liaku | Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays. And etc. Now back to my usual rambling.

So I've had the official Elisabeth Essen recording for forever, and I've never really listened to it until the plane ride back home from school just a week ago. It's pretty badass. Carsten Lepper usually annoys me half to death, and Uwe almost never gets any reaction out of me at all (and nothing in this case is a very bad thing), but I actually like both of them in this recording. There's just this lovely presence Uwe has, an aura of command and a subtler longing for Elisabeth. I love it. He still doesn't come near the expression of my favorite Deaths, but it's still a lovely recording in its own right. That, and Jesper owns every other Rudolf except possibly Szabó Dávid. (Yes, I had a brief obsession with Oliver Arno. It is over now. ...Mostly over, anyway.)

In other news, I finally went through some of the music I've been downloading over the semester, and I listened to Felix Martin singing Die Unstillbare Gier in English for the first time. On one hand, it's really nice to hear the lyrics in English sung by anyone that's not Michael Crawford. On the other hand, that was English???? I kid, I kid. After a few seconds of adjusting to his accent, it's a great recording of the song--provided you can adjust to his accent at all, that is.

And to repeat some old news: Rob Fowler is my favorite Simon Zealotes for Jesus Christ Superstar. Bar none.

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The first time I heard Carsten was on DVD, and he was godawful in that one though I have another DVD of him where he's passably good, but for the most part, I can't watch/listen to anything with him as Lucheni without playing a round of Serkan Kaya or Tamas Szaraz afterward. At least I don't want to start crying when I hear Carsten in the official recording, which is certainly a huge step up from usual.

I don't like Uwe in the original Wien production (recording included, though I admit he sounds fantastic there), but I usually find him okay in Essen. I feel like his der Tod shows a bit more personality in Essen, and that gives him a bit more presence and charisma that I think der Tod really needs. I actually haven't listened much to the more recent recordings of him, but I remember wincing through a Berlin recording of him with Annemieke, which was a damn shame because Annemieke was amazing and the audio quality was phenomenal. I could certainly hear note he mangled crystal clear. I'm a little nervous about him playing Taafe. I'm not sure he's up to the vocal acrobatics that'll take. :(

(I've actually only seen and heard a tiny bit of Olegg, mostly in a really poor quality of him with Annemieke in Stuttgart. I've no opinion of the guy, but it seems like everyone I talk to does, and the opinion is universally negative. Sometimes I'm almost curious enough to go trading for that DVD of Stuttgart's final performance. :P)

Doesn't he, though? Those two are my favourites by a long shot. *loves*

The funny thing was that I totally didn't expect to like Szabó Dávid because I'm not a fan of Dolhai Attila's Rudolf, and I figured they'd try to cast someone roughly similar. When I first heard him singing Die Schatten Werden Länger (whatever it's called in Hungarian) with Máté, it was such a lovely surprise.

(I think there still isn't a fandom consensus on the second line of The Final Dance.)

I think it's tragedy myself. Given Felix's "Der letzte tjanz", I don't think he'd have any trouble with the ch sound in treachery. Then again... I don't see how he could turn "tragedy" into "treasury" either. I guess it'll forever be a mystery to fandom. *sigh*

Well, yeah, Carsten is much less annoying on the CD than on DVDs. His Milch is actually not too bad, though I like other Luchenis better.

I have trouble deciding if I like Uwe more in Vienna or in Essen. In Essen he doesn't have the stupid hair and catwalk, but there I find he poses a bit too much instead of acting. But he has a wonderful way with Jesper's Rudolf there.

Oh, and I love Annemieke, by the way. I haven't seen and heard much with her, but I've been very impressed by her. Yay for getting someone new who's good.

I'm a little nervous about him playing Taafe. I'm not sure he's up to the vocal acrobatics that'll take. :(

Let's say that when I heard Uwe was going to be Taaffe, I spent several days raging about that at every opportunity, then I wrote this and found peace. Now I mostly treat the idea with mere scorn instead of rage. :P But I'm determined to see Rudolf in Budapest before Vienna so that the first thing I hear live of Taaffe's songs won't be the disaster Uwe's voice will make of them.

