Just keep on rediscovering
I'm always wary of book/comic to movie adaptations, which I know seems at odds with my absolute love of remixes and covers. It's just that for movies, there have been too many adaptations that simply don't do what I believe an adaptation/remix should do: Give respect to original and keep that feeling, but also bring something new to it. There was a line in one of my readings on parody (that I of course can't find now), how parody is both a combination of violence to the original and an act of reverence. I believe that what makes an adaptation/remix good is when they can balance both of those, the "violence" and reverence.
I bring this up because I recently came across a video of Lea Salonga's version of I Dreamed a Dream from the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert, below. I actually haven't seen a full version of the musical, only the 10th Anniversary Concert, which had Ruthie Henshall as Fantine (and Colm Wilkinson as Valjean - absolutely *love* his version of Bring Him Home). Btw, R: I only *now* realized that that was Ruthie Henshall; no wonder I felt like her voice was familiar when you first started pimping her!
This also brings up what I find so amazing about live theater, that so many different feelings can be brought out of the same song, not just when different people play the same character, but even when the same person plays that character, because they go through changes in their understanding of that character. I mean, with Lea's history with Les Miserables (she's played both Fantine and Eponine before), certainly this version that she gives of Fantine is something she's developed over a lot of time. In this performance, she highlights emotions that I'd never really noted in this song before - bitterness, despair - yet still maintains the core of it, that is, the feelings that are usually expressed when it's performed - longing, hope.
I just never knew how much depth and emotion this song could have until now. It's so ... this feeling of seeing something in a completely new light, this is what really love about art <3
(How I got here: Because of Idina Menzel and Lea Michele's version of I Dreamed A Dream on Glee, which I had been led to from another Glee video, their fantastic mash-up of Adele's Rumour Has It and Someone Like You. Really can't get over that last video, particularly Santana throughout the whole thing. Performances like this that almost makes me want to follow Glee ... almost)
I bring this up because I recently came across a video of Lea Salonga's version of I Dreamed a Dream from the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert, below. I actually haven't seen a full version of the musical, only the 10th Anniversary Concert, which had Ruthie Henshall as Fantine (and Colm Wilkinson as Valjean - absolutely *love* his version of Bring Him Home). Btw, R: I only *now* realized that that was Ruthie Henshall; no wonder I felt like her voice was familiar when you first started pimping her!
Click to viewThis also brings up what I find so amazing about live theater, that so many different feelings can be brought out of the same song, not just when different people play the same character, but even when the same person plays that character, because they go through changes in their understanding of that character. I mean, with Lea's history with Les Miserables (she's played both Fantine and Eponine before), certainly this version that she gives of Fantine is something she's developed over a lot of time. In this performance, she highlights emotions that I'd never really noted in this song before - bitterness, despair - yet still maintains the core of it, that is, the feelings that are usually expressed when it's performed - longing, hope.
I just never knew how much depth and emotion this song could have until now. It's so ... this feeling of seeing something in a completely new light, this is what really love about art <3
(How I got here: Because of Idina Menzel and Lea Michele's version of I Dreamed A Dream on Glee, which I had been led to from another Glee video, their fantastic mash-up of Adele's Rumour Has It and Someone Like You. Really can't get over that last video, particularly Santana throughout the whole thing. Performances like this that almost makes me want to follow Glee ... almost)