solitary_summer | Entries tagged with musicals

The first time after Christmas that I've actually felt the - albeit not very urgent, but I guess it still counts - urge to venture out of the house on a day off, so I packed my camera and went on a two hour walk through depressingly foggy, no-sun-in-sight-anywhere Vienna, at the end of which I was tired, depressed and cold, so I took the underground home, made myself hot tea and watched the Elisabeth DVD while typing up Russian vocabulary (yay for multitasking and having bought the bigger iMac). And while I still think that the later additions are uniformly inferior - repetitive, superfluous, or both, even the blatantly fanservice-ish Wenn ich tanzen will -, upset the flow and tip the balance too much in favour of the Elisabeth/Death love-story, not to mention the embarrassing infodump narrator passages that make me go all *headdesk* & *cringe* & *fastforward*, the original was quite brilliant and deserved every bit of the success it got; great score, so many wonderful songs, a good deal of complexity, visually stunning, but never overshadowing the music, and a wonderful mood with all the Viennese love of morbidity, which I think came out stronger before Elisabeth was sold all over the world, and not as lightweight as one might assume, cf. the chilling Hass! [*] that always left a resounding silence.

Gratuitious linkage as a result of browsing videos on youtube; most are from the 2005 Vienna Cast DVD, so the quality is actually quite decent.

Der letzte Tanz: Not bad, but not my faourite death either.

Ich gehör nur mir: Maya Hakvoort being brilliant as always, although the close-ups in the beginning aren't doing her any favours considering she's supposed to play 17 year old Elisabeth here.

Nichts, nichts, gar nichts: One of the best tracks, IMO, once again fabulous Maya. Go watch.

Die Schatten werden länger and Mayerling, both of which I've seen done sexier (possibly because at least in one of the Rudolf/Death cast variations the actors were actually a couple), but still not bad at all. (Blurry illegal video from 1994ish with Uwe Kröger and Andreas Bieber putting a bit more effort into the kiss. Not these two, though. I think. Although I do seem to recall there were rumours. )

Boote in der Nacht (Elisabeth and Franz Joseph)

Der Schleier fällt (Finale) (Elsiabeth and Death)

[*] Video, which I seriously don't recommend watching at work or anywhere public, since it's about the rise of nationalism and anti-semitism in the late 19th century and you probably don't want to explain the slurs or the Sieg-Heil-ing at the end to the random person passing by.

2:15. Completely awake. *sigh*

Current Mood: awake

I am so, so dead. Tuesday went better than expected, Wednesday - horse in the morning, work in the afternoon & feeling exhausted for the rest for the day, although with less of a sore throat, but more constant sniffing & sneezing & lots of tissues & generally feeling crappy. Same yesterday, plus headache. Also, period. Gah. Today (up early to pick up the newly winter-tyre'd car from the garage) after I'd closed the shop I just sat in our storeroom-cum-kitchen for a quarter of an hour, mindlessly staring at the wall, and couldn't even make myself move to get up and go home. Which I finally managed to do, had hot soup, chocolate and the first episode of Buffy (pondering the scary possibility of rewatching all seven seasons... mid-March with one episode per evening?! dear god...) and am feeling somewhat better now, although still rather brain dead.

And it's Friday evening already, when did that happen? Since Russian class & belly-dancing class started again it's like, *blink*, and the week is over.

So, brief summary of my completely boring life; saw Rebecca last week (got the ticket from M., who didn't want to see it again), and the most I can say about that is, meh. It's pretty enough and doesn't outright suck, but it doesn't come close to Elisabeth, while reusing too many of the elements that worked there. It's all bit boring (and I wasn't even very familiar with the story), although the pace does pick up a bit in the second part, and if a special effect (Manderley burning, which is admittedly impressive) gets almost the most applause, you're doing something wrong. The fairly catchy title track is repeated ad nauseam, and other than that there are only a couple memorable and one decent song (Mrs. Danvers' Sie ergibt sich nicht). The ensemble scenes are all very Elisabeth-esque, been there, seen that, and as for Uwe Kröger, IMO he hit the jackpot playing Death there and has been insanely overhyped ever since.

Also (Saturday), one immensely satisfying shopping trip where I actually found everything I was looking for (Brio toy train for the niece's birthday; Russian grammar, verb list and new vocabulary CDs; new jeans, much needed; a rucksack, ditto). A very nice afternoon walk on the Bisamberg on Sunday. Practicing the choreograohies (and showing them to the parents, because I figured if I was going to do it on stage I should try to get used to people watching me), Russian learning (which I'm really kind of ~~obsessive~~ dedicated about at the moment, irregular verbs during lunchbreak, vocabulary on the underground, that kind of thing, but I'm going to speak this language and read all those Russian authors in Russian in this lifetime, and before retirement, too.)

And suddenly there never seems to be a whole lot of time left. I guess what I sort of miss is actually having thoughts about life, the universe and everything. Then again, I most certainly don't miss all those vicious circle depressive thoughts, so I guess being busy is good.

