Marie Antoinette

[liaku]

What pisses me off most about the Bremen Marie Antoinette recording is that Weil Ich Besser Bin is such an awful song to listen to, but composition-wise, I think it's the best song on the recording.  Thomas Christ singlehandedly makes it boring as hell.  I'm actually impressed by how badly he sings it.  I almost think I could do a better rendition with the right equalizer settings, and if I think I can do better, it's a pretty damn bad performance since I can't sing for shit.  That being said, I don't really like Blind vom Licht, but it's so catchy!  I've found myself humming it lately.  In general though, I'm not too excited about this musical.  I don't think it's an Elisabeth rip-off at all; I mean, you can tell it's the same composer since the instrumentation is often similar, but certainly no one was criticizing Beethoven or Mozart for not varying their composition styles too much over their career.  I just think it's boring and the themes rather scattered--but good sets, costuming, choreography, etc can all salvage my opinion of it easily.  Also, my German is possibly worse than my Japanese, so I really have a hard time figuring out what's going on, so that might be part of why I don't like it very much.

My German is so not worse than my Japanese.  I hope.

State of the Blogger: Barnard application complete, NYU app almost complete minus one particularly stupid short answer question--but common essay needs an extra round of editing.  Part I of Columbia application sent, application fee paid.  All other essays untouched as of now.  List and Space Cowboys untouched because I suck like that.

Comments

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agreed about Weil ich besser bin. It's amazing how badly he manages to perform it. As soon as I heard it, I started imagining someone else singing it (say, Thomas Borchert, Homonnay Zsolt, maybe even Szilveszter though I'm not sure how he'd do vocally) and went "you know, this'd be a really good song if someone else performed it, but as he does it, it's awful".

I mean, you can tell it's the same composer since the instrumentation is often similar, but certainly no one was criticizing Beethoven or Mozart for not varying their composition styles too much over their career.

Yeah. You can like or not like the music - I happen to enjoy it and find it very beautiful, but I can understand if it's not something that appeals to everyone. It lacks a certain thing that Levay's other scores have, though right now I can't explain what. But I don't get people saying it's copying Elisabeth. It's just the composer's style, surely everyone's allowed to have their own style. At least Levay isn't putting variations of the same song into every musical like Wildhorn. :P (And I say this as a Wildhorn fan.)

[liaku.livejournal.com]

I'm really hoping Thomas Christ is just really bad in the studio and gives a kickass live performance, because that song deserves it.

Off the top of my head, the things it lacks: 1) sick harmonies, I absolutely love the subtleties and harmonies in Levay's work, but Marie Antoinette is very straightforward, probably in mimicry of the music from that era, 2) There's very little build up in these songs, no sort of high climax (most dramatic example of this is probably Wie Wird Man Seinen Schatten Los) or musically dramatic moment, and 3) electric guitar. I also think on this recording there's an overuse of ensemble, not that the ensemble isn't great or anything.

I had heard that Marie Antoinette was an Elisabeth rip-off before I got the recording, and I'd never listened to the Japanese version. Honestly, I think some people need to get their ears checked. Alternatively, they can take a music theory class, but while there's plenty of Levay's typical hallmarks in it, it doesn't sound like Elisabeth at all to me.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

I also miss the three things you mentioned - I love the combination of rock-type and more classical musical music in Levay's earlier scores and I do wish this had some of that. Maybe they thought it didn't fit the era/characters, but I could have done with some revolutionary songs with electric guitar etc. Still, there's something about it that I just love, but I can see how it's not everyone's thing.

I kept being so puzzled when people were always calling it an Elisabeth copy and saying that Gefühl und Verstand is a copy of Wenn ich tanzen will. I don't think anyone would say that without the demo version floating around where Uwe and Pia sing it with Wenn ich tanzen will-ish lyrics.

[solyndra.livejournal.com]

Weil Ich Besser Bin.. yes, what's there to say. =P The lyrics make me laugh, the composition is okay, the singer makes me laugh as well (I mean, Thomas Christ is some sort of satanic band on Last.fm, I nearly died), the singing is awful..
I love Blind vom Licht though. Sabrina sings it so well, and it just moves me. o_O

Congrats on all the essays :D

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the lyrics are a bit... um, not on Kunze's usual level. He goes for too facile rhymes that end up sounding silly. I'd love the music if it was sung by a better performer, though.

I loved Blind vom Licht even in Japanese, and it's hard to get me into songs in Japanese because I don't understand a word and don't like the sound of the language or their singing styles. The way Sabrina sings it, I've found myself almost in tears in a crowded Budapest subway (admittedly, I'm a huge big sap).

[solyndra.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there. The character in itself has an incredibly annoying attitude, but these lyrics just make him laughable. I'm not sure that's what he was going for..
But it's this awesome egocentric song that must be awesome for your self-confidence if you have to perform it and everyone accepts it xD Too bad this Thomas doesn't quite get what he should do (or could do) with a song like this.

I know what you mean about the Japanese language. I used to listen to quite a lot of music, but it continuously pissed me off because I didn't know what it was about. It's such an energetic language. I don't know how to describe it otherwise. There's more life to it than to Dutch, so it seems, but maybe it's because of the people. Whatever it is, it tends to get on my nerves after listening for too long.
It moves me to tears too. And then I heard the reprise thing/Jenseits aller Schmerzen and I really lost it. Besides, the only song I really like is Das Einzige Was Wichtig Ist. Except for those songs, the recording is a bit meh. =P (What is Still, Still doing on the cast recording for example? I don't get it. There must have been better songs. Or at least more interesting ones..)

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

The character's supposed to be an antagonist, but I think with these lyrics he comes across as way two-dimensional and rather silly. Still, a good actor could salvage a lot. Think Borchert - he's used to bad lyrics with Wildhorn, after all. :P

Yeah, I love Jenseits alle Schmerzen, too. But I actually love most of the music. It's not one of Levay's best scores on a whole, but there's just some subtle, often dreamlike beauty about it that I adore. I can see how it doesn't appeal to everyone, though. One of my favourites is "Wenn (Maskenspiel)" because of this dreamlikeness. I like "Still, still" but it does sound a lot like a lullaby.

[solyndra.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who the character is, actually. =P The cast recording doesn't give me a good introduction.

The dreamlike beauty is what I love about it too. It's like a calm, relaxing journey. It's just that I don't feel there are a lot of songs that really stand out, and I think there could have been more.
Wenn (Maskenspiel) is quite nice, but I can't figure out who's exactly singing what. (Or maybe I'm not paying enough attention, another good possibility.) It'll probably be loved much more by me once I've figured that out.
And yes, it is quite like a lullaby. It makes me sleepy.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

At some point there were character descriptions on the DramaMusicals website, but not now, I think. There's a synopsis though, have you checked that out? It might help you figure out what's going on. Anyway, Orléans is a relative of the King's who joins the revolutionary cause for advancement of his own ambitions (that's the musical's take on his motives anyway, I don't remember enough of the historical character to say).

It took me a while to learn who's singing what in Wenn, but now I can follow it. Takes a bit of listening to tell everyone's voices apart because they all sing in such a dreamlike way. I think it starts with Antoinette and Fersen, and then moves on to Margrid and Orléans, but then I lose track a bit. :P

[solyndra.livejournal.com]

I've never found character descriptions, but I've read the synopsis. I sort of know where to place the songs, me thinks. Whether it's correct is another thing. xD
Hm, okay. =P; He does sound quite flat in the musical then..

Haha, that's what I had too. XD