Actually from a music and a creative perspective, I actually thought the team did a great job deconstruct the musical in the similar fashion as to how 'Homage to Korea' with the main theme of Arirang had been arranged and integrated in 4 parts. I find approach to be refreshing to adaptations and love the non linear approach, making the wildly familiar sound unfamiliar, and avoided being generic and contrivances to ladies figure skating cliche 101s (usually follows some sob story, sexy moves, love story, or skate lovely, or relies entirely on the charisma of the skater but has little to do with the honesty and the integrity of the source) In doing so, the music is uniquely shaped to the choreography and not the other way round. As an avid fan of Les Mis who cares great deal about preserving the essence of the epic, I deeply appreciate what the team have tried to do, and what is realistically feasible to do in a free skate program and how to utilisize these precious seconds to make every second count. To find the right tone, level of expressions that is honest and truthful to the skater in the classic Wilson choreography way. (btw generic doesn't become generic overnight, but are about what has been established to be popular. When it is done by the team that originally founded them, they are classics. Otherwise it is like saying Prada only does generic bags because they are all in black.)
Deconstructionism in performance arts is characterized by unpredictability, and controlled chaos, making things that appear fragmented and non linear in a way that is significant - mirroring the unique expressions and opinion of the performer. There's no doubt in my mind, the skater who performed at the world championship 2013 FS knows the material backwards and forwards while she skate. Understand and conveyed the solitude, fortitude, courage and bravery. Contemplation, simmering anger, generous heartfelt love and most of all, deep resilience against impossible odds these Les Mis characters went through. The result isn't some easily digestible heart on a sleeve type of traditional ladies skating program, but far more potent and lingering that covers the grand epic quality as powerful as a men's program. It delivered the premise of the type of emotions as I have walking out of the Queen's theater in London where Les Mis is currently playing. A celebration of human conditions, the human spirit, a standing ovation, a triumph and uprising of the underclass.
I remember a thread a few months ago on GS when people complained about how boring Les Mis is, but I have questioned then if there had ever been an definitive Les Mis program that tackled the complex story definitively? To me, Yuna's Les Mis is distinguishable like Katerina Witt's Carmen out of hundreds and thousands of Carmen out there, past and present. It might not appeal to the general standard of taste of a conservative figure skating observers, who perhaps used to certain standards of spoon feeding 'expression' and emotional conventions. But in the long run, it is the youtube hits and the amount of times it get mentioned by public broadcasters and written about all of the world every time there's a new Les Miserable program will determines its true value (just like Witt's Carmen). Figure skating forums attract certain type of opinionated posters, each shaped by the baggage and the learning themselves carries (include myself). I'd be very curious to see what other distinguishable Les Mis program will there be in the future that is bold and gutsy enough to cover the epic quality and ambition of Les Mis. One could have said, it is far easier to focus on one strand, a feeling, an emotion, a theme, a character or a particular score, which wouldn't do the epic Les Mis justice, but about leverage a strand from Les Mis, a popular musical.
I do think work as fine and fully realized as Yuna's Les Mis deserve another perspective and appreciation. It is an ambitious and mature piece of work among today's ladies program. It has depth and essences that I look for that are truthful to the source and is a program that many will find infinitely watchable. (Heh...At least a few judges and journalists agrees with me
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