(Untitled)

[fwibble]

I go off on holiday in a day and a half. So, of course, I'm online, pottering about on the interwebs, and thanks to some encouragement from the Takarazuka community and plenty of nudging (and quite a lot of debating about meaning, symbolism and culture) from bwinter, I've put together an essay about Elisabeth, the musical

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

Thank you for sharing this essay! It's got a lot of fascinating information about the various productions, and I look forward to being able to settle in and rereading it more carefully.

[fyrie]

Glad to provide :)

[princessmarly]

Thanks for sharing this,i really enjoyed reading it.

[fyrie]

Thanks :)

[palais]

This is a fantastic essay. Thank you so much for sharing this information with us!

[fyrie]

I'm glad you liked it :)

[dinhu_4ever]

Wow! That was an impressive work! It's really nice of you to share it with us, it sure shed some light over the differences between the international versions of the show and, as fan of the original musical myself, it sure enlighted a series of subtlenesses of the musical. Thank you so much and congratulations =]

[fyrie]

I'm glad to share it :) It's nice to have people who appreciate it as well :)

[amelia_petkova]

Such an interesting essay! My exposure to Elisabeth so far has mostly been Vienna productions and a couple songs from the Takarazuka. I was so fascinated to see how different cultures interpret the musical. Some things I hadn't put much thought into (ex. the amount of historical context involved depending on how much the country staging the production was related to it) but when you pointed it out I immediately went, "Yes, that's it!" I think the part that still amazes me most is that a musical about an iconic Austrian/Hungarian figure has been taken to heart in Japan, a country so incredibly different from the others.

At the bookstore in March, we had a display table for Women's History Month. Among the other books was a slim one titled Doomed Queens, a chronological look at how queens across the world met their end starting in the ancient world and continuing through Princess Diana. Elisabeth was included of course, and the author (I believe her name is Anna Wahlberg) made a point of mentioning her continuous fascination with

[fyrie]

Elisabeth was crazy for death - she used to go on about how the spirit of the dead Heinrich Heine kept trying to possess her, but she fought him off. I wonder where Kunze got his symbolism for grabby Heine-like Death... ;D

[valancystar]

Elisabeth's poetry was certainly a major source of inspiration/information for Kunze.

[fyrie]

Yupyup :) Mentioned that in the Vienna bit :) I love the Q&A on his website. He's so patient with people and seems to answer every question.