Jesus Christ Superstar

Yesterday evening, my parents and I popped down to Bristol (not exactly a short journey) to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Bristol Hippodrome. I've only seen the musical live once, in Hungary a while back, and I was rather looking forward to seeing it again.

Jesus Christ Superstar is, in my opinion, a good musical which tells a rather exceptional story which, with insightful direction and a talented cast, can become something great. The cast for last night was exceptional and the design and direction, overall, something rather special.

I must admit that I like Jesus Christ Superstar. As I said above, I feel that the musical itself is not the best show ever. The songs, with a few exceptions, aren't that special. However, it is working with some amazing material - whether you follow the faith or not it's a powerful story - and this musical makes that story accessible, in my opinion for people of all beliefs.The musical doesn't force the audience to accept that Jesus is anything supernatural but allows for that jump to be taken if individuals feel that it fits.  It's the story of human emotions in exceptional circumstances. 

And, that is where the cast were brilliant. Every member succeeded in conveying a rounded character (when called for). Vocally everyone was strong and worked together well with a mixture of tones and vocal textures. The dance parts were impressive, with every member really into it and looking like they relished every moment of being up there performing. There are a couple of the non-lead/chorus cast members that I will be looking up when I have my programme to hand and I will be keeping an eye on where they go next!

The only person who I wasn't 100% struck on was Rachel Adedeji as Mary Magdalene but then I think it takes someone truly out of this world to bring that character to life for me, particularly in the first act. I warmed to Adedeji's performance as Mary's character became more interesting in act two so we'll blame the fact that I don't like Jesus Christ Superstar's Mary Magdalene much rather than the actress. In fact, my parents spoke very highly of Adedeji and using good old youtube I've looked her up and find that I quite like her voice too.

Anyway, I can't speak about every brilliant cast member or I would have to write about each of them in turn so I will focus on the highlights, as agreed by my family!

Seeing Glenn Carter as Jesus was one of the reasons I booked this show. His performance in the 2000 recording was exceptional and became my benchmark for the role. It's a lot to live up to live, and fifteen years on, but Carter managed to do just that. His dedication to the character, and to portraying both emotional and physical anguish, is something rather incredible.

The cast also included the wonderful Cavin Cornwall as Caiphas, something I didn't actually realise until I arrived and bought the programme. Wow, what a voice! The other thing that struck both me and my parents (who both mentioned him as their 'favourite') was just how graceful he was on stage. The character seemed in control, powerful and menacing through the sheer elegance and poise he showed.

Finally, Tim Rogers as Judas was wonderful. It took me a while to warm up to him... but then 'Heaven on Their Minds' seemed a bit out in terms of sound tech so one does wonder. However, Rogers portrayed a Judas who I grew to love. You ever get that feeling where you want to go up and hug a character? Lets just say that his suicide had my mother and I in tears. My dad's a toughie. It was acted exquisitely. And 'The Last Supper' was wonderful with Rogers and Carter playing off against each other vocally in such a way that both were able to showcase their (rather great) abilities.

And while we're talking of great acting we have to mention the intensity of the second act. I joked with my parents that we should leave after act one... before it all goes to pot! I actually don't know how to put the second act into words. It features a couple of distinct scenes of obvious violence - the whipping scene and the crucifixion itself - and each of these scenes are drawn out much longer than is comfortable. There is no gratuitous violence and gore but the emotional reaction of the characters is more than enough. There's no way that an audience can go away untouched from a performance like this.

The curtain call was rather short. The clapping wasn't overly enthusiastic. There was no standing ovation. Walking out into the street I could hear people discussing the performance in a most positive fashion. The truth is that, at the time of the curtain call I think we were all to shell-shocked to actually show our appreciation fully straight afterwards.

I can't get moments of the show out of my head. It was an astounding piece of art. Part of me wants to see it again. Part of me needs to give my emotions some serious time to recover.

Seeing the musical 'Ghost'

Last night, a couple of days before the end of the tour, I finally managed to do something I had desperately wanted to do, see the musical Ghost.

