Oct 24 2008
Les Miserables Uniting the World?
Many thanks to Damaris for posting this link. I had mentioned in class that Les Miserables the novel has been translated into many languages and is one of the best selling books in history. We also listened to some of the music from the Schonberg and Boublil opera and discussed how the musical version has been translated into many languages as well. The clip below is from the 10th anniversary celebration—so from 1990 I guess? You will hear “Do You Hear the People Sing” sung in several languages. It is beautiful to listen to all these different words, yet the message of the song is not “lost in translation.”
However, upon further inspection you will notice that all of the countries represented—all of the countries for whom Les Miserables carries a special meaning—are democracies. So really does this story unite the world or just people who share an ideology?
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
I think that it is interesting that all the countries in this video are democracies. Personally, I think this story is more than just about people who share a common ideology and does unite the world. The video is cool and I especially like the ending.
The video I think, is a great way to show peace and equality…because not just one “country” is singing the song,and the song doesn’t relate just to one type of group,
it refers to all the people of the world. However, I
don’t know why there are children at this event(u can c them at 2:51) Are they there because they fought in the revolutions that took place in Les Miserables? Even though all of the countries are democracies, I still believe that in a way it unites and restores the people of the world.
I’m not exactly sure what the 10th anniversary celebration was that this video clip is taken from, but it appears that there are actors in costume and that they probably acted out (sung really) scenes from the musical. There are children in the musical–the young Cosette, the young Thernadier girls (the people Cosette lived with while Fantine was alive) and then Gavroche and his orphan “babies.”
This clip was really amazing. All these men from different countries could sing the same song in all different languages and still make it sound on pitch. I guess it makes since that all the people singing the song are from countries that have democracy because this is a play. The message of this song pertains to all people who believe in democracy even if their count does not. Remember France wasn’t a democracy but they still believed in one. That was the purpose of all there fighting.