Le Grandeur of Les Miserables 618.4
Last weekend, my special love for the play Les Miserables soared to a new level. I was transfixed watching two of my daughters play major roles in a student production directed by an extremely talented children’s theater entrepreneur named Cheryl Beck*.
I’ve seen professional versions a half dozen times, and each time I am moved by the powerful and beautiful songs and soul-pounding quality of its story about character, good and evil, justice and redemption, love, loyalty, and the law.
Frankly, I worried that a group of young teens couldn’t handle the dramatic or musical demands of this play, but my concerns were misplaced. Watching my Samara bring the house to tears singing the role of a sick and dying single mom, and seeing my daughter Abrielle evoke the opposite emotion playing the comedic role of the sleazy and conniving “master of the house” in my all-time favorite play — well, it was a father’s dream.
I know the play takes some liberties with the original novel, but I think it captures and enhances the momentous moral issues that form the core of Hugo’s literary masterpiece.
Jean Valjean, a paroled thief, the priest who lies to save him from returning to prison, and the relentless moral certitude of Inspector Javert are monuments to the noblest part of human nature — the desire to do the right thing. But what’s right and wrong isn’t so clear in a harsh world where ordinary people struggle to survive the afflictions of poverty, cruelty, and injustice — a world where “right” moral choices can have an enormous downside.
Yet, despite the desperate conditions and constant conflicts that constrain morality, the ultimate message is about the nobility of human nature, the power of love, and the triumph of virtue.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
*Learn about Cheryl Beck’s Los Angeles-based program, Creative Kids, at MyCreativeKids.com.
More about Les Miserables: I cannot resist sharing a glimpse of what I saw in this play ...
I urge you to read all the lyrics at lyricsondemand.com.
A central theme (there are many) is the tumultuous journey of the main character, Jean Valjean, from crime and bitterness to redemption, virtue, and epic love for his adopted daughter, Cosette. He is for me one of the truly great moral heroes, worthy of admiration and understanding. Valjean is perfectly set against the merciless, duty-bound purity of the relentless policeman, Inspector Javert, who is the law personified and provides a compelling counterpoint to the instinct to forgive and forget.
If you see or read the play, think of the moral messages and lessons of at least these three songs or scenes:
Valjean and the Priest. After being caught stealing from a kindly priest who let him sleep the night, Valjean is mystified and humbled when the priest protects him by lying to the police, telling them he gave Valjean the silver. The priest punctuates his forgiving fabrication in a highly symbolic gift of two valuable candlesticks -- the invocation to start a new life. The song "What Have I Done?" marks the beginning of a moral journey that ends in making Valjean a prototype of character development through redemption.
Valjean and the Innocent Prisoner. One of the most powerful moral lessons is in the song "Who Am I?" It is the response to Valjean’s life-defining dilemma. He has safely adopted a new identity as a wealthy factory owner and respected mayor. But he learns another man has been misidentified and is about to be sent to jail in his place. The song is about his torment: Does he speak up and go back to prison, or does he remain silent and live his well-earned new life? We see the triumph of a virtue few of us would be capable of as he rejects his rationalizations with the insight: "If I speak, I am condemned. If stay silent, I am damned."
Javert’s Suicide. Finally, ponder the implications of the magnificent heart-rending scene in which Javert, the symbol of certainty, order, and light, commits suicide. He can’t cope with his doubts and guilt after Valjean inexplicably saves his life despite the inspector’s sworn dedication to bring him to prison. The song is drenched with moral self-reflection.
There’s a lot more, but let me just share one of my favorite lines from the Epilogue when Valjean is singing of his love for Cosette: "To love another is to see the face of God."
If you can’t see the play, buy the DVD Les Miserables in Concert (1995) starring Colm Wilkinson and Philip Quast and directed by John Caird and Paul Kafno.
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Comments
I, too, am a big fan of Les Miserables, both the musical and the book. To me, it speaks more to the spirit of man and the ability to define oneself regardless of how society classifies you.
Jean Valjean was a young man who loses the vast majority of his youth serving a sentence that did not fit the crime. He did indeed commit the crime, which makes him a criminal in the black and white world of Jabert. Mistakes are a part of life. It is what we learn from them that makes the difference.
Once given his freedom, Valjean quickly realized that society would never offer him the opportunity to redefine himself--once a thief, always a thief. It was the priest who showed him that he can choose a different path. In essense, through God's love, he was reborn and free to live beyond his past.
It was a lesson he kept with himself to the end of his days and passed that love through those who worked in his factory, Fantine, Cossett, Marius, and even the man who would hunt him to his very last day: Jabert.
His life became the epitomy of character. Whether it was putting everything he had built at risk to protect an innocent man from punishment for a crime he did not commit, helping the love of his adopted daughter to escape certain death, or simply living an earnest life, he lived by the highest principles of love for his common man.
Even in a world where those principles are constantly under attack, where all material wealth could be seized, loved ones vulnerable to the evils that face all men, his spirit and faith endured. He did not have to sacrifice the things that were dearest to him. He simply found a way to exist despite these challenges.
It is what we all yearn. Our Founding Fathers defined it as life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Rights not given to us by other men, but by God. There are no guarantees, just the opportunity to exercise one's free will. The fulfillment of an individual is a personal responsibility.
Posted by: Jon Lessig | May 19, 2009 11:01 AM
I work in a school and am shocked at the teachers who do not think there is a right and wrong. I am saddened by other staff members who childishly join in to make fun of someone who follows the rules. It has revealed those who have inner strength and character and who will blow in their ethics like the wind across a wheat field. It saddens me because I trusted them.
Posted by: Elaine | May 19, 2009 4:57 PM
The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts is putting on a creative and moving Les Miz. They just finished the run at the Santa Maria theatre at Allen Hancock College and will open at the Solvang Theatre Fest on June 12. Well worth the drive!
Posted by: Lorna | May 20, 2009 8:20 AM