land?...” and Enjolras sings “Only one man and that’s Lamarque…” It won’t be the last time this is done.
*Éponine accidentally causes Marius and Cosette to meet, even more directly than she usually does. When Marius tries to follow her on “Why is he here? Hey, Éponine!” Cosette happens to be standing right next to them, and Éponine shoves Marius, making him stumble backward and bump into Cosette from behind.
*Éponine also announces the news of General Lamarque's death rather than Gavroche. So much fanfic potential in the thought of her being acquainted with all the Amis!
*On "Let's give 'em a screwing they'll never forget!" the ever-bawdy Grantaire holds his gun out from his crotch.
*A minor acting moment: in the intro to "A Little Fall of Rain," after Éponine reports that she delivered Marius's letter, Marius turns and grins at his friends, who are gathered around, as if to say "Yay! Did you hear that? Cosette has my letter!" A last moment of innocent joy before the horrifying reveal of Éponine's wound.
*At the end of “Javert’s Suicide,” we don’t see Javert’s fall from the bridge, we only hear his final cry. But then we see the aftermath: some men carrying a simple wooden coffin with Javert’s hat placed on the lid.
*This production introduces some staging innovations that later became standard around the world. For example, Gavroche is shot at the top of the barricade, falls into the students’ arms, and then is carried away by Grantaire. And in the final scene, the Bishop’s spirit appears: in this staging, he’s the first spirit to appear, and stands at center stage watching over Valjean from the “Bring Him Home” reprise onward.
Ruthie Henshall’s ending of “Lovely Ladies.”
Several cast members from the 10th Anniversary Concert appear in this concert too, either in the same roles or in different ones, and the most prominent role reprise is Ruthie Henshall’s Fantine. The standout moment of her performance here, and of the whole concert, is her delivery of “Come on, captain…” at the end of “Lovely Ladies.” It’s a passage that she sings very differently than in her TAC performance, and arguably better. Instead of being overtly seductive, she delivers the first lines in a gentle, casual, friendly way – a different yet equally valid way of flirting. Some bitterness creeps into her voice on “Don’t it make a change to have a girl who can’t refuse?” but she passes it off as a joke, adding a little laugh at the end of the line. But then on “Easy money lying on a bed…” the lighthearted façade dissolves completely, and her true, scathing anger spews forth.
Honorable Mention:
*David Bardsley becomes the first Enjolras I’ve heard chronologically to sing a high B-flat on “…until the earth is free!” I don’t know if he was the first ever to do it or not, but he’s the earliest one I’ve heard.Â
Todd Alan Johnson’s ferocity in “Confrontation.”
Some Javerts are the same person from the beginning until Valjean derails his world at the barricade: staunch, unbending, unchanging. Other Javerts become increasingly fierce, obsessive, and unhinged over the course of the story. Based on this recording, Todd Alan Johnson’s Javert seems to have been the latter, at least at this early point in his three years in the role. In his first scenes, he sounds calm, cold, and efficient; not especially fierce or angry. But starting with “Confrontation,” all that changes. The way he growls “Valjean, at last…” and “I’ve hunted you across the years!” makes it clear that the reveal of “Madeleine’s” identity as Valjean has caused a snap inside him. From this point on, cold efficiency is replaced by ferocious obsession, and there’s no turning back from it until it finally breaks him and kills him. Even without any visuals, his voice alone vividly conveys this transformation.
Honorable Mentions:
*Lisa Capps’ Fantine sounding especially raw, tearful, and possibly drunk in her arrest scene, especially her terrified “I don’t want you!” and her mocking laughter while fighting off Bamatabois.
*The uncredited Grantaire singing a lovely, semi-operatic “It’s better than an opera!” with a rolled R, but then letting out an undignified, high-pitched, snickering laugh at the end.
*Kate Fisher’s solo as Cosette in “In My Life.” She’s definitely one of my favorite bootleg Cosettes: not only does she have a gorgeous voice, but without breaking the melody, she infuses her solo with so many little giggles and sighs, and so much feeling. This Cosette is a real person experiencing the thrill and yearning of first love, not just “the ingenue.”
Hans Peter Janssens’ last “Let him live” in “Bring Him Home.”
Yet again, we have a one-disc cast album that consists only of highlights, and though the cast is excellent, it’s hard to choose a standout moment from so little. But I finally settled on Valjean’s last (Flemish equivalent of) “Let him live” near the end of “Bring Him Home.” Hans Peter Janssens was a controversial Valjean when he joined the London cast a few years after this, but here, singing in his native Flemish, he sounds excellent to me. The feeling he brings into his last “Let him live” is poignantly raw, and he intersperses the line with a gasp, which may have been just a necessary breath after belting “If I die, let me die!” but which sounds as if Valjean is panting with emotion.
