Elisabeth in Berlin
May. 5th, 2008 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterI saw two shows in Berlin, May 1 and May 2. The cast was almost the same - the only exception was Sophie, with the understudy the first time and Christa Wettstein (first cast) on Friday. The shows, however, were dramatically different, mostly because on Thursday, Bruno Grassini (Lucheni) was phoning in his role, while by Friday he had recovered.
I love Elisabeth, and one of the things I love most are the German lyrics. There is a beauty to them that is art rather than craft, and it was a pleasure to hear them. The theatre itself also remains impressive, with lovely interior furnishings and impressive chandeliers. However, I think it's a little unreasonable to not allow photographs of the interior at all, even before/after the show.
The set is the simplest possible, with a layer of curtains in the back, tilting mirrors to the sides and screens above all of that. The screens display projections that straddle the line between verbatim and symbolic nicely, with Schönbrunn and Hofburg being the main motifs. The infrequent furnishings roll in through the curtains on the double revolving stage; all are simple except for Death's carved black swan-boat bed, which looks a little ridiculous. Beside them there are only two very effective set pieces, both suspended from the ceiling: a red eagle cradle/platform that rises and lowers (used in the first Franz Joseph/Sisi duet and serving as Death's throne at the coronation) and a suspended gilded eagle-wing that suddenly shatters during Alp-Traum. And of course the suspended drawbridge to the lands of Death.
I admit I am not enamoured of the direction. I can see the concepts (simple, letting voices shine, symbolic), same as Vienna, but they are quite frankly suited to stronger actors than the ones we have to put up with. The show also suffers from a love affair with the revolving stage as a character movement concept, because in several places the performer rolls offstage before their lines are finished. On-stage presence and interaction is a general problem - Boote in der Nacht is a model victim, with Sisi and Franz-Joseph rolling past each other without eye-contact or any interaction, which doesn't work if it's his final plea for him to love him, and her acknowledgement that she did use to love him. The end of Act 1 also has the trio grouped too closely together off to one side, not letting Elisabeth shine; I was under the impression that the choreography was based on the assumptions that the performers would be as strong personalities as in Vienna, and when the charisma is lacking, so does the show.
The orchestrations are Vienna Revival, quite correct and dynamic. Scene changes are smooth and quite dynamic, cued by the animations; in that part, it works well. But singing direction is dreadful in that voice deficiencies are covered by speaking or whispering rather than singing the relevant lines. A spoken Bellaria does not work.
And now for the bad: the ensemble hates the show. This is painfully visible in the group scenes, with everyone milling about and knocking tiredly into each other. "Am I supposed to be over there? So what? Who cares?" is the prevailing attitude. Milch in particular falls victim to a boycott. It seems the management problems (very strict, no artistic freedom) that plagued Tanz der Vampire in Theater des Westens are still in evidence, exacerbated by poor wages for this production. And on top of this, many ensemble songs are clearly lip-synched, rolling in from playback, demoralising them utterly. (Fröhliche Apokalypse is one exception, with everyone clearly having fun.)
Cast-wise, the minor characters are quite good - the courtiers are not my favourites, but they're decent when singing, though they fall to the ensemble demoralisation when they're in the crowd. The angels were the only minor characters enjoying themselves, very graceful and energetic.
Ludovika/Frau Wolf is fantastic especially in her second incarnation. Elisabeth's first-act lady-in-waiting is also wonderfully flustered, and especially the kid Rudolf I saw on Friday had a lovely voice and emoting. Duke Max is one of my favourites, and he was great (he used to do Javert in the original Viennese production and I need a DVD of that), but for some reason in the second act as a ghost, he spoke most of his lines rather than sang them, maybe so that he wouldn't drown out Annemieke's voice. I felt frankly cheated.
Sophie is the one character I saw both understudy and lead for. The understudy on Thursday couldn't sing and had no charisma, period, not to mind no character concept beyond "old bitch". You can imagine this made for a flat Eine Kaiserin muss glänzen, Wir oder sie and a Bellaria that made me want to cover my ears. The lead, Christa Wettstein, is a correct Sophie, though nothing on Else Ludwig (whom she's clearly basing her performance on).
Oliver Arno was a welcome surprise - a solid good Rudolf with a sweet voice and some fire to him. He was clearly mirroring Pia's usual Elisabeth in fire and fragility, and it worked well. He was also rather reluctant to escape from Uwe's attentions ;) I found myself missing the Hungarian alterations that make for so much more Rudolf presence. I'd love to see him as Death (he's also the understudy for that role).
