Notre Dame de Paris....

...is a fantastic musical. Just fantastic.

Okay, here's the story. Back when I worked at the Taco Bell in St. George, I worked with Amanda. Amanda took French in high school and had some French music. She loaned me two cds from a musical that I then copied into my iTunes.

These CDs comprised the soundtrack to Notre Dame de Paris. The more I listened to these CDs, the more I understood the music, and the more I understood the music, the more I came to love many of the songs. To the point that I haven't listened to the songs in order for a long time. They play randomly whenever I'm listening to my iTunes music collection.

A while back I found out that there was a DVD of a live performance of the musical, featuring the original cast. I really, really wanted the DVD, but it was rare enough that Amazon.com didn't have a copy in stock and all the used copies were going for about $100. Way too much for a DVD. Even if I had the money, I didn't want to pay that amount.

A week ago, I got a very nice tax refund. Very nice. While most of it is going into savings, I did want to have a little bit of fun. I check Amazon.com again. This time they have it in stock, for half the price I would have paid before. I decided to go for it.

I'm glad I did. The DVD case is actually a book that includes all the lyrics to the songs. Makes it nice for me, as I can now read the lyrics to songs that I didn't fully understand before. Spoiler alert: Everybody dies. And Phoebus is a bastard. End Spoiler.

So I watch the DVD through. I don't know if there are spoken lines in the musical. I would imagine so, but I don't know. The DVD just shows the songs and doesn't show any transitions between them, unless one song goes right into the next.

Watching the DVD altered my opinions about the performers just a little. I still don't like Esmeralda's voice a whole lot, but I appreciate her character a little more. Quasimodo's physical performance is pretty amazing. Of all the singing voices, my favorite is still Patrick Fiori, who plays Phoebus. I don't like his character any more, but I love his voice. Phoebus is a bastard. And Disney completely invented that happy ending.

Anyway, I can't wait for the semester to be over so I can have more free time to watch this DVD again. It's AMAZING!