And, oh, alright, qualification; I spent a shitload of time and thought on that epic S2 Reconstructed Torchwood post a couple of weeks ago, but OTOH that was completely worth every minute of it; for one thing because I love it when things sort themselves out in my head, and for another thing, because of all the time I now won't spend obsessively trying to make sense of something that doesn't.

( Navel gazing. Even when she said she wouldn't. )

Am I getting closer to the crazy cat lady stage, minus even the cats? I wonder.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: RHCP, Dani Californnia

Less than zero points for photography, and none for presentation, but the kitschiest and prettiest Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forest cake) I ever made. Delicious, too. *g*

( inside view, ignore the Coke bottles in the background )

So the cake went well, the niece sat on my lap sharing my piece and making a mess of it and generally being super cute. All very relaxing for a family afternoon.

~

The sister and I both loved The Producers; parts were completely charming, parts were the hardest I've laughed in a long time, and like my sister said, we've had no idea that Andreas Bieber (an utterly adorable Leo Bloom) was such a good actor. The rest of the cast was also brilliant (not only the actor playing Max Bialystock, but Ulla of the many names, and the nazi writer guy), although I didn't recognise any names; it's been too long that I've been really invested in musicals.

What didn't work so well IMO was the actual 'Springtime for Hitler' bit, which was more or less what I'd expected after having seen the clip from the movie with JB on YouTube. I guess it might be different in the US, but in Austria? Really awkward. Not absurd enough to be funny (and I kind of doubt there's any way to make the idea of Hitler winning the war funny), not dark enough that part of the audience won't applaud in the end, so you just sit there for a while feeling uneasy and embarrassed, which I'm not sure is the intended effect.

The rest was brilliant, though, and if you're in Vienna, seriously, go see!

~

Today passed way too fast with belly-dancing practice, hennaing my hair, Russian vocabulary and spending too much time writing the ultimative Torchwood meta post from hell, I'm not kidding. Watched Merlin which, while being completely ahistoric, is also insanely adorable and beyond slashy, and I'm allowed to be shallow occasionally, plus, it's nice to have a weekly tv show to download again, *cough*...

~

[Final Jörg Haider ETA: So it turns out he was driving 142 km/h where 70 or even 50 (apparently he knocked down the 50 sign) were allowed. It won't stop the saintification, but I hope it'll at least shut up all those who were already talking about evil Slovenian plots. No, seriously. With some people their deaths really fit there lives, that's all one can say.]

Current Mood: good

[Was there supposed to be a point to this post? Didn't think so.]

Reminiscences. About once a year, especially in times of stress when I need something comfortable and familiar to fall back upon, i regress to my musicals phase. Dig out my musical cds and wax all nostalgic. I've been having tunes from Elisabeth firmly stuck in my ear ever since I watched the dvd, popping up at the oddest moments. Like, when we were baking Weihnachtskekse, every time I was occupied with some purely mechanical task, bits kept surfacing - dip cookie in chocolate, lalala, alle tanzten mit dem Tod, doch niemand wie Elisabeth, dip cookie, lalala... and so on.

I kind of - not actually miss, but have a warm nostalgic feeling that comes close to missing, the unabashed emotional abandon, the fangirling, the queuing for standing room and student tickets, standing at the stage door to get autographs, being so familiar with a show that you notice slight changes, slips, different interpretations of first and second casts...

Elisabeth was also one of the instances where my seventh sense that usually tells me with moderate accuracy what I might or might not like was far, far off. Of course, I was rather indifferent to musicals then and the only things I knew about E. was the clip with Pia Douwes singing 'Ich gehör' nur mir' (oh my god was that still on Wurlitzer? I seem to remember so...), the whole Uwe Kröger hype, and, well, the E. hype in general. And as I've probably mentioned before, if something is over-hyped, I tend to react contrary out of principle, and am skeptic at least, and often dismiss it out of hand. In my mind, E. was kitsch, and that was that. Not interested.

It's good to be occasionally reminded that keeping a more open mind can be very worthwhile.

Then, a year or so later, I'd seen Kuss der Spinnenfrau twentysomething times and when it closed needed another musical to fangirl over, and something to take my mind off (but not too much!) The Crush, and since Grease was amusing, but bland, I tried E., and, surprise, surprise, liked it. A lot. My slight irritation with the latest additions and changes (specifically all those all goth wannabe Schwarzer Engel and Schwarze Möwe bits, ::shudder::) notwithstanding, I'd still be prepared to argue that it's a damn good musical, with some pure genius parts. 'Ich gehör nur mir' is very effective in context, and Maya's version never failed to send a shiver down my spine, but 'Nichts, nichts, gar nichts' is perfect. The sheer brutal sexiness of 'Die Schatten werden länger', and the way they used Death's androgyny in the Mayerling/Totentanz scene. If not before, that's when I fell for it. All of the ensemble scenes are wonderful. The resounding hush in the theatre after 'Hass', and the couple of times when a few people started to applaud, not, I assume, because of political sympathies, but out of an end-of-scene reflex, and were shushed. Fond memories... (I always turn this way down when I listen to the cd, unless it's on headphones, because I don't want people who don't know the context to overhear.)