I'll be frank - Markus Pol is one of the worst Franz Josephs I've seen (and I've seen plenty). He has the physical resemblance, but the fact he's almost a copy of Andre Bauer only made the differences more jarring. His voice is mostly decent, but either as a character concept or the result of a Botox overdose, his face does not move. Open mouth, close mouth, open eyes, close eyes, and that's the end of his acting range. He also does not know how to move, which is especially painful when he's supposed to be old and ailing; I was recalling Ádám Bálint's heart-breaking Boote and cringing. This means that the whole romantic triangle falls flat on one end.
Bruno Grassini's main qualification for being Lucheni is that he's Italian. On Thursday he was dreadful, zombie-like and flat-voiced (except when he was being dubbed over - very, very evident in Milch). On Friday he was a correct Lucheni, but again I've seen wonderful actors in this role, and he's not one of them. Especially since he plays it by the ear, following the stage directions, but with no concept of his own.
I saw Annemieke van Dam both times as Elisabeth, and chalk another one up for great Dutch actresses :) She's a beautiful, strong and wilful Sisi, whose main defining characteristic is her anger that degenerates into an impotent fury. There's less poetry than I'd like (then again, no-one does it like Maki), but the concept is solid, and she plays beautifully off Uwe's Death. Her voice is more Sarah in Tanz der Vampire than the likes of Maya Hakvoort, and she patches it up with whispering instead of high notes in too many places, but with a little practice she can be great indeed.
Uwe Kröger was the one that stunned me. Once I was prepared to hate him, since I've been fairly horrified by his Vienna performance and indifferent to his Death in Essen as well as his other roles. But he caught me on the DIVA 2005 recording, fooling around with Maki Ichiro, and he's a lovely Maxim in Rebecca, so I was willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
It was like watching the proud, wilful, short-tempered offspring of Deaths as played by Maki and Máté Kamarás. The spring in his walk telegraphed Takarazuka heels, the snarls were clearly Hungarian in origin, and the poor drawbridge was groaning under the abuse as he bounced on it. He's got a much better control on his voice in the lyrical moments, and while in the emotional ones he snapped back to his jarring sharp consonants, it suited the concept and the moment. Most of all, he was Death. The role is like a comfortable old glove to him, like saying hello to an old friend.
And he's an utter professional, playing well off others (great contempt for Lucheni, glee for Rudolf, and clear squee at Annemieke's snarling at him) and carrying the show even on Thursday, when it was in dire straits indeed. His best scenes were the first Schatten werden länger (lyrical, hypnotic), the second iteration of it (with a bed that poor Rudolf almost lost his virtue on) and Wenn ich tanzen will that was almost a battle. Maybe he just doesn't film well, maybe he was having a particularly good two nights, but for once I could see why he's the star he is.
End verdict: I'm glad I've gone, for reasons of Uwe (and to a lesser extent, Annemieke and Oliver), but this production is craft rather than art. And I'm very happy I have tickets booked to Elisabeth in Budapest next month, with the full second cast (Máté, Bernádett and Nikolett, Ádám Bálint and Tamás Szaraz) confirmed for both shows I'm attending.
I love Elisabeth, and one of the things I love most are the German lyrics. There is a beauty to them that is art rather than craft, and it was a pleasure to hear them. The theatre itself also remains impressive, with lovely interior furnishings and impressive chandeliers. However, I think it's a little unreasonable to not allow photographs of the interior at all, even before/after the show.
The set is the simplest possible, with a layer of curtains in the back, tilting mirrors to the sides and screens above all of that. The screens display projections that straddle the line between verbatim and symbolic nicely, with Schönbrunn and Hofburg being the main motifs. The infrequent furnishings roll in through the curtains on the double revolving stage; all are simple except for Death's carved black swan-boat bed, which looks a little ridiculous. Beside them there are only two very effective set pieces, both suspended from the ceiling: a red eagle cradle/platform that rises and lowers (used in the first Franz Joseph/Sisi duet and serving as Death's throne at the coronation) and a suspended gilded eagle-wing that suddenly shatters during Alp-Traum. And of course the suspended drawbridge to the lands of Death.
I admit I am not enamoured of the direction. I can see the concepts (simple, letting voices shine, symbolic), same as Vienna, but they are quite frankly suited to stronger actors than the ones we have to put up with. The show also suffers from a love affair with the revolving stage as a character movement concept, because in several places the performer rolls offstage before their lines are finished. On-stage presence and interaction is a general problem - Boote in der Nacht is a model victim, with Sisi and Franz-Joseph rolling past each other without eye-contact or any interaction, which doesn't work if it's his final plea for him to love him, and her acknowledgement that she did use to love him. The end of Act 1 also has the trio grouped too closely together off to one side, not letting Elisabeth shine; I was under the impression that the choreography was based on the assumptions that the performers would be as strong personalities as in Vienna, and when the charisma is lacking, so does the show.
