The Case of Fantine's Vanishing Song

Any fan of Les Mis knows that Fantine has one main song--"I Dreamed a Dream," her haunting aria to a life gone by. But did you know that Fantine originally had two songs, both expressing similar yet different ideas?

Rose Laurens as Fantine
1980 Paris Production

The original 1980 version of the show, which ran at Paris' Palais des Sports for an extended 16-week run, was ordered thus:


1) "La journee est finie" ("The Day is Over", the first version of "At the End of the Day")
2) "L'air de la misere" ("The Poverty Song", which is actually a lot prettier than you think it may be)
3) "La nuit" ("Nighttime", which has the same tune and idea of "Lovely Ladies")
4) "J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie" ("I Had Dreamed of Another Life" which is...well, you know)


Fantine originally sang songs 2 and 4. Number 4 is easily recgonizable. How Number 2...what is that? Where did it go? 

The song (available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FVNsAw-45k) had Fantine singing about the plight of the impoverished--not nesceraily how it related to her in particular, but all poor people. It was an accusatory song, it was a chilling song, and it was a the perfect companion song to her second piece (which, you may notice, originally came after she had begun her job as a lady of the night).

So why didn't it make it into the English show? Well, when it came time to bring the show to English audiences, there arose some problems. "L'air de la misere" is gorgeous, there's no doubt...but the lyrics were kind of a bitch to translate. The chorus ran:


FANTINE:
La misère n'est mère de personne Poverty is no one's mother
La misère est pourtant sœur des hommes Yet, poverty is often the sister of men
Mais personne sur terre n'en veut pour fille But no one on earth wants it as a child
Comme bâtarde née dans un cachot de la Bastille Like a bastard born in a cell in the Bastille

Think of the trouble of singing anything that gets the point across...in English. The original song was a giantly depressing and hauntingly gripping ode to poverty, and while French audiences dig that kinda thing, the English team weren't so sure that Britain was ready for "Ode to Poverty". So they moved "J'avais rêvé" to the place of "L'air de la misere" and recycled the tune of "L'air," giving it to another poor young woman in the show. Go back and listen one more time.

Hear it?

Yup. It became "On My Own."

Coming soon, a translation of "J'avais rêvé."

*Photo of Rose Laurens found here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v235/fallenfromgracexx/Les%20Miserables/