"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will shine."
- Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Ever since I was little, I've loved music. I can vividly remember swinging on the swings in my backyard, singing loud and clear. I would sing anything from church music, to songs I made up about Jesus, to even songs from the radio. I was always singing. Sometimes my Dad tells people I was born singing, which sometimes I wouldn't necessarily doubt. I simply love music and I love singing. I went through times in my life where I taught myself violin, piano and even some guitar. I just never continued with it! It happens. Anyway, because I love music, I have always love the musical theater. My favorite musical of all time is Les Misérables.
I believe I was a Sophomore in High School when I traveled into the city to see it with my cousins at the Walnut Street Theater. I was such a baby back then, now that I think of it. In fact, my dad even dropped us off. He is such a gem! My cousin, Kiersten, and I met our twin cousins, Timmy and Tommy, and our Uncle Tommy and Aunt Maureen at the theater and embarked upon one of my greatest theater experiences (up there on the list includes How I Learned To Drive with Sister Marcille last Spring).
I remember being up in the loft of the theater and being at the edge of my seat the entire time! I had no idea what Les Mis was about and neither did my aunt. While she and I were hyperventilating at the suggestive parts of the show, my other cousins were eternally enjoying it. When I finally realized that this was a pretty accurate depiction of the life of the suffering French, I cried. It really was so painful to watch all the suffering and pain on the stage. But more so to hear it in the voices of the actors and actresses. The music just fulfilled my heart and soul more than any other music had before. After bawling my eyes out at the end of the show (and most of the show, for that matter) when Fantine came back to accompany Jean Valjean to heaven and they sang the best line of the show, "To love another person is to see the face of God," I went home and immediately downloaded every single song from the original London cast and listened to it for weeks on end.
Fast forward to a few summers ago, when one of my best friends, Melissa, played a nun in the Summer Theater Session at UPenn. I remember sitting in the audience with her parents and my best childhood friend, Mike, once again bawling my eyes out but this time singing along with the songs in my heart. So much emotion went through me as I watched the actors and actresses sing and dance across the stage and so much of me wished I could be there with them. But alas, it was something I was meant to see for once again. This time, the song "On My Own" sung by my favorite character, Eponine, touched my heart more than I could understand. I understood then how this best childhood friend, who was sitting right next to me, felt about me. And I thought, if only Marius knew how she felt...then I realized...if only I knew how Mike felt. I understood then.
Fast forward once again to last night, when my friends almost literally dragged me out to the movie theater to see Les Mis. I had heard so many good things about the movie and it had won a few Golden Globes, so I was excited to see this movie. Every one from professors to my friends to the sisters were raving about this movie and I couldn't wait to make my own critique. I made myself comfortable as possible in the movie theater seats and settled in for a two and half hour movie.
As I watched, part of me winced as the camera zoomed in on the mouths of the vocalists in the movie. However, I also covered my eyes when the pain of the actors got too visual for me. I listened to the songs and remembered how much emotion they had once instilled in me. I went back and forth between loving the movie and hating it. I had to remind myself that, "Even if the beginning is not strong enough, the ending is what the audience remembers." It was something that my music teacher always told me. And so even though, I didn't like the beginning of the movie, I let myself watch til the end before making a final judgment. Are you ready for it?
For the visual effects, I thought it was over the top wonderful! I understood a bit more about the reality of what the people went through. Hollywood can really do that for a movie. It gave 19th century France a picture and a reality that the stage productions could never really give. I mean, if a stage production EVER was able to do the opening seen like it was done in the movies, I would be shocked. What I didn't like about the movie was the music. I can't help it, but after listening to so much musical theater for so many years, I have an ear for critique. At times, I couldn't get over the strange vibratos (when the voice vibrates) and the talking through the music (like when some of the lines usually sung were spoken). One thing that the stage production really does for the audience, is give a HUGE emphasis on the music. In stage productions of any musical, actors are chosen based on their musical ability and then their acting ability. While I loved the cast of the film version, it was hard to listen to them singing. But that's just the musician in me.
Regardless of me not loving the music, I wish everyone could see this movie. Of course, after the movie, I texted my dad and told him that eventually in our lifetimes, I am taking him to see the stage production. But for visual people, or movie people, or people who don't like theater, this movie is great. (I think the hardest obstacle for me was that I've seen it on stage so many times). What Victor Hugo did for the reader, what Claude-Michel Schönberg did for the listener, and what Tom Hooper did for the viewer was instill in the people a love for something they might not initially be aware of. Les Mis touches on so many social justice issues but it also can be a HUGE metaphor for our Catholic Faith. It talks about things as deep as abuse against prisoners to simply lying to another. It emphasizes the sacrifice for others and also gives an example of forgiveness. Of course, the line everyone loves is "to love another person is to see the face of God." And how true it is!
Of course, within the book, there are so many lines that shake my soul! Some of my favorites, "Those who do not weep, do not see;" "Life's great happiness is to be convinced we are loved;" "Love is the foolishness of man and the wisdom of God;" and finally, "Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life." I know a good author when almost every word shakes my soul and makes me gasp when I understand it's truth. The same goes for a composer! Because every single song in Les Mis shakes my heart and soul, making a spirit awaken in me that just wants justice. I truly believe that perhaps our whole country needs to see and UNDERSTAND what Les Mis is about. It is not only a political move, but a move of what goes even deeper. It starts with love.
If you have seen the movie or the stage production, you know that Jean Valjean makes a change in his life. He says that he once hated all men but when he started love, that was when the change was made. He hated and it was obvious when he was released from prison and when he stole the silver from the Priest. But when the Priest showed him love AND forgiveness, he realized what life is all about. That is why, at the end of his life, he says over and over and over, "to love another person is to see the face of God." If we truly loved all those around us, we would see a strange familiarity within each of them. Whether it is a fellow student or co-worker that we cannot seem to get along with, or it's a child in the classroom who drives us nuts, or maybe a family member or if we go deeper to say the poor, the homeless, the outcast, they have something so familiar in their souls. When we truly love them, we would see their souls and what we would see when we saw the souls is that their soul is just like our soul, made in the image and likeness of God. God abides in their souls just as He abides in ours. If we truly loved one another, we would see that, we would truly see the face of GOD!
And so my friends, perhaps this is why I love Les Mis: because it instills and awakens in me such a deep desire to love. We were made to love and be loved, I truly believe this, and Les Mis shows us what could happen if we truly followed that basic mission given to us from God, Himself. What if we truly did just love one another. All of Les Mis is a lesson from God and like Victor Hugo wrote about Jean Valjean, "He did not study God; He was dazzled by Him," I, too, am dazzled by God's goodness in my life. He has taught me love through something I love so much, Words and Music. Now who else can do something as awesome as that?!
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