The orchestrations are Vienna Revival, quite correct and dynamic. Scene changes are smooth and quite dynamic, cued by the animations; in that part, it works well. But singing direction is dreadful in that voice deficiencies are covered by speaking or whispering rather than singing the relevant lines. A spoken Bellaria does not work.
And now for the bad: the ensemble hates the show. This is painfully visible in the group scenes, with everyone milling about and knocking tiredly into each other. "Am I supposed to be over there? So what? Who cares?" is the prevailing attitude. Milch in particular falls victim to a boycott. It seems the management problems (very strict, no artistic freedom) that plagued Tanz der Vampire in Theater des Westens are still in evidence, exacerbated by poor wages for this production. And on top of this, many ensemble songs are clearly lip-synched, rolling in from playback, demoralising them utterly. (Fröhliche Apokalypse is one exception, with everyone clearly having fun.)
Cast-wise, the minor characters are quite good - the courtiers are not my favourites, but they're decent when singing, though they fall to the ensemble demoralisation when they're in the crowd. The angels were the only minor characters enjoying themselves, very graceful and energetic.
Ludovika/Frau Wolf is fantastic especially in her second incarnation. Elisabeth's first-act lady-in-waiting is also wonderfully flustered, and especially the kid Rudolf I saw on Friday had a lovely voice and emoting. Duke Max is one of my favourites, and he was great (he used to do Javert in the original Viennese production and I need a DVD of that), but for some reason in the second act as a ghost, he spoke most of his lines rather than sang them, maybe so that he wouldn't drown out Annemieke's voice. I felt frankly cheated.
Sophie is the one character I saw both understudy and lead for. The understudy on Thursday couldn't sing and had no charisma, period, not to mind no character concept beyond "old bitch". You can imagine this made for a flat Eine Kaiserin muss glänzen, Wir oder sie and a Bellaria that made me want to cover my ears. The lead, Christa Wettstein, is a correct Sophie, though nothing on Else Ludwig (whom she's clearly basing her performance on).
Oliver Arno was a welcome surprise - a solid good Rudolf with a sweet voice and some fire to him. He was clearly mirroring Pia's usual Elisabeth in fire and fragility, and it worked well. He was also rather reluctant to escape from Uwe's attentions ;) I found myself missing the Hungarian alterations that make for so much more Rudolf presence. I'd love to see him as Death (he's also the understudy for that role).
I'll be frank - Markus Pol is one of the worst Franz Josephs I've seen (and I've seen plenty). He has the physical resemblance, but the fact he's almost a copy of Andre Bauer only made the differences more jarring. His voice is mostly decent, but either as a character concept or the result of a Botox overdose, his face does not move. Open mouth, close mouth, open eyes, close eyes, and that's the end of his acting range. He also does not know how to move, which is especially painful when he's supposed to be old and ailing; I was recalling Ádám Bálint's heart-breaking Boote and cringing. This means that the whole romantic triangle falls flat on one end.
Bruno Grassini's main qualification for being Lucheni is that he's Italian. On Thursday he was dreadful, zombie-like and flat-voiced (except when he was being dubbed over - very, very evident in Milch). On Friday he was a correct Lucheni, but again I've seen wonderful actors in this role, and he's not one of them. Especially since he plays it by the ear, following the stage directions, but with no concept of his own.
I saw Annemieke van Dam both times as Elisabeth, and chalk another one up for great Dutch actresses :) She's a beautiful, strong and wilful Sisi, whose main defining characteristic is her anger that degenerates into an impotent fury. There's less poetry than I'd like (then again, no-one does it like Maki), but the concept is solid, and she plays beautifully off Uwe's Death. Her voice is more Sarah in Tanz der Vampire than the likes of Maya Hakvoort, and she patches it up with whispering instead of high notes in too many places, but with a little practice she can be great indeed.
Uwe Kröger was the one that stunned me. Once I was prepared to hate him, since I've been fairly horrified by his Vienna performance and indifferent to his Death in Essen as well as his other roles. But he caught me on the DIVA 2005 recording, fooling around with Maki Ichiro, and he's a lovely Maxim in Rebecca, so I was willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
It was like watching the proud, wilful, short-tempered offspring of Deaths as played by Maki and Máté Kamarás. The spring in his walk telegraphed Takarazuka heels, the snarls were clearly Hungarian in origin, and the poor drawbridge was groaning under the abuse as he bounced on it. He's got a much better control on his voice in the lyrical moments, and while in the emotional ones he snapped back to his jarring sharp consonants, it suited the concept and the moment. Most of all, he was Death. The role is like a comfortable old glove to him, like saying hello to an old friend.
