The musical begins with Gringoire the poet introducing us to the story, which he conveniently informs us begins takes place in 1482 in "Paris la belle". He continues singing, talking about how the labour of anonymous artists and poets will try an tell the story. It is now the Age of Cathedrals, he sings, and he talks about how it will be the new millenium soon (the musical came out in 1999), and that man has tried to climb up to the stars, and write history in "glass and stone" (note: this is the chorus of the song, and I will not attempt to repeat this part again).
The next verse is about how over time, people have built great monuments to time, and how poets and troubadours have sung songs about how life will be better in the future. Gringoire repeats the chorus a couple of times, and I notice that Gargoyles are being lowered onto some pedestals (and no; before you ask, Victor, Hugo, and Laverne will not be appearing in this musical). The third repeating is darker than the last: the Age of the Cathedrals has ended, and Pagans and Barbarians overrun the cities. He finally ends the song with a note that the End of the World as We Know It is predicted to occur in the year 2000 (which of course, it didn't).
