Elisabeth in Budapest, with pictures!

[winter]

Where to start? I saw four excellent shows, two each of Tanz der Vampire (Vámpirok Báljá) and Elisabeth. I saw them with roughly the same casts. In the case of Tanz, it was the first cast, which I've seen many times and have reviewed extensively. In the case of Elisabeth, while comments from the last time still apply, there was one notable exception. One muscular, blond, Hungarian exception with a rockstar voice and a charisma bigger than the stage.

After two years of fangirling the man, I have finally seen Máté Kamarás in person. And now I really understand the Japanese fangirls who travelled all the way to Budapest to see him. The man is that good.


Máté has been performing as Death for ten years in Budapest, Miskolc, Vienna and Osaka, and I've seen DVDs of every stage of his development of the character, from the jumpy little innocent demon to the growling grinning devil that groped everything that came too near.

This time, he was Krolock as a Death - his Krolock, a grown, fey, prophetic Herbert, half-mad with his own power and knowledge. The coat became a cloak, Vienna a gothic castle. There was no doubt about who owned this particular stage, though Elisabeth and Lucheni did their best to keep up.

And the git can't sing three notes straight without putting in ornamentation. He played with his voice the way he played the audience, demonstrating without fail that a two-year sabbatical to sing rock hasn't made him damage it. The way he ended the first-act Schatten werden länger on Saturday, there were a full 10 seconds of silence before anyone recovered breath enough to applaud.

The rest of the cast, of course, was stellar. I had Támas Száraz twice as Lucheni, and he remains bouncy as ever. Or I hope so, because on Sunday, Máté slammed him to the floor so hard, he stayed down until the end of Alptraum ;) Those two seem to be getting along, since I'm pretty sure I also saw Máté goose him at the Saturday curtain calls...

Nikolett Füredi was Elisabeth on Saturday, and Bernadett Vágó on Sunday. I still prefer Bernadett for the sake of her acting intensity. She's an adorable young Sisi, and a great, imperious older one, definitely in my top five. She also had better chemistry with both Máté and Franz-Joseph, which left her predictably suffering in Letzte Tanz - if she doesn't have bruises all over her arm, waist and backside, I will be very surprised.

Attila Dolhai makes a lovely, intense Rudolf, but also an immensely angry one. His charisma shines, and it made for a very interesting Schatten on Saturday. First time I saw Death and Rudolf trying to out-do and out-shout each other quite that much ;) It was clear that while Máté enjoyed it (and pwning the stage in the subsequent conspiracy scene), he prefers groping Dávid Szabó. Who gives in gracefully, both to Máté and to the angels who got in a good few gropes. The kiss in Mayerling was something to behold. Not quite the full fifteen seconds, but a good attempt.

And Ádám Bálint still breaks my heart. His Franz-Joseph is strong and intense, but it's Boote in der Nacht that kills me every time, his devotion and frailty. It was worth suffering through Markus Pol butchering this scene in Berlin to remember why it can be good enough to make me cry.

It's not been two months since Elisabeth in Berlin, and the other show is still fresh in my mind. And honestly, they do it So Much Better in Budapest. There is interaction between characters! Everyone has a stellar voice and uses it! In crowd scenes, everyone knows their motivation and plays a role! Lucheni can jump higher than his head!

And then there is Máté, who is in a class of his own. Up to and including the clueless timid smiles at the curtain calls, as if he cannot believe everyone's on their feet and yelling for him. (I have a feeling he might be short-sighted and not wearing contacts this time. It looked like he couldn't see more than three metres to either side.)

And on top of all that, I've finally figured out how to get photos of actors in costume. Curtain calls!

Comments

[alice_montrose]

Now I see what you meant by "bucket of glitter". At least this style of make-up suits him better than the ones I saw of earlier versions on Youtube. XD

[winter]

fyrie says this is much less glitter than when she saw him in April ;) I've a feeling he got makeup tips in Japan, since the Takarazuka girls all do their own...

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Máté looks pretty. This look works better on him than the "let's try to make him look like Szilveszter!" look in the promotional pictures.

Dávid appears to be one of those very gropable actor boys in the Jesper Tydén style. Although it would seem Attila is one, too, but perhaps he's mainly so with Szilveszter.

[winter]

I think Mate may have been putting his hands where they shouldn't be ;) The other option is that he's been innocently mentioning ways he dealt with his own weightloss in the last two years, because it looks like Attila's either been overdoing the pancakes, or his body type's just changing with age.

