Music : Les Miserables Original London Cast
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0766927336225
Format: Cast Recording, Soundtrack
Label: Red Ink
Manufacturer: Red Ink
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Red Ink
Release Date: June 01, 2004
Sales Rank: 985
Studio: Red Ink
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
This recording captures the 1985 London cast that transformed an obscure French musical based on Victor Hugo's gargantuan novel of pre-Revolutionary France into a worldwide phenomenon throughout the late-'80s and '90s and became one of the best examples of the era's trend of blockbuster musical spectacles. Yes, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg's score tends to recycle its themes, but the beautiful melodies and stirring anthems rarely fail to captivate and touch its audience. Colm Wilkinson is the heroic Valjean, Patti LuPone is the tragic Fantine, Michael Ball is the love-struck Marius, and Frances Ruffelle is the despondent Eponine, with Roger Allam (Javert), Alun Armstrong and Sue Jane Tanner (the Thénardiers), Rebecca Caine (older Cosette), and David Burt (Enjolras) filling out the excellent cast. Fans will want to take note that this recording includes some material that was revised when the show crossed the pond to Broadway--"Little People" was lost altogether, while the "Love Montage" was significantly rewritten. Les Misérables sounds especially vivid in its 1998 remastering, and a synopsis and full lyrics are included. --David Horiuchi
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Wow, some people are very detailed with their reviews. I will just give my overall impression. I thought the music was slower, and thus less emotional. The voices, although good, dont hold the same intensity as the broadway performances (actually Jean Valjean was really great, and Javeir may be better here). I thought Marius didnt have the soft quality of voice that I so loved in the broadway version. Enroljas was also not fiery enough. Honestly, I never do this, but I am planning to throw it out because it just doesnt give me the shear enjoyment that the broadway version does- I just end up nitpicking its faults, and I already have the couple of extra songs from this version to keep, so no loss there!
Rating:  -
This may be the original London cast; but the recording is poorly done. I went to answer the telephone twice, before I realised that the ringing was a cell phone recorded on disc two of this set. I would return it, but it just is not worth the effort. It is most disappointing
I do not recommend this item to anyone.
Rating:  -
I agree with most of the reviews - the London staging is the very best of the English language versions of 'Les Miserables'. Forget the New York (Broadway) production, much too polished (sanitized ?). It pales in comparison. The American version benefits from greater sophistication but at the cost of the original book.
HOWEVER, for the first production of this musical, go to the recording on the 'Anthology' (French) label, issued by FGL Productions (the complete 1980 version). It has the cast of the premier, with 'guest appearances' by some big names in yesterday's French popular music, Michel Sardou, Salvatore Adamo, and Michel Delpech. And a list of superb actor-sings, like Maurice Barrier (Valjean), Rose Laurens (Fantine), Yvan Dautin (Thenardier), and Richard Dewitte (Marius), the list is long.
Of course, it is all in French, but this IS a French musical, and this is what the composer, Claude-Michel Schonberg, and the librettists, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, created. Here you have it, without embellishments added to please 'Anglo-American' tastes. A much more raw interpretation, closer to Victor Hugo's very thick novel (interestingly written in France, and in England, when the author was in self-imposed exile). The words in the French production are quite different from the English-language versions. The recording on two cds comes without a text, but the actors enunciate perfectly. Every word is audible, if you understand the language. ... Read More
Rating: -
Beautiful Music, Beautiful Voices. I have thouroughly enjoyed it. We saw the show when it came to Atlanta several years ago and it also was wonderful.
NKG
Rating: -
We have owned the Les Miserable music book for quite a while and play them on the piano ourselves. Some of those songs are so grand and emotional that I was looking for a great treat from the "Original London Cast". We also bought the Les Miz movie and loved Liam Neeson in it. After watching it, I was really excited to listen to the London CD. I should have saved my money and time.
The singing was like a high school musical -- Shallow, immature, Broadway Imitation voices; too rapid delivery; lacking in emotion and expression. Cosette's song, which should be a tear-jerking, plaintive plea sounded like a kindergarten kid rushing to get it over with. Jauvert's song should have been passionate and deeply emotional. Instead it had all of the emotional depth and expression of a junior high-school rock band's home-grown rant. Wait for someone to do it right.
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