I've only listened to Olegg on the Stuttgart CD and watched a few video clips, but that's been enough to make him the only Death I ever hated. There's just something incredibly off-putting about his performance and I absolutely can't stand him. On video, live and on recordings, I've experienced around 20 different Deaths, and I like all of them in one way or another, except Olegg. That's something of an achievement. :P Him and Maike deserve each other, though...

I had the fortune of seeing Dávid as Rudolf twice. I walked in theatre knowing nothing of him, and came out with him as my favourite Rudolf. And I'm very picky about Rudolfs. He has that right mixture of fragility and mental imbalance with enough intelligence and spine that you can see what he's talking about with him and Sisi being similar. And he has ever so delicious chemistry with Death. I've only seen him with Szilveszter, not with Máté, but I was very impressed by their chemistry together. I'm a bit of a fangirl of Dávid's now. Though I wonder how it will be to see him as Mercutio, because nobody can compare to Zoli.

I think I've never managed to decide if it's "treachery" or "tragedy" but it sounds like "treasury" or possibly "tragédie" à la francaise. :P I'm not positive it's a good idea to give English texts for Felix to sing. I like him, but he should stick to German. But well, at least it's entertaining!

Annemieke is just lovely. I adore her Elisabeth, though I do think she's missing a little something in Act II, but I think she's definitely gotten better. My earliest recording of her Elisabeth is really poor quality, but I wasn't too impressed then (though I mostly listened to Wenn Ich Tanzen Will and Die Schleier Fällt, so it might've been Olegg dragging her down), but she was great at Berlin, and as far as I can tell from recordings, she's doing even better now on tour.

Let's say that when I heard Uwe was going to be Taaffe, I spent several days raging about that at every opportunity, then I wrote this and found peace.

I read that, and I cackled with glee. The Roseanne bit did it for me. I thought he sounded fine as Van Hellsing, but his awkward gestures still leave me a bit confused. I'm trying to keep an open mind about him in Rudolf myself. He probably could've done the part alright about 10 years ago, but I think his golden era's come and gone. ...And he really needs to stop showing up every other musical ever. I'd like to hear someone else in my cast recordings. >.>

Though I wonder how it will be to see him as Mercutio, because nobody can compare to Zoli.

That I'd love to see. I haven't ever seen RésJ live, and I think it'd blow my mind if I ever did--in a good way, of course. Sadly, I'm not sure if I've got time for a trip to Budapest over the summer anymore. It looks like I'll be going back to China in May and then spending most of August in England, so I'm not sure I'll have the money for another trip.

I'm not positive it's a good idea to give English texts for Felix to sing.

Someone may need to tell Felix himself that. :P

I found Uwe's singing rather painful as Van Helsing as well. Though on the recording they managed to mix him so that he sounded tolerable. But on a whole, his voice has gone to hell in the past few years. A while ago I listened to some older stuff with him and remembered why I used to like him; he did use to be nice to listen to, even if he never had much of a singing technique. But he's just awful nowadays, he can't hit his notes right and sounds really harsh and shrill most of the time. I just can't fathom how he's going to sound tolerable as Taaffe. He's bad enough in the press conference clip, and the way he's singing it, you can tell he's forcing out his voice because that's the only way he can try to project the required power, and that's going to destroy his voice. I mean, if it doesn't go like this I'll be glad, but having watched how he's been over the past few years, I don't see how it's going to be anything else.

Of course, it doesn't help that the first time I actually heard Uwe live in anything was the infamous Musical Forever concert where he was so bad the CD production company had to take a couple of extra months to remove any trace of him on the CD before it could be released.

A pity if you can't come to Budapest in the near future, that'd be fun. Though I guess Rómeó és Júlia will play there for quite some time yet. I wonder for how much longer Attila is going to play Romeo. His fans will riot if he doesn't, of course, but at some point he might start to seem too old for the part?

Merry Christmas

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