Based on the film of the same name, the musical sees lovers Sam and Molly separated by a seemingly random robbery-shooting in which Sam is killed. While Molly attempts to come to terms with the loss, Sam remains trapped on Earth as a ghost, one of many who walk among us. However, when he discovers that he was in fact the target of the shooting, and that Molly is in danger, Sam attempts to communicate with her with the help of a (not so) phoney psychic, Oda Mae.

The show ran for, I think, just over a year in the West End but it was the Hungarian production that first caught my eye and prompted me to buy the soundtrack (Original cast CD) and I slowly but surely grew to love the songs and particularly their portrayal of the human aspects of love and loss. In fact, my mother and I have ended up in floods of tears while listening to that soundtrack in the kitchen but that's another story.

The UK tour production has some changes from the original production. No doubt there are other changes (as this is the first time I have seen the production, I'm not sure) but the most obvious are a few lyrical changes and a few song changes. "Ball of Wax" is changed to "You Gotta Let Go" and this change is positive, I think. The ghosts are more obviously attempting to help Sam come to terms with things and encouraging this. "I Can't Breathe" is now a reprise of "Unchained Melody", although I think it was to the same tune as "I Can't Breathe" but don't quote me on that. I don't understand what they were trying to do here. I don't see any weakness in the original lyrics and I certainly don't see the point of having the lyrics to "Unchained Melody" here. The other major change came in the form of "Life Turns on a Dime", mainly in Carl's part which was reminiscent of "Here Right Now". Personally, I feel that the original version is better with regards to Carl's characterisation but I don't think it matters, especially if you haven't seen/heard any other versions.

Anyway, moving onto the production itself and the cast. I must admit that during the first few scenes (and my mother said the same thing) I was cringing. It was not good. The cheesy New York accents really detracted from the performance, luckily they got weaker as the play went on, and you couldn't hear a word that was being said because the sound was fuzzy. Actually, that balance was out most of the time and you were lucky if you could hear the soloists over the chorus and/or band. Rebecca Trehearn (Molly) and Stewart Clarke (Sam) sounded positively out of tune during the first number but, to be fair, I think this was down to the tech team more than anything because there was dramatic improvement. By Sam's death the pair I had started to warm to the pair and I think you were more able to empathise and enjoy their stage time. I loved Trehearn's portrayal of the mourning Molly, in particular. Her body language was great.

I think the crowd's favourite had to be Wendy Mae Brown (Oda Mae Brown) who was simply wonderful. She oozed charisma and she owned the stage whenever she was on it. Of course, playing a larger than life character has to help with that but seriously, wow.

Because this 'review' is getting long and rambling enough as it is, I won't go into everyone's performance but the rest of the cast who played named character were excellent (David Robert's Carl was wonderfully nuanced and Stevie Hutchinson really impressed me as the Subway Ghost). The ensemble were also wonderful both vocally and with their dancing!

However, it was the tech that sold the show. As people who know me will know, I have a vision problem that makes projections very uncomfortable and that means that I can't see in 3D at all (along with other things). The projections were painful for me which is in no way the responsibility of anyone to do with the show... However, I could actually see some aspects of the projections partially in 3D which is truly wonderful. That says something about how perfect the design must have been. Similarly, a lot of the tricks and illusions used during the show were things that I knew how to do but even with that knowledge, which should make it easier to spot what's being done, they appeared flawless. To be fair, that part is complimenting both cast and tech but oh well, organisation. The best bit: the illusions and technology use was constant and amazing yet it always added to the show as a whole and never detracted.

I have to mention the sound once again because I really do feel that the actors have had a rough deal in this review because of things that were largely outside of their control. The general balance sounded out and certainly the volume was bizarre. Some songs were painfully loud without there being any reason (I know that sometimes one might want higher volumes to overload senses etc), and the vocals seemed distorted at times when they simply shouldn't have been. The chorus were great but if they were singing at the same time as a soloist there's no way you could hear that soloist. The band was also great but goodness did they overpower the singers. During the interval I heard a lot of people wondering what was going on because they hadn't been able to hear a lot of the words. What a shame.

Complaints about sound aside, perhaps it's the biggest compliment that despite this, everyone seemed to have a really good evening. And, if the amount of sniffing and smudged mascara eyes was anything to go by, the show really managed to connect with the audience even when the missed half the nuance of the script. Their enjoyment must have come mainly from the visual affects and the acting and isn't that the greatest compliment you can give?

