Recent musical material
May. 30th, 2008 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterI went to see Phantom of the Opera again on Tuesday. What can I say? It's the only decent show in town :P Thankfully I don't have any more tickets until July 19th, and in the meantime I'll have Beauty and the Beast in Gdynia and too much Tanz and Elisabeth in Budapest. And this time around, I got to see the one Christine I had not seen yet.
Kaja Mianowana was a controversial casting choice at audition time - she's a stage debutante, she's 18, and unlike the other stage-debutante-18 Christine (Paulina), she has not been singing opera from the cradle on up. I was trying to catch her on, but with the way tickets are going, you have to buy them way before casts are announced. I saw Paulina once (extremely strong and feminist Christine with a Pia Douwes-like soprano) and Edyta twice (typical girly Christine with a sweet voice). The only complaints I had was that neither of them could manage low notes extremely well, but then again, they were good.
Then I saw Kaja, and wow. Think a young, Slavic Kristin Chenoweth - a tiny, extremely pretty bundle with a voice that can blow the roof off and an attitude to match. Her Christine is close to Buffy the Vampire Slayer at her more haunted, strong and feminine and brave. And oh, she can both hit those low notes in Phantom and do the Think of Me end notes, and she's good.
And hey, it didn't hurt that while Damian was Phantom again, he's worked a lot on his role and finally admitted you have to do it vampire-style to do it well :> The madness was a noble one this time, the gestures elegant, the fury controlled and stylish. Autistic Erik was nowhere to be seen, and this actually let his (gorgeous) voice show all the more.
And Marcin as Raoul, and while he obviously gets along splendidly with Kaja, boy's going to damage someone one of those days if he doesn't hold that temper. Or himself, because he managed to strangle himself with the noose :D It took Kaja a good minute to rouse him, and he exited the stage at a crawl, on all fours.
(Rest of the cast was phoning it in, but hey, who cares :P)
Let's just say I love getting packages from Japan ;)
The production of Dracula in Graz is notable for being both the first to successfully produce an official cast recording, and for the gorgeous commercial-quality proshot I now have the pleasure of owning. While I remain unimpressed with the musical (pacing suffers, and the music is not to my liking) and the sets are forgettable, the cast is stellar. Thomas Borchert wears his own curly hair as Dracula and is neither bored with the role nor shouting, which is rare. The girls (Lyn Liechty and Caroline Vasicek) are lovely and try actual acting. Lucy's harem (Lucius Wolter, Robert D Marx and Rory Six) are a great match, especially since they're all tall, dark and handsome.
And then we have Indiana Van Helsing (a scruffy, believably half-crazed Uwe Kröger) and the best Jonathan ever, Jesper Tydén. The latter especially is a treat, as much because of his voice and acting - he's in my top ten of favourites in the German scene - as because of the scene with the Brides ;) I approve of shirtless men in general, especially shirtless men who look like that, and really, the only reason the whole scene passes decency tests is because he and the most adventurous of the Brides are married.
The other items in the package were all shinjin koen (understudy day performances) for three Takarazuka productions of Elisabeth. In Takarazuka, those shinjin koen are the only days the understudies get to perform, and their energy and eagerness are a wonder to behold. Now that I've completed my collection of Takarazuka Elisabeth productions (6 so far, plus the 10th anniversary concert), I think completing the shinjin koen is next on my list.
The first shinin koen I have is the Snow 1996 production. It's my first Takarazuka bootleg - quite well-shot for its age - and it's almost as good as the main production. Aran Kei is a predatory, sharp Death, and it was a wonder to see a young Mirai Yuuki as Sophie - she ended up playing the role in the main cast of the 2007 production. The Moon 2005 shinjin koen is a Sky Stage proshot, and the most attractive feature is Ayana Oto's homicidal, Renfield-like Lucheni. And I can really, really tell Aoki Izumi, the Death understudy, has seen Yuichiro Yamaguchi as Death a few times too many ;)
(I also have the Flower shinjin koen, but I haven't watched it yet. I still have 3 to obtain, including the very rare Star 1997 one with Ayaki Nao as Death. Mind you, I adore Saeko. Therefore, I want.)
