Michel Schonberg and the lyrics or Herbert Kretzmer make the most of Hugo's sentimental moral vision. Replete with the poignant figures of the ill-fated Fantine, the tragic P'tit Gavroche, the simple Cosette, and the virtuous Marius, the opera attains a kind of angelism. Hugo himself had written in Chapter I ofBook 7: "This book is a drama whose first character is the lnfinite./Man is the second." At the end, the opera transcends the hell of living when the spectres of Fantine, Eponine, and all the young rebels are reunited in an apocalyptic vindication of love and compassion. Scenically the production is large without being unduly lavish. John Napier's design is full of detail, especially of the seamy underside of Paris, and David Hersey's lighting - particularly for Valjean's flight through the sewers - is inspired, catching the teeming multitudes in their gutters or with their heads trapped in the jaws of eternity . The score and lyrics are intelligent and pointed, repetitively emphatic about the compass of conscience and the soul, while also indulging in gamy satire. There is no great singing, but the voices are clear and often thrilling, with Michael Burgess's notes ringing out best of all. Dramatically there is solid work from the entire ensemble - particularly in the savage and rather Dickensian flourishes of monstrous villains and suffering victims - although none of the characters is given anything more than a simple outline of a role. Marius's epic effusiveness is totally absent in David Malek's performance. So, too, Javert's incontestable grandeur is missing in Thomas Goerz's exterminating ferocity and Valjean's complexity in Michael Burgess's shadow-wrestling with himself. But Malek achieves a simple through-line; Goerz is bestial with dignity ; and Burgess is impressive in his waking watchfulness and humanity. Les Miserables is an impresario's triumph. It is not the- signature success of a repertory company. As such, it draws attention to what the Toronto theatre needs as a counterbalance to the Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 24, No. 2 (Ere 1989 Summer) ambitious and shrewd entrepreneurial spirit of the Mirvishes. Without a true repertory company and without an artistic director of more than specialized intelligence and mode, Toronto can boast only of unrelated successes. With the flurry of activity there is too often a tangle of mediocrity, and the good, bold patches of bright fertility do not a pattern make. Plus a change, plus c'est la neme chose. KEITH GAREBIAN Mississauga, Ontario Jazz. Canada 1988 The big crisis in music in Canada in 1988 occurred in the world of classical music. Thebankruptcyand financial nearcollapse of the Vancouver and Windsor Symphony Orchestras made headlines while the Thunder Bay organization hovered on the edge ofcollapse as well. The Canada Council moved in eventually with some support in Vancouver and Windsor and other monies were provided by municipal grants. Thus thecontinuing existenceofthe orchestras was managed. A similarcrisis in the world ofCanadian jazz received little of the publicity surrounding the symphony orchestras. In May 1988 the Boss Brass, that outstandingorganization run by Rob McConnell, was disbanded for good after more than twenty years. It is arguable that the Boss Brass in its own way and in its own world had achieved far more recognition internationally thaneither the Vancouverorthe Windsor orchestras, and yet no agency stepped in to offer to keep the band alive and so keep McConnell here in Canada; he is now teaching atthe GroveSchoolof Music in California. From its beginnings when it played only a few dates around theToronto area, it was a struggle to keep the band going. It did branch out, playingatjazz festivals in the UnitedStates, and for a time seemed to make a regular annual visit to Califor135 nia. Its albums, while never released by a major record company, eventually became known to jazz collectors. The personnel remained remarkably stableduring the band's life; consisting for the most part of the fi nest veteran Canadian jazz players, the band was supplemented on occasion by new blood. Whenever Italked to its members, a splendid sense of camaraderie seemed to exist. Many ofthe players made everyeffort to fit their extensive playing schedules around the intermittent...
Les Miserables Full Score Pdf
Lauded by the New York Times as a "delightfully weird and just plain delightful show" that "will provide the kind of thrills we look for in all musical comedies," Ride the Cyclone makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre August 11 through 20, with the Times going on the praise the show's "engaging and varied score" and "supremely witty book." 2ff7e9595c
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