For my birthday this year I asked my parents for tickets to go and see the musical Les Miserables. I absolutely loved it! I found for the next week or so I was humming the songs from this brilliant show. The story and music was so amazing that I had to purchase a CD with the songs on.

What I purchased was: Les Miserables - The Musical that Swept the World - In concert at the Royal Albert hall - 10th anniversary addition.

As I love this purchase so much, I thought I should review it so that other Les Mis fans cand hear of this compilation.

What is Les Mis:
Les Miserables (Les Mis) is a hit musical based on the classic novel (of the same name) by Victor Hugo. I will not give too much of the storyline away as I wouldn't want to spoil this brilliant work of theatre for you. The play centres on the life of Valjean, whom after being released from prison, tries to carry on with his life as well as he can. However, this is not easy as he is haunted by the mistakes made in his past, and by Javert (A prison warden) who wants to remind Valjean who he is. This is a story of redemption, love and the social conditions of France in the nineteenth century.

Musical Numbers:
This two disc compilation features 41 songs in total. So as not to bore you or write an essay (although saying that, I know this will be long anyways - sorry) I will describe my top five songs from this brilliant musical (as well as including the actual list of songs on the discs.)

Disc One -
1. Prologue
2. On parole/ The Bishop
3. Valjean's Soliloquy
4. At the end of the day
5. I dreamed a dream
6. Lovely ladies
7. Fantine's arrest
8. The runaway cart
9. Who am I? - The Trial
10. Fantine's Death
11. The confrontation
12. Castle on a cloud
13. Master of the house
14. The Bargain - Waltz of treachery
15. Look down
16. Stars
17. ABC café/ Red and Black
18. Do you hear the people sing?
19. Rue Plumet - In my life
20. A heart full of love

Disc two -
1. The attack on rue plumet
2. One day more!
3. Building the barricade
4. Back at the barricade
5. Javert's arrival / little people
6. A little fall of rain
7. Night of anguish
8. First attack
9. Drink with me
10. Bring him home
11. Second attack/ The final battle
12. The sewers
13. Dog eat dog
14. Javert's suicide
15. Turning
16. Empty chairs at empty tables
17. Every day/ a heart full of love
18. The wedding chorale/ Beggars at the feast
19. Epilogue
20. Encore 1 - speeches/ do you hear the people sing?
21. One day more

The order of the songs, follow the order of the musical (which I'm sure everyone would expect).

What I absolutely love about this music is that I can picture ever single scene in my head and I can hear the emotion felt by the singer. There is such a passion in the performance and delivery of this music that makes these songs absolutely beautiful. I have listened to this album, from start to finish, roughly 15 times and only bought it about two months ago.

My Top Five Songs:
1.Master of the House - This has to be the funniest song of the whole production. This song had me literally giggling the whole way through. It has such a light hearted feel to the song which is a nice change from the more emotional and slightly depressing songs on the cd.

Favourite Line from Song: Master of the house, isn't worth my spit, `Comforter, philosopher' - and lifelong sh*t!

2. At the end of the day - This is a song that is sung by a chorus of people so powerfully. You can really hear the emotion in the voices of the singers.

Favourite line from song: At the end of the day you're another day older.

3. Do you hear the people sing? - This is very much a revolutionary styled song. This has a quick pace and lively tempo, which makes you just want to sing along. One of the main songs of the musical that I couldn't get out of my head.

4. Who am I?/ The trial - What I love about this song is that you can hear the inner turmoil going on in the singers head. You can almost see the clogs ticking inside the man's head as he works out whether to do the right thing, or the thing that is right for him.

5. Castle on a cloud - this song is sung by the character Cosette whom must be around the age of 10 or 11. It is quite a sile song, but this makes it sound even better as its coming from a child's voice. The tempo and pace of the song all help in making the singer seem more fragile. At the end of this song I wanted to do nothing more than to hug the actor as I genuinely felt sorry for this poor little girl.

Many people who love Les Mis will be surprised that I didn't include the famous song "I dreamed a Dream" in my top five songs (made even more famous when Susan Boyle sang it - opening the music up to a whole new demographic). My reason for this is simply because that, as beautiful as this song is, it didn't move me as much as the others did. It is very hard to pick only five songs from this compilation disc as they are all so brilliant.

Price:
I bought this from amazon for £13.99. You can buy this on the official souvenir website for Les Miserables but it will be a bit pricey.

Would I recommend?:
I think it is clear form my review that I am absolutely obsessed with the music from this brilliant musical. The songs stir a range of emotions and are so beautifully written that I cannot help but listen to them over and over again. If you or anyone you know loves the musical Les Miserables then I would defenitly recommend purchasing this.

I am defenitly going to have to read Victor Hugo's classic novel now!

Thank you for reading.