A Personal History of Les Miserables
On this page, I write my last confession. --- When I was a small child, I would dress up in my special fairy princess dress and my mother would put on the double-disc, 10th anniversary CD of Les Miserables and I would cartwheel alone around the living room, bouncing from piano stool to couch to carpet, singing my lungs out. Imagine a manic 8-year old in a sparkly pink tutu bellowing "THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS WILL WATER THE MEADOWS OF FRANCE!!!" It must have been a terrifying thing to behold. In hindsight, I feel like this explains a lot about who I am as a person. I have known every single word of this musical for almost as long as I can remember. --- When I was about nine, my primary school choir performed a comprehensive medley version of Les Miz, which opened with La Marseillaise (the French national anthem), sung in French. Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons! More lines of freedom, bloodshed, glory. I think it was probably the first time I ever sang in another la...
