Crowds of the inhabitants of the faubourgs in their Sunday clothes, sometimes even decked with fleurs-de-lis like the citizens, were scattered over the great square and the square Marigny, playing games and going around on wooden horses; others drinking; a few, printer apprentices, had on paper caps; their laughter resounded through the air. Everything was radiant. It was a time of undoubted peace and profound royal security; it was the time when a private and special report of Perfect of Police Anglès to the king on the faubourgs of Paris, ended with these lines: ‘Everything considered, sire, there is nothing to fear from these people. They are as careless and indolent as cats. The lower people of the provinces are restless, those of Paris are not so. They are all small men, sire, and it would take two of them, one upon the other, to make one of your grenadiers. There is nothing at all to fear on the side of the populace of the capital. It is remarkable that this part of the population has also decreased in statute during the last fifty years; and the people of the faubourgs of Paris are smaller than before the Revolution. They are not dangerous. In short, they are good canaille.’
That a cat may become changed into a lion, prefects of police do not believe possible; nevertheless, it may be, and this is the miracle of the people of Paris. Besides, the cat, so despised by the Count Anglès, had the esteem of the republics of antiquity; it was the incarnation of liberty in their sight, and, as if to serve as a pendant to the wingless Minerva of the Piraeus, there was, in the public square at Corinth, the bronze colossus of a cat. The simple police of the Restoration looked too hopefully on the people of Paris. They are by no means such good canaille as is believed. The Parisian is among Frenchmen what the Athenian was among Greeks. Nobody sleeps better than he, nobody is more frankly frivolous and idle than he, nobody seems to forget things more easily than he; but do not trust him, notwithstanding; he is apt at all sorts of nonchalance, but when there is glory to be gained, he is wonderful in every species of fury. Give him a pike, and he will play the tenth of August; give him a musket, and you shall have an Austerlitz. He is the support of Napoleon, and the resource of Danton. Is France in question? he enlists; is liberty in question? he tears up the pavement. Beware! his hair rising with rage is epic; his blouse drapes itself into a chlamys about him. Take care! At the first corner, Grenétat will make a Caudine Forks. When the tocsin sounds, this dweller in the faubourgs will grow; this little man will arise, his look will be terrible, his breath will become a tempest, and a blast will go forth from his poor, frail breast that might shake the wrinkles out of the Alps. Thanks to the men of the Paris faubourgs, the Revolution infused into armies, conquers Europe. He sings, it is his joy. Proportion his song to his nature, and you shall see! So long as he had the Carmagnole merely for his chorus, he overthrew only Louis XVI; let him sing the Marseillaise, and he will deliver the world. [Les Misérables. Book 3: In the year 1817. Page 90. Victor Hugo]
Tag: Les Misérables
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[2393] Do you hear the people sing?
I first watched Les Misérables at the West End of London some time ago. This is one of my favorites songs:
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[2325] Do you hear the people sing?
When I first decided to ride a bus from Paris to London, I did not plan on watching anything at West End. A friend in Paris encouraged me to watch something but I ignored her, telling her I would not want to watch it alone. I changed my mind when I got out of Victoria Station, where I spotted a theater hosting Wicked. I watched Wicked with her in Sydney and I like the show. Remembering how much I like it, I told myself, the West End is in London. So, I looked around and decided I wanted to watch the famed Les Misérables.
I am glad I watched it.
Right now, the songs sang in the show keep ringing in my ears. It does not help when the television keeps airing news from Libya and the Arab world in general, reminding me of songs of Les Misérables sung when French student group in Paris led a failed rebellion against the authority.
I have not watched too many musical. That makes me easily impressed. I in fact was impressed as soon as the show began. As the show began, I could read ‘Toulon 1815’ floating in the air on the stage. Seeing how the words were floating, thought that was a hologram. I said to myself, whoa.
It was when they rolled up the thin screen in front of the stage that I realized those words were projected onto a screen. The screen and the smoke gave the appearance that the words were floating in the air.
And then it began with this song…
The video is the best I could find on Youtube. Be aware that the video shows a recording of a concert rather than a play. While the scene in the video is continuous, in truth there are multiple scenes cut out. And of course, in the play, the actors do not just stand there in front of the microphones.
Anyway, what impressed me the most was the stage; specifically, the wheel that acted as a rotating mini-stage. As a person with limited education in theater, I found this to be absolutely ingenious way in portraying a moving street. It allowed the actors to walk while staying still with respect to the whole stage. Not only that, the rotating stage was especially effective during the fighting scene where the student group was at the barricade fighting the army. Because of that, the change of scene was seamless. This is what I mean by rotating stage:
Although I have absolutely no use of this knowledge, the idea astounds me even till today, 3 weeks after I watched the show at Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.
This is the Queen’s Theatre.
The songs that I associate with the situation in the Arab world are these two: Red & Black…
…and Do You Hear the People Sing?
You know what is cool? Knowing and having been to some of the places mentioned in the songs and the play in general.
My favorite is Confrontation.
I like how the counterpoint works.
There is of course the song which a lot of people who are unfamiliar with Les Misérables know, I Dreamed a Dream, when in the story, Fantine was just fired from work unfairly before being forced into prostitution.
And then, One Day More…
There are other great songs which you could watch on Youtube. I will not post all the videos here because the whole play last over 2 or 3 hours.
In fact, you should watch the real thing it if you have the chance.