Translation: Marie Antoinette Part 5

Sorry for the delay with this but it's finally online.

The exact translation in this video is probably a bit sloppy. I'm really out of practice with German which feels weird. It's almost like my old Elisabeth days when I had to stop and look things up every five minutes. Okay, in my really old Elisabeth days I had to look things up every five seconds but I digress. I was also rushing with this part to attempt to get it online and finished it at three a.m.. It's been three months since I uploaded the last part and, although I have good excuse, I feel really bad about that.

Claudia, a friend of mine from Austria helped me with a line that was causing me real trouble so thank you to her <3

Also, I still can't get accents to render properly on my hard subbing so some words are missing accents. Of course, this doesn't really affect English but this musical does like to chuck in the odd bit of French (translations below).

Anyway, talking about the video:

Axel has this lovely line where he says 'Wir sind freier als die meisten Menschen.' (We're freer than many people). It's a lovely concept. Although they're unhappy he knows that, in comparison, they're lucky and shouldn't complain. Annoyingly, free isn't commonly seen in a comparative fashion, and I'm unsure if technically it can be as you're either free or not. Apparently, there is a word "freer" so that's the one I used.

Maskenspiel is translated as masque not masquerade. A masque is a kind of big entertainment play dance song thing put on by players (within courts). Traditionally, masks would be worn by the players so this is a big metaphorical thing beyond just saying "we wear masks". A masquerade, is a ball at which people wore masks so slight difference :-)

Translations:

Mainly French, again, with a bit of Latin. My Latin is very rusty as I learned it many years ago so may not be accurate. Axel also 'translates it' in the musical. In fact, my French is getting rusty too but that's a complete other story!

Trés jolie, ne c'est pas? - Very pretty, isn't it?

Oui - Yes

Bon soir, Monsieur Orléans! - Good Evening Mr. Orléans!

Palais Royal - Royal Palace

Non! - No

Bien sur. - For sure.

Bien oui - Well yes

S'il vous plaît! - If you please (also means just "please")

Pour le plaisir - For pleasure. (This is kinda creepy in context!)

Dolore Fortiter - Sorrow bravely (Latin)

Quelle que soit - Whatever

Excuse-moi, chéri - Excuse me, dear.

Introducing The Geekling

Of course, if you went to college with me you have no doubt who I'm talking about when I say 'The Geekling'. There is only one Geekling in Exeter and that is this chap:

This photo is about two years old. Haydon might not be talking to
me any more because of my use of it!

Meet Haydon. We were introduced by a mutual friend. She had gone to secondary school with the gent and was also in my history class. Haydon and I didn't share any classes or anything like that but he ended up being one of my closest college friends, poor chap.

Now I haven't seen Haydon in, probably, six months now so the information I give here might be a bit outdated. I mean he was the biggest 'Apple' fan in the world but I believe he's just got rid of an iPhone so something is going drastically wrong there. That said, Haydon has always been the 'go-to' for any technological problems. If he pronounces your computer dead then you might as well dig the grave because it will not survive. Oh, there is one exception that proves the rule. My old Toshiba laptop is going strong about two years after being given the "it's over" prognosis. Mwahaha.

Making a big sacrifice and finishing my dinner as well as his
own to save me the embarrassment of being unable to finish!

So, if this gentleman is such a technological being, how come we get on so well? We have a lot of different interests but we have enough in common that we manage to find something to chat about no matter what. I guess one of the things we really share is our love of music and we've shared music recommendations over the years and just fangirled/boyed over things generally. He's also someone who I have spent many a happy hour with doing things that we both find enjoyable be that going out for lunch so that we can have a catch up chat or going to Torquay to go to the theatre (Spamalot, if you're interested). 

All that said, it's easy to see why I'm friends with Haydon, he has an inexhaustible supply of time and kindness for people around him. From his ability and willingness to listen to any problem to helping out with filming for one of your classes he is there. He's a friend who puts his all into the friendship and who is a genuinely lovely person. Rare those types. Admittedly, his solution to every problem might be a cup of tea but heck, that's mine most of the time too!

Overall, Haydon is a good friend and, more importantly, a good person.

I don't have any recent (or decent) photos so I
kidnapped this one from his facebook. Oops!

