do you hear the people sing?

We saw Les Miserables in Salt Lake, and it was, in a (few) word(s), amazing, fantastic, beautiful, heartbreaking, and enchanting. Fantine's "I Dreamed a Dream" in the first act brought me to tears. And the resounding cries of "Red Black" made me want to run to the stage and join in the barricade. And, of course, the raw emotion of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" reduced me to a blubbering mess again. "Bring Him Home" was so emotion-charged and gorgeous, as it always is. Then there was the finale, where I found myself on the edge of my chair, heart racing, barely able to breathe. The way it begins so softly and then crescendos into that powerful anthem is something to behold. There is nothing quite like seeing a show live. The energy, emotion and power that comes from a live performance is unmatched by anything else. It got my standing ovation, which I don't readily give to just any performance. It has to blow me away and move my soul to warrant my standing up. It did. On both accounts. So I stood up.