With Rachel and her mother away at a birthday party this evening, I decided to do something meaningful with Evangeline.
I didn’t read her a book, I didn’t play her a game, and I didn’t have a deep, meaningful conversation with her. Instead, I went to Google Video, typed in “Les Miserables,” and for something close to an hour or an hour-and-a-half, she and I listened to some of the numbers from what arguably is the greatest musical ever written.
She remembered the story from a few years ago, when I told her a bit about Jean Valjean, but I filled in the details as we watched, especially since the songs came all out of order and they were posted from the 10th anniversary concert, rather than from the actual musical.
It was an experience. She was completely engrossed in the music, followed the story fairly effortlessly — the Eponine-Marius-Cosette love triangle confused her a little, I think — and surprised me by how much of the music she actually knew the words to already.
Some day I will have to take her to see it in performance, on Broadway or somewhere else known for quality. (I’ve seen it twice, once in New York and the second time in Pittsburgh at the Benedum.)
Perhaps some day I will encourage her to read the entire unabridged novel, all 1300 pages of it. But before I do that, I will need to retrieve it, and make sure she’s old enough not to be put off by a 52-page diegression on Waterloo — among the others, some of which are far more frustrating.
Vortoj de la Maradanto 