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Elisabeth in Budapest, with pictures!
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!
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!
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