Bonus video:

I'm determined that Haydon will play the character singing this song 

(from the musical Le Roi Soleil). It's so him!

Gifts from afar

Okay, okay, Austria's not all that far but all the same when I received a parcel from 'Tascha, who happens to be a brilliant friend of mine, it was still pretty exciting.

'Tascha and I were last together about a year ago when I visited Austria for my eighteenth birthday. She did absolutely everything she could to make it special for me, and succeeded. I was pretty overwhelmed to learn she was sending my something for my birthday this year too and really excited to hear from her in a more personal way than online.

Today, I got my parcel with a beautiful handmade card (which is now sat on my newly tidied desk) and some gifts relating to my favourite things. This made me feel so special that someone thought not only to send me something for my birthday but that they thought through what I would like and, more importantly perhaps, took time and creative energy to make part of the gift for me. I am walking on air because I'm so happy right now.

Thank you Natascha!!

This was about the tenth attempt to photograph me in the hat she sent.
Mother wasn't happy with the others because they showed building work!

Musings over the musical Romeo e Giulietta

Today's been a pretty normal day, well normal for life right now which is anything but normal. 

The morning was spent sleeping, watching trashy television, playing sims, and drinking tea. (Did I mention that my old Sims 2 obsession seems to have returned? I blame lack of actual human company!) Oh, I also made the trip to Asda just to buy a vegetable pizza because, for some reason, they do the best vegetable pizzas around.

When I got in I saw a link to Romeo e Giulietta, the Italian version of the musical Romeó et Juliette by Gérard Presgurvic. Romeó et Juliette being a favourite musical of mine in French and Hungarian I was desperate to give it a go and so I sat down with some iced green tea and started to watch. What follows is a review that is even more disorganised than is my normal style!

Review

Wow. This thing is strange. I will come clean now and say that I don't think that this director is quite to my taste, which means I have a negative view of the performance that others might not share. I eventually managed to settle into the performance a bit more although it never quite worked for me as a whole. My major problems were with the chorus scenes. 'Verona' for example, saw the Prince as a puppeteer and the cast as puppets, a great idea but the choreography just was too bizarre making it seem messy and amateurish. The problem is, this detracted from any other performers onstage and also broke up the atmosphere. Similarly, I had problems with quite a few of the characters but I put this down to the director as opposed to the actors themselves. If you read my character by character review below you'll see that most of them were great singers, actors, etc at times which suggests the weakness isn't theirs to own.

Something that I was very keen on was the use of multimedia, namely projections, to set scenes and atmospheres. The images/animations used weren't overbearing. They were classy, elegant, and just what that moment needed. 

The costumes were okay. Most of them I really liked, some of them I didn't. Like the French productions, they seem to have tried to blend period costume with some modern aspects and it works really well. I have to question the majority of the ball costumes, however, and it's no wonder that Romeo got noticed considering he was wearing what looked like a gimp mask in a room full of animals!

Another thing that was of interest was the addition of speech that I don't think was in the other productions. Of course, I didn't understand a word but I think this is probably quite a good thing. I can't comment on the translation of the production either but it can't be worse than the translation used in the London production.

Favourite scenes

The balcony scene. The bit where Romeo leans on the pillar and it lowers to form a bridge (it looks better than it sounds) and Giulietta's costume make it such a visually appealing scene!

The new duet between Lady Montecchi and Giulietta was perfect. To the tune of the song sung by the poet in the French version and happening just after Romeo is banished, I couldn't understand a word but it worked so well for both characters. Genius.

Giulietta being found 'dead' (the first time) is a beautiful scene with the parents mourning as the Prince sings the Verona reprise. It's really quite profound.

Favourite actors

Giò Tortorelli was perfect in his role, as far as I'm concerned, as I explain below. Silvia Querci also should get a mention as she was amazing in her solo!

Biggest surprise

Mercuzio was so different from how I view with character in my head yet he was brilliant, and one of the most engaging characters throughout. Tebaldo was also a major surprise as he seemed to have been turned into a pantomime villain. 

Characters and actors

Romeo - Davide Merlini

It took me a while to get used to Romeo but, I'll be honest, it usually does take some time because Damien Sargue, the original cast Romeó, is Romeo in my brain. It doesn't help that it seems like Merlini's Romeo is quite similar to that of Sargue so comparisons were flying.