As we come closer to the turn of the millennium, Cosettes are becoming feistier! Up to this point, in “In My Life,” Cosette’s lines to Valjean have virtually always been sung in a sweet, pleading way; sometimes with a hint of frustration too, but just a hint. But Regan Thiel breaks the trend. Without sounding bratty or lacking dignity, her “…in your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in a wood” has a distinct note of complaint in it, and her “In my life I’m no longer a child…” sounds genuinely angry. From this point on, if I’m not mistaken, angry Cosettes would become just as common as sweetly pleading Cosettes, if not more so. It’s a choice I have mixed feelings about: yes, it makes Cosette less insipid and it speaks to the universal tension between teenagers and their parents, but still, Valjean and Cosette's loving bond gets so little stage time, it seems a shame to waste part of that time in anger. Still, it’s a choice that stands out.
Honorable Mentions:
*Todd Alan Johnson’s fierce, half-shouted “Do not forget my name!” followed by a soft “Do not forget me…” in the Prologue. His Javert is calmer in this recording than in the 1997 bootleg (that is, until he finally melts down in his suicide scene), which in an audio-only performance is less interesting. But he does offer a unique reading of these lines.
*A woman at the barricade – one of the few who stay for the final battle against Enjolras’s orders – screaming when Enjolras is shot.
*Greg Stone’s Valjean brokenly stammering “Tell her my h-heart is too full for farewells…” in “Vajean’s Confession.” Not enough Valjean's sound truly distraught in this scene, but this one does.
*Another touch from Regan's Cosette, this time showing her love for her father: she audibly sobs throughout Valjean's death scene. Not enough to be over-the-top, but still audible, all the way from the reveal that Valjean saved Marius's life until after he dies.
Cosette’s effort to coax a hug from Valjean at the beginning of “Valjean’s Confession.”
Valjean and Cosette’s hug during Marius’s opening lines in “Valjean’s Confession” is standard blocking, but I’d never seen it played in this poignant way before! After “Every Day” ends, Petra Wedenbach’s Cosette approaches her father and affectionately puts her hands on his shoulders, but Sándor Sasvári’s Valjean just turns and walks away. She follows him, still tenderly touching his shoulder and back, but he doesn’t respond. Then she gently turns him around and hugs him. At this, he finally, very gently hugs her back, but then signals for her to leave the room so he can talk to Marius alone. It’s just a few seconds and completely silent, but this moment captures the essence of Hugo’s heartbreaking chapter “The Lower Room.” Valjean thinks Cosette doesn’t need him anymore and has resolved to withdraw from her for her own good, but poor Cosette doesn’t understand and wants her Papa.
Honorable Mentions:
*The crowd outside the Bishop's house laughing at "You maintain he made a present of this silver," only for the Bishop to shut them up with a calm yet firm and emphatic "That is right."
*In “Fantine’s Arrest,” Birte Holmboe’s Fantine pulling away from Valjean as she sings “Can this be?” (some Fantines don’t seem to remember to be angry at “Monsieur Madeleine” until “M’sieur, don’t mock me now, I pray…” but this Fantine does), and then raising herself up on “You let your foreman send me away!” so her head is higher than his.
*In “The Runaway Cart,” Drew Pulver’s Javert suddenly grows quiet and uncertain as he sings “No, not even Jean Val… jean,” stuttering the last syllable and singing it through clenched teeth, and then abruptly turns his head to look suspiciously at “Monsieur Madeleine.” (This would be the standout moment if Valjean/Cosette interactions weren’t a weakness of mine.)
*Another unique Valjean and Cosette moment, in “One Day More”: as Sándor's Valjean sings an especially anxious and brooding “These men who seem to know my crime…” Petra's Cosette can see how troubled he is, and despite her own anguish at having to leave Marius, she reaches out to comfort her father. He turns around, and for a brief, sweet moment, they hold hands.
*After Éponine’s death, Chris Morandi’s Enjolras delivers “She is the first to fall…” as a reproach to Javert, as if to say, “Look what your side has done!” (Or maybe "Your friends have just shot you," with Éponine in place of Jean Prouvaire.)
*Grantaire (at least I think it's Grantaire, though the camera doesn't show him) shouts "Noooo!!" when Gavroche is killed. Chronologically he's the first actor I've heard do this, but he certainly won't be the last!
*Another moment from Birte’s Fantine: in the Epilogue, she’s less ethereally remote than other spirit Fantines are, and makes the post–10th Anniversary blocking of “Fantine kneels in front of Valjean” make sense for a change. She kneels to console Valjean with her hand on his shoulder, intimately and tenderly assuring him that he’ll be with God.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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