Jane Eyre .... and Japanese

For reasons that are complicated and a little personal, I have been thinking about Jane Eyre this week. I convinced Delia to watch the most recent movie production of it, with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, which I think is damn near perfect. Then I started listening, obsessively, to the gorgeous soundtrack of the Broadway musical Jane Eyre, composed by Paul Gordon, first performed in 1986. I've had it on constant repeat, listening to it at least fifty times this week. I must admit, I find the voice of Marla Schaffel not quite satisfactory. And after Mia Wasikowska's luminous performance as Jane, Marla seems just a little too old to me. But James Barbour, an old familiar face on Broadway, did a marvelous job as Rochester.

And then, of course, as you do, I went looking on Youtube, hoping to find videos of the performance. Unfortunately, performances of the original cast are scanty. I found videos of about four songs.

Here is part of the proposal scene, unfortunately chopped in ( two parts )

( Here is a very poor recording of the entire proposal scene )

It was frustrating that I could only catch glimpses of the show. But...but! I found that the same show was also translated and then performed in Japan. Since I know the entire book by heart now, it's extremely interesting to listen to the songs sung by a Japanese cast--when I can't understand a single word--and yet I know exactly what they are singing. The videos are much clearer.

What fun to see a Japanese Byronesque Rochester.

Here's the link to the Japanese playlist. It only has about a third of the songs, but if you know the story, it's well worth watching.

It's fun to compare a couple of scenes in English with the ones in Japanese.

( Compare the Japanese Rochester's proposal here with the one above )

Then there's this scene, which takes place right after Rochester's proposal. ( Compare the first two minutes of this video, in English )

( with the same scene in Japanese )