Guilietta - Giulia Luzi

I liked her from the word go. I think she was directed well and I liked her voice and presentation. I also liked her dresses but that says nothing about her as an actor!

Mercuzio - Luca Giacomelli

When Mercuzio is first introduced (at least the first time the English speaker noticed him!) during 'Kings of the World' he seemed to be playing quite a cold character rather like Philippe d'Avilla in the original French cast. This character interpretation isn't quite my own but if an actor is good then I can enjoy it. However, during the Queen Mab song we suddenly saw another side to this Mercuzio, a fear and a confusion that echoed really strongly with the character. The more I saw of him the more I wanted to give him a hug.

Benvolio - Riccardo Maccaferri

I find it quite tricky to comment on Benvolio generally. He's a bit of a nothingness within the plot and is really overshadowed by the other young men in the play. I had the added problem of lack of language which I think matters more with your understanding of Benvolio. However, Maccaferri was a very skilled singer with a soft voice, a soft face, and a seemingly soft personality (onstage) and therefore worked as the character very well.

Tebaldo - Gianluca Merolli

I didn't like Tebaldo. I think you need a really good actor to get this role right (Tom Ross in my opinion manages 100% better in the more recent DVD than in the original cast recording because he's matured as an actor). However, with Merolli's Tybalt I don't think this was the problem. The end of his first solo showed some real emotion and real vulnerability in an otherwise rough character so how come the character of Tebaldo was so meh the rest of the time? To be honest, I think this was more down to directing than anything else. Not to mention the fact that even in 'It's the day', when he got a chance to show off vocally, I couldn't enjoy it because the make-up was so distracting.

Principe - Leonardo di Minno

Okay, I can't get over the yellow eye-shadow at the start; it was weird but wonderful. And then in 'power' there's the moment with the cape when he seems to be channelling Dracula... As an actor, I think he's quite tricky to judge because he's mainly working alone with little actual interaction with other characters meaning that, again, language understanding becomes more important. He is however, quite scary and seems in control when he's on the stage so I don't think there are any complaints. He's also got a powerful voice.

Lady Capuleti - Barbara Cola

I'll get the major negative out of the way: her wig was really, really off-putting. Again, I had some problems with the way this character was directed. Cola, however, has a blooming amazing voice, and shows herself to be a great actress too in the rare moments she's allowed to do so.

Lady Montecchi - Roberta Faccani

Faccani was a big surprise for me. She has this sweet little voice when talking to Benvolio at the start of the musical and then, when she first sings in 'Hatred', she's suddenly got this coarse witchey voice straight out of Macbeth! 

Conte Capulete - Vittorio Matteucci

I liked him to start with. In particular, I liked the ball scene where he's arguing with Tybalt (and goes to hit him, a moment I thought was very clever) while keeping up appearances. However, I couldn't help but not detest him once we got into the second act. Okay, I felt sorry for him when he was singing his solo but come on, what a [insert expletive of choice]. Guessing this means that Matteucci is a good actor but I wouldn't mind if his Conte Capulete jumped off a cliff. 

Nutrice - Silvia Querci

I didn't like her character that much to start with, possibly because she was speaking and I was missing out on the nuances of the speech. Actually, the fact that when she was onstage she was surrounded by weird choruses with weird dance routines didn't help either. However, when she performed 'And now she is in love' I was won over. That was truly stunning. Vocally she's amazing and the emotion was so beautiful. It was perfect.

Frate - Giò Tortorelli

Possibly my favourite member of the cast. He was just right for the role which is something I've not felt able to say about any other cast. He seemed had a maturity of appearance and voice that made him seem kindly, worldly, and perchance a little disenchanted (even at the start of the production). His singing voice was lovely too.

Overview

Once you get over the weirdness this is a very strong interpretation. There is an exceptionally strong cast who all act and sing wonderfully even when there are directing choices that, I feel, detract. The chorus scenes seem to let it down but it's well worth watching. I think that it's probably a love or hate interpretation.

Since I first wrote this post the show has been taken down from the link provided (as it was on a TV catch up service) but I'm sure it will be around on the internet if not on DVD very soon.

