Les Miserables

***Warning: This is by far a wordier post than normal, read it or not... but scroll down for some great songs from Les Mis if you'd like. - At least listen to the first video I posted!***

I've posted about Les Mis before (here - the post where I mentioned how they needed to make a musical version, and now... check this out). And I'm posting about it now... And I'll post about it later. Because...

YESTERDAY I BOUGHT TICKETS TO GO SEE IT AT THE UTAH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL!!!

And I'm so excited! I'm going with a friend, and we decided that since we weren't going to be spending money on a hotel, and we wanted really awesome seats, we would splurge. So we did. We're sitting on the 6th row, dead center. I can't wait!

We'll be going on 24 July, which is a state holiday so I don't have to worry about getting work off. The play is at 2, so we'll drive down in the morning, watch the show, and drive back up that night. It'll be perfect, and I can't wait!!! (have I said that already?)

Since I bought the tickets I've been listening to lots of things Les Mis. A coworker sent me a link for the 25th anniversary performance on youtube. It was put in multiple parts, but I loved listening to that while working yesterday. My one complaint - No Jonas brother has any right to sing in Les Mis in my opinion. His voice was too pop-ish and he sounded like he was straining through his whole part. No good. It was good for me to listen to Les Mis with different voices though, reminding me that I can appreciate it even when it's not being sung by the voices that I recognize and love from the Complete Symphonic Recording.

Before we get into the wonderfulness that is the Complete Symphonic Recording... Let me share with you this little gem that a co-worker sent to me yesterday after we had talked about Les Mis. Seriously, it's incredible.

Valjean quartet with - Colm Wilkinson, Alfie Boe, Simon Bowman and John Owen-Jones. Wilkinson was the first to play Valjean 25 years ago (he's the first one to sing), and Boe performed in the 25th anniversary concert (the last to sing). I'm not sure about the other two, but I love all their voices and would be extremely happy to watch any of them play the part of Valjean.

And now - enjoy!

Here are a few (okay, more than a few, honestly, I could have included all 44 tracks... except maybe 'Castle on a Cloud', I've never loved that one. oh! and 'lovely ladies'...) favorites from that version.


The Confrontation -

Look Down -

Stars -

One Day More -

Drink With Me -

Bring Him Home -

The Final Battle -
(maybe a weird one to post, but I like the soldier's voice at the beginning, and it's the last time you hear Enjolras - whom I'm kind of in love with)

Javert's Suicide -

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables -

Finale (just becuase) -

The Time is Near...

... So near, it's stirring the blood in [my] veins!

13 points* to you if you got the reference. for a hint, see the post labels.

So, tomorrow is the day. It's feeling almost like a judgment day. There's no turning back, the time has come.

Okay, that may sound slightly dramatic for it just being about the GRE, but I must confess, I'm nervous. I haven't taken a test in over three years. Tomorrow I'm going to take one that could easily dictate how the next couple of years of my life are going to go.

No pressure.

Tomorrow, hopefully by 1, I will have completed the unfavorable task that I've placed before myself and hopefully the results will be highly favorable. Either way - by tomorrow at 1, it will be done!

Prayers, well-wishes, and good thoughts will be very well-received! Thanks in advance!

*why 13 points? because tomorrow's the 13th and that's the day i'm taking the gre.
i've also declared 13 as my lucky number (freshman year in high school)
which is pretty much the reason i chose that day in the first place.

not highly scientific reasoning, i'll grant you that.

Les Mis!

This past Saturday I went down to St. George to watch Les Miserables at the Tuacahn Amphitheater. It was amazing! On the way down I had the opening notes running through my head and I was getting pretty excited. I was a little worried that I would be too critical of the singers because I have the Complete Symphonic Recording completely memorized and I know how it's all "supposed" to sound. At the beginning I kept telling myself, "it'll be different, don't expect it to sound the same..." and after the first few minutes I was able to handle the differences pretty well.

Here are some characters that I thought did an amazing job (even if they did sound different from what I was expecting):
Ryan Anderson was the Bishop of Digne. It's not a large part, but his voice is beautiful. I loved hearing him sing. I liked him much better than the guy who played Valjean and my friend and I decided that Anderson should have been Valjean's part instead. Great voice!

Jay Pierce as Javert. Another amazing voice. He sings with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra too. I loved hearing him. He was awesome! He has a fabulous bass (my favorite part to listen to!) voice.

Another very gifted singer! (I couldn't get a picture of him without the "about" stuff.) John Preator played Marius. He was also amazing. Such a beautiful voice.

I now have a picture of the lovely Melinda Lockwood Debirk who played Cosette. Her voice was beautiful. Very angelic sounding.

The rest of the cast was also great, Valjean - as already mentioned - not being my favorite, but not too terrible either. His mannerisms were kind of weird, and not what I'd expect from the part being played. Oh well.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's such an amazing story and the music is incredible. It was a neat setting with the mountains around us, and having the army fight from the mountain. It was also really neat to be able to see the stars while Javert was singing "The Stars."

I'm waiting for them to come out with a musical movie version. If they can do Phantom, why not Les Mis?

Now, because there are some members of the Symphonic Recording that can never be topped (in my opinion), here's a shout for them:

Philip Quast as Javert. (Isn't that a great picture?! He looks very... inspector-like...) I don't think anyone will ever sing Javert's part as well as he did. This Aussie has got a fantastic voice!

Anthony Warlow as Enjolras (another Aussie). When watching it on Saturday I'd get really excited for Enjolras to burst out with lines like, "One more day before the storm!" because I knew exactly how it "should" sound. The Enjolras at Tuacahn did a good job, but he didn't have the power that Warlow has. Imagine my complete delight when I found out that Warlow also sang the part of Jekyll and Hyde in the Jekyll and Hyde songs that I have come to love. After it clicked, it made complete sense that it should be the same person because I loved both voices so much.

side note - if you ever want a treat, look up Philip Quast and Anthony Warlow singing Lily's Eyes (from Secret Garden) on youtube. It's great.

This picture is just because it's during one of the greatest songs - "One Day More."

Now after all of that, guess what I'm listening to at work today, as I type. I'll give you two guesses, but you'll only need one.