Kaja Mianowana was a controversial casting choice at audition time - she's a stage debutante, she's 18, and unlike the other stage-debutante-18 Christine (Paulina), she has not been singing opera from the cradle on up. I was trying to catch her on, but with the way tickets are going, you have to buy them way before casts are announced. I saw Paulina once (extremely strong and feminist Christine with a Pia Douwes-like soprano) and Edyta twice (typical girly Christine with a sweet voice). The only complaints I had was that neither of them could manage low notes extremely well, but then again, they were good.
Then I saw Kaja, and wow. Think a young, Slavic Kristin Chenoweth - a tiny, extremely pretty bundle with a voice that can blow the roof off and an attitude to match. Her Christine is close to Buffy the Vampire Slayer at her more haunted, strong and feminine and brave. And oh, she can both hit those low notes in Phantom and do the Think of Me end notes, and she's good.
And hey, it didn't hurt that while Damian was Phantom again, he's worked a lot on his role and finally admitted you have to do it vampire-style to do it well :> The madness was a noble one this time, the gestures elegant, the fury controlled and stylish. Autistic Erik was nowhere to be seen, and this actually let his (gorgeous) voice show all the more.
And Marcin as Raoul, and while he obviously gets along splendidly with Kaja, boy's going to damage someone one of those days if he doesn't hold that temper. Or himself, because he managed to strangle himself with the noose :D It took Kaja a good minute to rouse him, and he exited the stage at a crawl, on all fours.
(Rest of the cast was phoning it in, but hey, who cares :P)
Let's just say I love getting packages from Japan ;)
The production of Dracula in Graz is notable for being both the first to successfully produce an official cast recording, and for the gorgeous commercial-quality proshot I now have the pleasure of owning. While I remain unimpressed with the musical (pacing suffers, and the music is not to my liking) and the sets are forgettable, the cast is stellar. Thomas Borchert wears his own curly hair as Dracula and is neither bored with the role nor shouting, which is rare. The girls (Lyn Liechty and Caroline Vasicek) are lovely and try actual acting. Lucy's harem (Lucius Wolter, Robert D Marx and Rory Six) are a great match, especially since they're all tall, dark and handsome.
And then we have Indiana Van Helsing (a scruffy, believably half-crazed Uwe Kröger) and the best Jonathan ever, Jesper Tydén. The latter especially is a treat, as much because of his voice and acting - he's in my top ten of favourites in the German scene - as because of the scene with the Brides ;) I approve of shirtless men in general, especially shirtless men who look like that, and really, the only reason the whole scene passes decency tests is because he and the most adventurous of the Brides are married.
The other items in the package were all shinjin koen (understudy day performances) for three Takarazuka productions of Elisabeth. In Takarazuka, those shinjin koen are the only days the understudies get to perform, and their energy and eagerness are a wonder to behold. Now that I've completed my collection of Takarazuka Elisabeth productions (6 so far, plus the 10th anniversary concert), I think completing the shinjin koen is next on my list.
The first shinin koen I have is the Snow 1996 production. It's my first Takarazuka bootleg - quite well-shot for its age - and it's almost as good as the main production. Aran Kei is a predatory, sharp Death, and it was a wonder to see a young Mirai Yuuki as Sophie - she ended up playing the role in the main cast of the 2007 production. The Moon 2005 shinjin koen is a Sky Stage proshot, and the most attractive feature is Ayana Oto's homicidal, Renfield-like Lucheni. And I can really, really tell Aoki Izumi, the Death understudy, has seen Yuichiro Yamaguchi as Death a few times too many ;)
(I also have the Flower shinjin koen, but I haven't watched it yet. I still have 3 to obtain, including the very rare Star 1997 one with Ayaki Nao as Death. Mind you, I adore Saeko. Therefore, I want.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-30 12:53 pm (UTC)The crossovers just beg to keep on being written. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-30 01:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 02:41 am (UTC)Erik: Looks for a young woman to be his Angel of Music.
These two need to get together and talk shop.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 05:54 pm (UTC)I adore music from Wildhorn's Dracula, Mina&Dracula's duets, "Je laenger ich leb" (especially in Borchert's interpretation)- I can listen them for hours.
As for scene with Brides... interesting, how they did Jonathan's shirt which was teared every evening ;)