DVDs: I Belong to Me
The musical Dance of the Vampires was a Broadway disaster. But it has long been a huge success in Germany, where it continues to play to this day. An even bigger German-language pop-opera hit is Elisabeth.
It premiered at Vienna's venerable Theater an der Wien in the fall of 1992, and remained there through 1998. Directed by distinguished opera stager Harry Kupfer, the show made stars of its original trio of leads, Pia Douwes, Uwe Kroger, and Ethan Freeman. Elisabeth was revived at the same venue in 2003, for a run of two years. But that tells only a part of the story, as Elisabeth has also been a roaring success in Hungary, Japan, Germany, Holland, and Sweden.
The music for the all-sung show is by Sylvester Levay, the words by Michael Kunze, the latter the lyricist-librettist of Dance of the Vampires as well as the German translator of many of the big musical hits from England and the U.S. Kunze and Levay are currently working on a musical version of the novel Rebecca.
Elisabeth tells the real-life story of the celebrated title character 1837-1898, who, at the age of sixteen, married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and became Empress Elisabeth of Austria and later Queen of Hungary. The Princess Diana of her day, Elisabeth was a free spirit who felt restricted by royal regimens. She clashed with her mother-in-law, who took over the raising of Elisabeth's children. Her son Rudolf killed himself and his wife, a story told in a couple of films called Mayerling. Elisabeth's troubled reign ended when she was stabbed to death by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni, another of the musical's principal characters.
Elisabeth bears similarities to other musicals, most notably Evita and Kiss of the Spider Woman. As in the former, the focus is on a controversial but legendary female political figure. And both Elisabeth and Evita feature a cynical narrator, in Evita Che, in Elisabeth the assassin Lucheni. Like Spider Woman, one of the principal characters in Elisabeth represents death. In addition to Elisabeth and Lucheni, the third leading role in Elisabeth is Der Tod Death, an insinuating, androgynous figure who trails the heroine and other characters, simultaneously attracting and repelling Elisabeth until their ultimate embrace.
Elisabeth has had a slew of cast CDs, including a tenth-anniversary Vienna concert. And there have been several videos and DVDs of the Japanese productions some of them with all-female casts. At last, the original Viennese Kupfer staging, along with the original sets, costumes and Dennis Callahan choreography, has been preserved on a new DVD, which offers a live taping of the revival at Theater an der Wien, shot by seven cameras in October, 2005.
Given the popularity of original Vienna Elisabeth stars Douwes, Kroger, and Freeman, it would have been nice to have their performances preserved here. Douwes even repeated the title role in Holland and Germany. But as is often the case with show videos, it was the latest cast that got preserved. The title role is in good hands, though, as it is taken by Maya Hakvoort, who began playing Elisabeth in 1994 in the first Viennese production. Her co-stars here are all fine, especially Serkan Kaya as Lucheni.
Full of stylistic anachronisms and imaginative touches, Kupfer's production is an eye-popper. The score ranges from Dance of the Vampires-style rock to some lovely, lyrical melodies, most notably the final duet between Elisabeth and Franz Joseph. And Elisabeth boasts a big, recurring, take-home pop anthem for the title character, "Ich gehor nur mir" I Belong to Me.
There are no bonus features on the DVD, which features one act on each side, runs 140 minutes, and is in European PAL video format. Although there are no English subtitles on the DVD, the accompanying booklet contains a lengthy English-language synopsis. With any number of vastly inferior European pop musicals having found their way onto DVD in recent years, it makes sense that one of the better examples, and certainly one of the most acclaimed and successful, has finally received this visual documentation. Elisabeth is grandly preserved here, and this DVD should make the show's international fan clubs happy indeed.
A final note: It was recently announced that Frank Wildhorn's new musical Rudolf-The Last Kiss, the story of Elisabeth's son and his relationships with his wife and mistress, will premiere in May in Budapest, then go on to Vienna. It will be interesting to see the reception of a show that's bound to be viewed as a sequel to Elisabeth.