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Despite the hype, I didn't watch the movie. Even in Okinawa when James Bond's Falling Sky was simultaneously showing, I had to win my friends over to watch 007 instead by winning the janken game.
Why I wasn't that excited to see the film? One reason is, I saw it already on Broadway in New York a decade ago. Another reason is: a friend, a musician, posted on FaceBook that "When Russel Crowe's turn to sing she could enjoy her popcorn." So, I decided to wait for the DVD release and watch it in my home theater. If I like it, I'd add it to my DVD collection.
And then, I watched it a few days ago... maybe, under pressure from my FaceBook friends hahaha
This is my facebook post after watching Les Mis:
"Russel Crowe should stay away from Musicals. Hugh Jackman should've taken the Bishop's role (LESS singing) Anne H did well but she over dramatized the "I dreamed a dream" but she did great when she appeared as a Ghost. All the other casts were excellent especially the two CHILDREN (bravissimo)."
Russel Crowe can sing but the Javert songs were too heavy for him. Some friends argued that they should be complimented for their effort. If they were my students, or if it's a local church or town production, I would. But this is a movie with a very huge budget!
Hugh Jackman can sing but his voice is not enough to satisfy the demand of Jean Valjean's songs. Because the pitches were high his wide vibrato were very obvious --- he's struggling to keep in tune and to prolong the notes. His recitative sounded annoying to me as the movie progressed. He also cuts his notes too short. And for the songs, his vibrato were too wide. What's the fuss about too wide vibrato? It destroys the beauty of the melody. Here's what an article say about vibrato.
A wide vibrato is usually a lack of proper "resistance of the breath pressure" or a lack of "focus in the tone". It can also be a result of a lack of proper adduction of the vocal cords. One or all of these problems create a sound that our culture defines as "age in the voice". Source: Understanding Vibrato
If the other actors were all singing and acting par excellence (that includes Ann Hathaway) and with special mention of the two children. Why the Javert and Jean Valjean roles were given to Russel Crowe and John Hackman?
Let's talk about some problematic scenes.
| My first impression of Anne Hathaway's singing of "I dreamed a dream" was over dramatic. But later on, I changed my opinion because I realized that my opinion was biased because I compared her singing with Ruthie Henshall's version which is my all time favorite. (See the video below.) But at the last part where she appeared as a ghost was so beautiful. All the four of them, in fact, just nailed it. |
Although, if you shut your ears you can see the intensity of the situation and the internal conflict through his acting, Javert’s solo as sung by Crowe was not at par with all the Javerts I know. Crowe’s voice quality just couldn’t express the intensity of the feeling. Crowe was perfect for this role if this is not a musical. There's not one movie that Crowe hasn't given the best performance except this. In fact I wrote a review on his movie The Next Three Days. I don't know of any actor who could have done better in it. But Les Mis is an exemption. He may have been a member of a band but his voice is not for this Les Mis type of music. Maybe, he can be in Chicago, Rent, Grease, etc. But definitely not this. | I couldn't find a clip of Javert's solo before he committed suicide sung by Crowe So, I used this video instead. This is how Javert's voice should sound, i.e. powerful and authoritative especially in the prolonged notes. |
compare the interpretation above and below. Which of them makes you feel prayerful? Or which sounds like a lullaby sung by a father to a son? Can you hear the difference in the use of the vibrato? | The solo of Jean Valjean, “Bring Him Home” was a disaster. I don’t know if it was intended that he had to move around while singing. But the “melancholic” mood of the song was destroyed by the moving cameras trying to follow Jackman’s face. If I remember it right (wow, that was more than a decade already) this part was sang after all the revolutionaries got killed, the lights faded and the spot light focused on Jean Valjean and the seemingly lifeless body of Marius... then the intro started. In the stage production I could focus on the song. I could even close my eyes and get carried away by the beautiful baritone voice of Jean Valjean. It was so moving that most, if not all, of the audience cried. The mood was perfect because all you could hear was the beautiful but sad fatherly voice of Jean Valjean (and sniffing audience). In the movie, this was a failure. If you open your eyes, the moving camera would bother you, if you close your eyes, the voice of Jackman would bother you. I tried to understand what the director wanted to tell us. I guess he wanted to portray a sense of “panic”. In the movie, it was before the last battle. “Bring Him Home” was like Jean Valjean’s prayer to God not to let Marius die for the sake of Cosette. I guess the director was trying to protray a sense of uneasiness. The problem is, the melody and the orchestration was not composed for such a situation. |
Conclusion
The marketing focused on how hard the production was and how expensive. How Anne Hathaway had to be on a strict diet just to be thin and suffering as Fantine could be. Or how much money Russel Crowe paid the vocal trainors just to make him sing... this is how people are enticed to watch the movie especially those who are new or not into musicals.
For me, a musical, although set to movie, is still a musical. And it’s called a musical because the priotity is on the music than the acting. So, telling us that we have to take it as it is because it is a movie not a stage production is non-sense. It is like telling us to eat a trans fat saturated hamburgers because it is what a fastfood should be. We costumers should tell them what we want not them telling us what we should want.... I watched The Sound of Music the umpteenth times. I watched Evita, American in Paris, Rent, Chicago, Mary Poppins, Phantom of the Opera, etc. many times and bought my own DVD copies because I want to watch them over and over again. Would I watch Les Miserables again or buy its original DVD? NO. There are other better things to do in three hours and other uses of $30. | Find singers who can act not actors who can sing.another Musical with operatic songs is the Phantom of the Opera. See how perfectly they found stage actors to perform as good as in the film. |
P.S.
I later learned that in The Sound of Music, it was not Peggy Wood who actually sang "Climb Every Mountain". It was dubbed and the really singer was Marjorie McKay It wasn't a big deal because that scene was so solemn and perfect. Had they insisted on letting Wood belt those high notes it would have destroyed the mood of that scene. Having the humility to say that she couldn't do it was one of the reasons why I respect her a lot.
Please leave your comment below.
P.S. 2
Detailed explanation of Ruthie Henshall's
interpretation of I dreamed a dream.
The orchestra starts with an oboe solo. Oboe usually plays a sad melody. "There was a time..." a narration of her past was sung with one note but you can hear her sing it with both feeling of joy and regret. "... then it all went wrong." Then the song starts with the harp's arpeggio... Then she sings the first stanza... "I dreamed..." her voice full of hope. Then the mood changed at "but the tigers come at night" with her singing in lower notes. Listen when she sang "tear your world apart." She changed her voice at "tear". It made that phrase different and the preparation of the "tragic" part of her song. The composer brought the melody down for the same reason. "As they turn your dream" she sounds like a helpless child "to shame---- " the melody goes up and the tension is up. "He filled my days with endless wonde" listen how she cut or didn't prolong at "wonder" she's trying to create an irony of the "wonder" and the tragedy that followed it. "but he was gone when autumn came." Notice the change of her voice quality that sounds like throaty. This is where her life changed from a happy one to a tragic one. "But there are dreams that cannot be" the composer brought the melody up to emphasize the impossibility of the dream | Notice again her "throaty" quality in the "there are storms" as her way of emphasizing the gravity of the situation of "storms that cannot wether". And we approach the climax with the violins and the soloist in an sort of dialogue. And the resolution, the tempo slowed down, the volume softer and the most difficult part of any singer to do: to sing a prolonged high note softly. And she did it all perfectly. BRAVISSIMO!!!! |