And he's an utter professional, playing well off others (great contempt for Lucheni, glee for Rudolf, and clear squee at Annemieke's snarling at him) and carrying the show even on Thursday, when it was in dire straits indeed. His best scenes were the first Schatten werden länger (lyrical, hypnotic), the second iteration of it (with a bed that poor Rudolf almost lost his virtue on) and Wenn ich tanzen will that was almost a battle. Maybe he just doesn't film well, maybe he was having a particularly good two nights, but for once I could see why he's the star he is.
End verdict: I'm glad I've gone, for reasons of Uwe (and to a lesser extent, Annemieke and Oliver), but this production is craft rather than art. And I'm very happy I have tickets booked to Elisabeth in Budapest next month, with the full second cast (Máté, Bernádett and Nikolett, Ádám Bálint and Tamás Szaraz) confirmed for both shows I'm attending.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 11:48 am (UTC)As for the set, I have seen several photos and this swan-boat made me laugh, it's rather poor replacement for Death's carriage from Vienna version.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 11:57 am (UTC)I do recommend Budapest - I'll be going to Tanz again too :D
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 01:10 pm (UTC)I think the icon for this post is my favorite Elisabeth icon of yours.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 01:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 01:50 pm (UTC)Haha, if the ensemble is anything like that, then I don't entirely regret not being able to see this production... (although I really must see this show live someday :( ) but I have to admit, I'm pretty happy that Uwe did well! Heard a lot of stuff about his voice deteriorating and all, so much as I like his Death from boots, I was ambivalent about him being cast. So yeah, nice to know he did a good job. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-05 01:54 pm (UTC)Oooh, that's what I forgot. Need to add angel bit to the review.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 06:18 pm (UTC)Again, thank you very much for filling us in. Been searching for a decent review all over the place. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 06:32 pm (UTC)Actually, I'm just back from Budapest (here's the review/rave), and if you haven't seen it there - it's so worth going. Mind you, they won't be playing it again until November, but it's worth the wait. The casts and energy are stunning.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 06:50 pm (UTC)(Mind if I friend you, by the way? I've really been out of the loop re: musicals and bootleg trades lately.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 07:07 pm (UTC)And surely :) I'll friend back, if you don't mind. I mostly babble about musicals nowadays.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 08:09 pm (UTC)Reuploaded my trading list, in case you want anything. (I've received most of the stuff in the "Coming Soon" section by now, I just haven't updated this thing in aaaages.)
And surely :) I'll friend back, if you don't mind. I mostly babble about musicals nowadays.
Bwee. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 08:19 pm (UTC)And oooh. I'd love the Barcelona Sweeney Todd DVD, and the Blood Brothers one :) My list is at http://www.freewebs.com/vonkrolock/ - e-mail me at the address therein. (And let me know if you don't see things you like. Got about a dozen DVDs lying around unlisted yet.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-02 08:39 pm (UTC)Which Blood Brothers -- Kiki Dee, or Sarah Hay? Still looking through your list, which is very yummy, by the way. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-03 04:52 am (UTC)And let's make it Kiki Dee :) I like proshots. And the Kaho Shimada CD, I didn't see it before!
(Mind you, I'll probably have no time to copy DVDs for a week and a half. Work is hell at the moment.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 05:39 am (UTC)(frozen) Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 01:05 pm (UTC)Beside the fact, that he is one of the only cast members who has constistent singing skills, the most beautiful voice, and is always overperforming.
Franz Joseph neither was a man of great feelings, nor could he show them.
I was a colourless man of the system, never got the chance to express himself.
Therefore, he cannot be played emotional or charming, he simply wasn't like this.
Markus Pol seems to have studied him a lot and really made him reborn.
Keep this in mind, when you are watching "Elisabeth" again.
By the way, no Botox in his face, for god sake he is putting his emphasis on the voice, not on his face ;-)
(frozen) Re: Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 01:19 pm (UTC)(frozen) Re: Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 02:10 pm (UTC)(frozen) Re: Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 02:11 pm (UTC)(frozen) Re: Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 04:42 pm (UTC)(frozen) Re: Franz Joseph/Markus Pol
Date: 2009-11-27 05:02 pm (UTC)If you could, I'd rather not have any further communication. I'll freeze this thread.