April 14, 2009
Niagara were quite a poppy band in the 80s but their last two albums Religion and La Vérité had something of a harder edge. This track J’ai vu “I saw” is from the 1990 album, Religion.
I’ve been listening to both albums for free on Spotify – go and get it if you haven’t already.
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April 14, 2009
The first London production of Les Misérables was approximately one third a translation of the original French score, one third a reworking, and one third new material. The original French version was composed in 1980 and the English version opened in 1985 in London. The London version was then used as the basis for a new French version of the show, and this song is from that version, the 1991 cast recording from the Thèâtre Mogador, Paris.
The track A la volonté du peuple existed in the 1980 version, and was reworked to become “Can you hear the people sing?” in the 1985 English version. The 1991 French version of the track has quite different lyrics from the original, although there are some lyrics that remain the same.
The translation I give here clearly is not the same as the English version of the song. The versions performed in the two languages are not direct translations of each other even though the song is intented to convey the same meaning within the show.
The second YouTube video below is a performance of the song from various Jean Valgeans from around the world, in a number of different languages.
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