This musical adaptation conveys to a remarkable extent the epic scope and compelling narrative force of Flaubert’s novel. One is intent, watching the musical, on catching every word and the meaning of each episode in the personal saga of Emma Bovary, beautiful and given to romanticism but in other ways not truly remarkable. What a lot of havoc romanticism can cause! The songs are abundant, and carry us effectively through the emotional phases of the narrative; musically they were somewhat expectable. For me, the best of the songs are the ones that are tough and “realistic.”