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of musicals like you are but I definitely want to see Mate in person if I could. And that reaction is only from seeing him play Death on a dvd of Elisabeth.

[winter]

I've seen him on a dozen and more DVDs, but I was still stunned. The guy is like a force of nature.

[tokugawa.livejournal.com]

Goodness how did I managed to miss this review, ^_^;;!

Everything sounds good and Bernadett Vágó is also one of my favorite Elisabeth's as well, especially if its either Máté or Szilvester on stage. Pity that they didn't stage "Wenn Ich Tanzen Will" but it was on an official recording(with Kata and Szilvester), and I saw it on some concerts as well.

Now there's a Lucheni I never heard, is he new because all this time I've been used to Foldes a lot being Lucheni.

All and all not bad, glad you had a great time.

[winter]

I've even seen clips of Mate in the new production, in costume and with everyone else on stage, doing Wenn Ich Tanzen Will :( They've got a perfect setup for it, with Death appearing behind Elisabeth and everyone starting to dance a bit zombie-like (the way they do in Letzte Tanz), then they just turn the stage and go into Mama Wo Bist Du.

Száraz is lovely :D He's very intense, wicked, and he bounces! He's second Lucheni in this production, but in the June run, he was doing all the performances. I saw Földes as well in the winter, but he looked... tired, I guess. Száraz sings almost equally well and has more fun with the role :)

[b-a-n-s-h-e-e.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the awesome photos!

[winter]

I finally clued in to the fact I've got a camera that takes good zoomed-in photos without flash ;) Especially since I was fourth-row for Elisabeth and third-row for Tanz.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I adore your commentary on Elisabeth and Tanz.

[winter]

Glad to oblige :>

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

that;s it, I am taking Shad to Budabest! XD

[winter]

A highly approvable endeavour :D I can name half a dozen musicals that are brilliant, and if you catch Mate... rock concert doesn't describe the half of it!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

As soon as I saw that clip of Mate in Die Schatten Werden Langer, I knew there was never gonna be any other Death for me. Okay, admittedly, I love my audio recording of Uwe Kroger too, but, man. Mate's Death just matches right up in that blond badboy trope I worship so much. :D

[winter]

He's electric. And he can't keep his hands from groping everyone and everything within reach :>

And on top of all that, he has those angelic moments, like in the curtain calls, showing a strange, innocent vulnerability. It'd be easy for him to just play himself, but he's a consummate actor, too.

[sepulchralice.livejournal.com]

Oh man, Mate (I fail at typing accented characters, clearly). You so pretty. ♥♥

Thanks for the awesome review! Gah, now I kind of wish I could go to Budapest, the performance sounds like it was really, really good. Someday my wish of seeing Mate live will come true!

[winter]

Hungarian musicals for the win, really :D Especially when I compare it to the Berlin disappointments.

[lucywanabe.livejournal.com]

Oh my god...you have no idea how jealous I am of you right now. I am absolutely in love with both Máté and the Hungarian language (I've loved Máté since he donned the der Tod mantel in the Vienna Revival). I would so, so, SO love to have been in your shoes. :)

[winter]

It was definitely an amazing experience :D It was actually my third time in Budapest hunting him... the first time I was still hoping he'd be Herbert in Vampirok Balja, the second time was during the January run of Elisabeth when he went down with a sore throat. This time, I finally succeeded ;)

(Mind you, I wouldn't mind a photo with him, too. But the hordes of fangirls were scary.)

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

Oh, photos are really pretty! And Mate's costume and make-up looks much better than on photos and videos I have seen. Lovely, lovely :) I have mixed feelings about Hungarian production due to stage design, but if it's so good, and Mate is so excellent... well, you made me want to see it live ;)

[winter]

The stage design looks much better live :) The darkness of most DVDs hides all the details in it.

[kaiserinerzsi.livejournal.com]

Oh the subject of Máté and you tube have you seen the new stage door clips of him? They are completely adorable :)
It's also proof of what you said about the amount of people who go to the stage door for him, he's completely surrounded!

[winter]

Oh yes - those were taken the day I was there, the Sunday :) I saw that crowd as I headed to the railway station!

[angelwolf24.livejournal.com]

I know this was posted months ago but I just now found the link to it in foreignmusicals. I love your review and pics! He is amazing and I would give anything to see him in person.