Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

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Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/1/06 at 10:18pm

When was this Recording made? I know that due to the fact that actors were in different countries at the time of recording, that it wasn't done in a day or a week......but what about the year? :)

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/1/06 at 10:20pm

I believe the official year is 1988. At least of it's release.

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re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:57am

Recorded August - October 1988.

Released : 1989 in U.K.; 1991 in U.S. and Canada

Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

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re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:11am

Ah, I stand corrected. Thank you!

"Who is Stephen Sondheim?" -roninjoey
"The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay

GO CARDINALS!!!

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:59pm

Thank You! I read some review on it and someone said they were upset that Lea Salonga was not chosen for Eponine, and I didn't think that she was even that well-known and had even done Les Miserables at the time this album was recorded.

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:20pm

I liked everyone on the recording except for the guy they picked as Chris. He was terribly miscast and his voice was too operatic. Not that I have anything against operatic voices because I was trained in that. But his voice annoyed me in the role and on the recording.

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re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:24pm

I hated the Eponine on this recording

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re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:26pm

"I liked everyone on the recording except for the guy they picked as Chris. "

I did not know there was character in Les Miserables called Chris. News to me.

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re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:28pm

Maybe Chris is the name of the pimp in "Lovely Ladies."

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#10

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:31pm

No, the pimp don't have no name (don't know where that sudden liguistic spurt came from, sorry, He doesn't have a name, that's better).

Anyway, I think he was talking about Chris in Miss Saigon, due to the mention of Lea Salonga earlier.

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#11

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:32pm

THE CD is really good!

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 03:32 PM

#12

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:36pm

Well, most people have names, so I assume that the pimp does too; we just don't know what it is. So why not Chris?

(Yes, the poster was probably referring to Miss Saigon, I'm just amusing myself during my lunch hour.)

'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."' ~Lewis Carroll

#13

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:37pm

Ooops! Sorry, I got mixed up. But I still hate the Chris on the Saigon Symphonic Recording.

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#14

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:38pm

Maybe HOUFlip04 is talking about one of the many recordings of Miss Saigon?

I've owned the Symphonic Recording for many years. I was reading the liner notes on it, and I believe it says something about how the producers of the album wanted to choose actors different or complimentary to the ones already preserved on a cast recording of Les Miz. Kaho Shimada, the Japanese Eponine, didn't know a single word of English when she recorded this album. She had to record each phrase phonetically. While Lea Salonga is my favorite Eponine, I appreciate Kaho's take on the role and her willingness to learn the role in English for this recording.

Oh, and Anthony Warlowe is amazing.

That's all.

#15

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:39pm

Except it's set in France, so obviously he's Christophe.

But Chris to his friends. I mean clients.

I absolutely love Kaho Shimada's Eponine. Sure, she's got the Japanese accent thing going on, but she does amazingly well with the English considering, and I personally find it preferable to hear her Japanese accent than Lea Salonga's over-enunciation of words. They're both wonderful Eponines, but they bring different things to the role, and Shimada's fragility absolutely sells the role for me. :3

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#16

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 3:59pm

Very amusing, Weez, thank you for brightening up this overcast boring evening for me.

And I have the cast list around here somewhere. It just says 'The Pimp', however I do think that Christophe would be a nice name to give him. I wonder what Hugo called him in the novel.

#17

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 4:54pm

Isn't that the recording with Tracey Shayne? She's much too shrill as Cosette. All in all a good recording, though.

#18

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 7:33pm

I find Kaho Shimada completely distracting. Not only is her accent very heavy, but she's FAR from vocally adequate, resorting to nasally scooping for most of the recording.

#19

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 7:44pm

Well, they needed the token Asian to complete the international feel and Kaho Shimada fit the bill at that time. Lea Salonga had yet to audition for Miss Saigon when the Les Miz symphonic CD was recorded, so she was completely unknown outside of the Philippines.

It could've been a much better CD. Warlow is fantastic, but I wasn't crazy about Debbie Byrne's Fantine or Gary Morris and Tracy Shayne. At least the entire score is preserved.

#20

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 8:14pm

Yeah, I remember resenting that they messed with Eponine. I wanted them to have an Asian Fantine instead. But I was (unfortunately) one of those teenage Eponine freaks.

Eventually I just made a master tape, piecing together my favorite bits out of all the recordings I had with all the fill in from the complete recording, to make my own complete recording.

Sad.

#21

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 9:21pm

I hate this recording SO much, except for Michael Ball and Anthony Warlowe. Kaho Shimada is terrible... besides the fact that she doesn't interpret the lyrics (I understand that she learned the words for the recording, but what was the point of that?), her voice just isn't good. And Tracey Shayne makes my ears hurt. And Gary Morris... ugh.

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#22

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/2/06 at 9:48pm

The problem with the Miss Saigon CSR is that Peter Cousens hadn't even started rehearsing the role yet when they recorded it, poor guy. Supposedly he was much better on stage.

Kaho Shimada also sounds much better on the Nagoya Les Miz cast recording -- time and language are both probably huge factors.

"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#23

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:32am

I don't mind Kaho Shimada's Eponine on the symphonic recording in the least...obviously one of the purposes of a complete symphonic recording was to pull international performers from their respective countries and produce a cast album that emphasizes what a global hit 'Les Mis' really is (hence Gary Morris and Tracy Shayne from Broadway, Philip Quast, Michael Ball, Barry James, and Gay Soper from the West End, Debbie Byrne (blegh) and Anthony Warlow from Australia, and Kaho Shimada from Japan). I agree with whoever has cringed at the sound of Tracy Shayne's voice...Judy Kuhn, or even Rebecca Caine would have been a much preferable choice.

#24

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:33am

It would've been better if they'd gotten some Canadians...

"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#25

re: Les Miserables Symphonic Recording Question

Posted: 8/3/06 at 8:46am

Is Phillip Quast English? I always thought he was Australian.

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