So not kitsch.

I had framed posters signed by the whole cast from both KdS and E. The sad thing is (or is it?), if I had a larger apartment I still might hang up the KsS one.

Current Mood: procrastinating
Current Music: Sweet Charity

Wherein I have nothing interesting to say & therefore will aimlessly ramble about the slightly new but not really improved version of Elisabeth on dvd...

( Of no interest to anyone, but I wanted to get it out of my system and off notepad... )

It's HOT. 9 pm, still 31 degrees, I should have checked. I thought it was safe to open the window, it being dark and all, but I'm already covered in sweat...

In other not-so-news, now that the whole eye-related drama is over & done with [although, again, knocking on wood...] & I have panic-free brain-capacity again...

Last Saturday my sister and I saw Jesus Christ Superstar in Amstetten, and for once we both agreed that this was a little on the weird side.

I've never seen it before, I didn't know what to expect; I didn't expect much of anything, to be honest. It's a musical, I thought. It's Andrew Lloyd Webber, I thought. How catholic can it be, I thought. Or was it only the production that turned it into a passion play, only with singing and dancing & homoerotic not-so-sub-text?

We both left wondering what exactly was the point - of the musical itself, and, more specifically, of the production; vaguely we'd both expected a different, at least slightly controversial approach, nothing quite so literally catholic. None of the characters (with the possible exception of Judas) had any personality, they remained gospel cardboard cut-out personas; it didn't help that the music was so loud that it seriously messed with the voices. I perhaps understood one word in three & during the intermission was left wondering what exactly was Judas's problem, other than his obvious jealousy of Maria Magdalena.

There was one part especially that made me more than a little uncomfortable. While it looks like as if with the costumes of the priests they were trying to avoid anything too distinctly Jewish, in the trial/flagellatlion scene there's this pretty, blond, long haired Jesus, in white trousers, a sympathetic Pilatus, and there's the whole ensemble, dressed in black in a way that definitely suggested Jewish orthodox dress, the men in coats and hats, screaming for Jesus to be crucified. You'd have to see the choreography to get the full impact of it, the hatefulness, the ugliness. I sat there, disbelieving, and i'm still wondering what made them decide to stage this particular ugly Christian stereotype. It'd have helped, at least a little, if there'd been (e.g.) a dark-haired Jesus and blond Judas, but as it was... I have a hard time believing that a young, thoroughly international team and cast would have suddenly chosen to channel a collective anti-semitic prejudice, but what then? Sheer obliviousness? Hard to believe. Or were they consciously playing into the stereotype, indeed, over-playing it, trying to make the audience reflect? If that, it's a precarious gamble that could have gone wrong in many ways, and perhaps has, because it's scarily effective, and the intention not clear at all, especially since nothing else in the production particularly invites reflection. If I went to see it with a child, there'd be a long talk afterwards about the historic circumstances and where this kind of Christian prejudice led already.

Another thing that shocked me on a very personal level was how after nearly fifteen years of more or less pronounced, occasionally militant, anti-catholicism and atheism, this still managed to stir some kind of primordial religious feelings/memories and to really grip me in the end. Not on any intellectual level, there was nothing abstract about it, nothing transcending the story actually told, no universal message about sacrifice, but on a very simple, emotional childhood-religion gut level, when you still believed these stories they teach you, in a very literal way. Suddenly I kind of understood what makes people watch passion-plays and such. It's scary and embarrassing at the same time, to suddenly discover something like that still lingering in yourself. Strange. And does it make sense at all that little anti-catholic, atheist me was sitting there, almost disconcerted, when right after the crucifixion scene, it was over, and the lights went on, and they did the Jesus Christ... reprise, and it was a musical again, and people were cheering and applauding.... Again, weird, in many respects.

On a more ::cough:: mundane level... Hard to say much about the cast because the characters were so un-developed and the voices so drowned-out and/or-turned up too loud. Kim Duddy's choreography is good as always, but IMO as a director she simply lacks the vision of what you might do with a play/musical. Drew Sarich was a good Judas, but then again the part is perhaps the most interesting in any case, and the one most open to interpretation. Cue somewhat predictable homoerotic overtones. (Symbolism right until the end, shooting himself, gun in mouth) Not to be overly sarcastic, though, the whole death-scene was very touching, especially his variation/repetition of I don't know how to love him. I guess one might object to making Judas (more or less explicitly) gay on top of the whole betraying Jesus thing, but then again his character is at least somewhat interesting and he does play a vital part in the story, whereas Maria Magdalena... She soothes. She anoints. She pines. Yawn.

Still almost 30 degrees at 11 pm. Still sweaty. No point trying to sleep.

Current Mood: hot

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life without a plot

Entries tagged with musicals

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March 2013

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