Music rec for the French Revolution

[regshoe]

Reading Ninety-Three inspired me to go and listen to some of the songs from the Les Misérables musical in the original French, to get an appropriate sense of revolutionary fervour for the mood and setting of the book. I've been listening to this one again today to distract myself from some of the more upsetting aspects of my current book, and it really is a good thing.

Watch on YouTube

I think the original lyrics are better than the English version (I don't actually speak French beyond osmosis of common words and spotting things that look similar to English equivalents, so I'm going by the translations on the internet), and more appropriately Hugo-ish (Moi je veux être le premier/Le premier nom gravé/Au marbre du monument d'espoir... that's the spirit!) This is the original concept album version, and they seem to have changed some of the lyrics later on—the later version is more similar to the English one, but I know the French musical went through several versions and I don't know which came first—anyway, this is my favourite version of this song I've heard so far.

Comments

[iberiandoctor]

So this is my fave Les Mis song on any given day, and I agree it's even more rousing in the original Boublil/Natel French lyrics. I can't say I know that much about the original French music or cast, nor is my French good enough to delve into the intricacies of the French lyrics vs the English ones, but imo À la volonté du peuple /With the volition of the people is even more Hugolian and Republican than the more watered-down English version "Do you hear the people sing?"

Are you enjoying Ninety-Three? That's next on my French Romantics list, though I've taken a detour into Restoration era politics with Balzac's Une ténébreuse affaire (it's going very slowly, though; perhaps I'll be persuaded to give Jacobean romance a try!).

[regshoe]

even more Hugolian and Republican than the more watered-down English version "Do you hear the people sing?"

Oh, yeah, definitely :D And now I'm listening to the finale reprise, which may be even better—the English version really waters that one down by making it all about heaven, but the French is very much about the continuing fight for change on Earth. Hugo would approve!

I really liked Ninety-Three! (I wrote a post about it here). It is a lot—very much Hugo grappling with what he sees as the most important thing in history—and has some amazing character moments and imagery. Apart from Hugo I haven't read much French fiction at all—I might have to delve into other French Romantics if they're anything like this.