Fighting with Dutch

About a month ago I said that I was going to learn (some) Dutch in time for Castlefest. I had wanted to learn Dutch for quite some time and it seemed a great excuse to attempt it. Dutch also seemed possible to attempt as I'd been able to understand bits through my previous German and English knowledge, and with practice, I'd learned to understand even more.

The second part of a medley from '3 Musketiers', the first song in it being the 

first thing I ever heard in Dutch. See, musicals do really run my life.

However, when attempting to speak the language I quickly became disheartened. This is the worst thing that can happen with a language. I am a big believer in the fact that, if you want to learn a language because you love it then it will happen. If you don't love that language then you are going to be hitting your head against a brick wall.

My main problem came from the fact that the 'different' sounds in Dutch were sounds that I hadn't really encountered before and, learning alone, it's hard to work out if you are doing it right or even good enough. The main problem I had was with the 'g' sound, and I don't think I'm alone with this. I can listen to it a million times but, when trying to say it, I sound like either a furious cat or a slowly deflating balloon. Neither sound is particularly conducive to making friends in the language! 

It didn't take me too long to realise that I was probably just rushing myself. By using my trip as an excuse I had also given myself a deadline and this is not the way I work. The deadline made it even worse when I encountered an issue and made everything a lot harder. Suddenly, learning Dutch, something I had wanted to do, turned into a chore that I simply wanted to avoid. Whoops.

So now I'm going to focus on doing what I do best... I'm going to watch musicals (in Dutch) and maybe try and pick up some words. I'm going to re-find my enjoyment, keep going, and see what I can do.

On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to go to the Netherlands again next year to practice.

And because you can never have too much Pia in one post!

Mijn leven is van mij (Ich gehör nur mir), from Elisabeth.

Names: to translate or not to translate?

Every now and then, translation can pose some problems. Do you translate something literally or change the literal meaning to get more of the implication and flavour? What do you do when there is an obvious rhythm, rhyme, plosive structure that matters but can’t be carried across into English? How do you translate it when someone has been playing with their words? What do you do with names?

Usually, when translating into English I choose to keep the original name. I think that most of the people who are reading my subtitles could work out that, Zsuzsanna, for example, is the Hungarian spelling of Susanna. However, even if this is not the case I think that everyone could learn that when I write Zsuzsanna I am referring to a certain character or person.

However, with the musicals that I translate there are sometimes some additional difficulties with characters being well known or having more unusual character names. Der Tod, for example, is often used by English speaking fans of the musical Elisabeth to refer to the character himself. In Japanese the character is actually called "トート", "Toto", which is derived from his German character name. However, I hardly think that Der Tod’s mother named him that when he was born, and somewhere he probably has a perfectly ordinary name (like Brian), so it’s probably good practice to translate this to Death, in the musical. It’s more a descriptive title than a name.

So what about historical characters? Franz Joseph, for example, seems to appear in most English history books, that I have seen, as Francis Joseph. How should this be written? Quite frankly, it really annoys me to see him referred to as Francis so my choice here was selfish rather than based purely on logic. That said, it’s probably right to keep it in the original German, which is sometimes used in English anyway, especially when Franz Joseph is the name that was used by the Emperor and in the musical. He’s also not the most famous ruler in history – I was a history student and most of my classes hadn’t heard of him - so people are less likely to need to know who he is to enjoy the musical anyway.

However, it’s not always that simple. If I were to ask you to tell me about King Ludwig XVI you are unlikely to be able to tell me much about the gentleman I’m referring to. If I were to ask you about King Louis XVI you will probably be able to tell me a bit more, especially if I also said he was the husband of Marie Antoinette. It seems sensible, therefore, for me to choose to translate Ludwig back to its original French and away from the German version used in the musical of Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette herself is known by her French name (which is bizarre considering that, as an Austrian by birth, Maria Antonia’s original name was German anyway) so I also feel there should be some continuity. All the same, I feel really bad deviating from my usual ‘use the name used in the play/musical/text’ resolution.

So here’s the question: Does the translation, or lack of translation, of names into English matter to you? Which do you prefer?

Louis or Ludwig, Marie Antoinette or Maria Antonia, and does it really matter?