Les Misérables: A “bloody” repression and a great musical

The insurrection of the 5th and 6th of June 1832 – celebrating 190 years since this great and historic event took place. The war ended with a bloody repression. 

The musical in Melbourne, 1988 …

The spectacular and powerful production of Les Misérables more than lives up to its pre-publicity as “not only the greatest musical sensation of the decade, or the century, but of a lifetime.”

Forget the hype, Les Misérables is a stirring, emotion-charged event that will make your palms sweat and bring tears to your eyes.

In fact, I’m not too ashamed to admit that the famous barricades were so overwhelming that I wanted to jump from my seat and join the fray, even though it turned into a bloodbath.

Les Misérables is flawless theatre!

Over the next twelve months you – along with thousands more – will want to see it several times. The cast, like the production, is impressive. It would be unfair to praise but a few names.

All I will say is, “Take a bow Normie Rowe”.

The musicals: The “barricades”

Les Misérables, the musical Newsweek claims had audiences overseas leaping to their feet “cheering, applauding and often weeping with emotion”, is soon for Australia, and has not been only the musical sensation of the decade … but of a lifetime.

“Cameron Mackintosh, Les Mis London producer and probably the greatest impresario of our time, realised it was the stuff dreams are made of as soon as he heard a French recording of the show.

Said Mackintosh: “I heard the opening bars and thought: God, this is wonderful,” before the show opened in Australia in 1988.

The musical production of Les Misérables closely follows Victor Hugo’s novel. It covers the life of the saintly yet worldly Jean Valjean for over 30 years. Pursued by the law as well as by villains for his wealth; but, nevertheless, he maintains continued assistance to those in need.

Les Misérables follows history closely, particularly so for the events of the people concerned with the insurrection.

He pays in cash for the adoption of little Cosette from her scurrilous guardians, the Thenardiers. And, when years, later Cosette falls in love, he saves her man, Marius, from death. Marius was struck down in a Paris Street and lies wounded.

The insurrection of the 5th and 6th of June brings to a climax the many themes of Les Misérables. The people rise against their King and his government; they fight bravely against the troops at the barricades.

The Paris of 1832 is the Paris of Delacroix and Ingres, Balzac and Chateaubriand, Dumas and Berllioz; the year of the birth of Manet and Eiffel.

In 1832, Paris was the Paris of poverty, hunger, suppression and injustice, according to story of Les Misérables. However, each of Victor Hugo’s characters, in spite of such conditions, eventually finds a contentment of his own; even the despised Thenardier, who invested his new wealth in the (growing) slave trade.

Les Misérables follows history closely, particularly so for the events of the people concerned with the insurrection.

The Guillotine and Thenardier …

La Guillotine, or the guillotine, was the brainchild of Joseph Ignace Guillotin in 1789.

Guillotin, a Paris deputy, suggested that all those convicted of capital offences should have the right to be decapitated, like a privilege that was reserved for nobles.

The decapitation should be quick and painless.

Such ‘beheading machines’ were already known in Germany, Scotland and Yorkshire, England.

“Avec la machine je vous fais sauter la tete”, said Guillotin.

The guillotine had a lifespan of nearly 200 years.

The President abolished the death penalty in 1981.

The unfortunate and infamous are grouped together, merged in a single, fateful word.

On another note, Victor Hugo describes the Thenardier family as les miserable – “the outcasts, the under-dogs … the rejected of society and the rebels against society.”

Hugo wrote: “Certainly they appeared utterly depraved, vile and odious; but it is rare for those who have sunk so low not to be degraded in the process.

“And there comes a point, moreover, where the unfortunate and infamous are grouped together, merged in a single, fateful word. They are les Misérables.

“They are outcasts, and under-dogs. And who is to blame? Is it not the most fallen who have most need of charity?”

Les Misérables: Victor Hugo

The author, Victor Hugo, wrote the classic, Les Misérables, around the barricade’s events. The musical production also follows his novel accurately. It contains striking scenes at the barricades.

The ground within the barricades was so covered with used cartridge-cases that it might have been a snowstorm. The attackers had the advantage of numbers; the rebels had the advantage of position. 

They were defending a wall whence they shot down at point-blank range the soldiers staggering amid their dead and wounded; or enmeshed in the barricade itself.

The barricade, constructed as it was and admirably buttressed, did indeed present one of those positions where a handful of men could defy a legion.

The barricade was ten times assailed … but did not fall. Blood flowed, ill armed with insufficient muskets … the outcasts became Titans.

The attacking column inexorably moved forward; with certainly, the army was compressing the barricade like the screw of a winepress.

There ensued, on that heap of paving-stones in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, a struggle (that would have been) worthy of the ruins of Troy.

That handful of haggard, ragged, and exhausted men, who had not eaten for twenty-four hours, who had not slept, who had only a few shots left to fire, so that they searched their empty pockets for cartridges.

Nearly (all) were wounded, with head or arm swathed in rough, blackening bandages; having holes in their clothing through which the blood flowed; ill armed with insufficient muskets and old, worn sabres, became Titans.m3bv

The barricade was ten times assailed and climbed, but still, it did not fall.

<< Cullen Publication Pty Ltd, 1987.

Top: Breaking into song. When the lead singer reached a high note, which almost tore my ear drums apart, I wanted to jump in and join the fray. Below: Where a handful of men and women could defy a legion. Centre:  Victor Hugo: The rebels had the advantage of position.