The CD of the revised version of the Kunze/Levay Musical that in 2006 Premiered in Tokyo is out and in german. The CD is not even 40minutes long so you can grab very little of the story, unless you already have an idea of what its like. The Japanese CD was horrible. Boring, plain and...sung in Japanese wich to me only makes it even more boring since I start to get the feeling I'm watching an anime cartoon. The voices sound so fake that they are not believable at all. I hoped the German CD would make me like the show a bit more. Such thing did not happened. The German CD, although improves the Japanese its still very boring and a total re-ash of something we've heard before. So, lets go to the detailed review.
Illusionen - The only good song in the CD. Ethan Freeman is amazing as always and the lyrics to the song are very good. The feeling I got from the first notes however was that it sounded like "Sie erbibt sich nicht" fastened up. But the song is really good. I would love to hear it with less digital effects and synthetizers though. If there would be a reason to buy this CD, this song would be it.
Langweilen will ich mich nicht - This song is AWFULL. In all aspects. The music sounds like "Du wirst niemals eine Lady" from REBECCA gone bad with a mix of "Bring on the men" from JEKYLL & HYDE. "Ist es zu viel was ich möchte? Nein!"...I've heard this somewhere... And then the refrain..."Lalalalalalalalalalalalala langweilen will ich mich nicht ". Roberta Valentini does an amazing job though, portraing MA. You can from this song see the real MA: a spoiled, dumb, futile girl who happened to be Queen. A girl who instead of following her mother steps, took pride in being stupid "I don't want to read what's in intelectual books" she sings...
Blind vom Licht - A nice song thanks to Sabrina Weckerlin and the ensemble. Overproduced like all the songs in this CD, but still probably the best girl songs in the show, since they managed to ruin "Gott sieht uns zu". I don't like the french revolution, I don't like the ideals it represents, but in this show, I end up liking more Margrid Arnaud.
Still, still - Maike Switzer has a lovely voice and goes very nicely with Roberta's voice. This song suffers again from over-orchestrations and overproduction. The song already sounds like a Christmas song and the attemps in orchestrating it like something that come out of REBECCA only ruins it.
Weil ich besser bin - A song with cool lyrics, nice idea but bad choice of instruments and singer! I could bare the song if it was song if it was sung by someone with a truly "bad guy" voice like Thomas Borchert, Drew Sarich or Homonnay Zsolt. Thomas Christ is however, simply awfull. Even Uwe Kröger would sing it better since the song seems pretty much written in Uwe's style.
Wenn (Maskenspiel) - For all those who think Wildhorn ballads are boring, you haven't heard this song. This is simply AWFULL! It sounds like some song that came out of the 80's and this time not even the actors save what is very mediocre at best. It's probably the worse song in the entire CD. Completly unbearable. Even MOZART!'s "Ein bissel fürs Hirn und ein bissel fürs Herz" is better than this. Over produced once again, its one of those songs that you either skip or end up with a headache.
Ich weine nicht mehr - Sabrina is again very nice but the song...well...it sounds again like something from a 80's disc. No wonder, since it's a song Levay wrote for Uwe Kröger in the early 90's called "Engel in Schwarz" with just new lyrics that make the song sound like something Les Miserables-wanna-be...
Gefühl und Verstand - Have you ever heard ELISABETH? Yes? Then you know "Wenn ich tanzen will". Well this song is basicly the first draft of that song. The lyrics are pretty basic and full of clichés, and the song is plain boring. I prefer to listen to "Wenn ich tanzen will" any time. As if that were not bad enough, the cool drums crescendo that is part of the Japanese orchestrations is gone here wich makes this song the only one I even prefer in Japanese...Apart from that...well it's a rip of ELISABETH. And that's it.
Gott sieht uns zu - This song was marvellous. Yes, you read well..."WAS". If you go listen to the Press Conference were the song was played you will see that. This song was in this CD completly ruined by the over-orchestrations. Maike does a decent job, but I will keep hearing the Press Conference version instead if I want to hear it.
Das Einzige, was richtig ist - A song that is sung while writing a letter. This may remind you of 3 songs: 1st - Any song from Sondheim's PASSION; 2nd Wildhorn's Whitby Bay; 3rd The reprise of Wie du in ELISABETH. You pick. Apart from that, its another lame love song wich the only thing in his favor are the actors.
Warum muss ich sein, was ich nicht bin - Tim Reichwein impressed me in REBECCA as Maxim, but here he just returns to his normaly gay-ish irritating way of singing. He prints feeling to the song, true, but I would honestly like to hear it by someone who actually were more like Louis XVI and less like...himself...
Jenseits aller Schmerzen - This could be a nice song if it simply wasn't a reprise of "Blind vom Licht". I assume this is the final song of the show, wich, for a climax, does it nicely specially when the entire ensemble joins. Still...It's not very inspired but it's moving if at least you see MA's head being cuted.
Die Frau, die er liebt - The bonus song, sung by Maricel, cover to Roberta as MA. That said, its another Marie Antoinette song, again pretty awfull. It sounds like a mix of something came out of MOZART! with a touch of "Die Stärke einer liebenden Frau" from REBECCA. If the production was being staged by VBW I could almost bet there would be a promo CD with this song in pop-ballad orchestrations.
Overall: In conclusion, this CD is not at all worth the money you give for it. The right price should be around 10€ due to the lenght AND quality of the songs. Still, if you are nuts with any Kunze/Levay show, even the ones who suck (like this one) you will want to have this. The show is so far, mediocre at best, and a very weak attempt to equal REBECCA or ELISABETH. To me it's so far the worse Kunze/Levay show. Even MOZART! with its structure problems is better than this.
And for those who, like me, already disliked the character of Marie Antoinette, this only reafirms my opinion that indeed she deserved to get her empty head chopped off in the Guillotine. She isn't at all a dramatic character, she was a woman that got what she deserved. That's why if you're like me, you're end up sympathizing more with Margrid Arnaud.
There are songs that will probably be jammed in your head for good or for bad. Illusionen and Jenseits aller Schmerzen for example. The libretto will come out on February the 5th and I'll get it, and I MAY change my opinion a bit about the show, BUT, with the Japanese CD, this CD and the lign that the lyrics seem to take I don't like it. This seems an atempt to wipe out Marie Antoinette's image in History and make of her a saint wich she wasn't AT ALL. She was one of the worst "active" Queen's in European History and condemned France to hunger and bankrupcy. Try to turn her into a "mater dolorosa" just because she was austrian is what irritates me the most in this... specially if you have in mind that Austria herself aparted from Marie Antoinette's fate after the death of her brother, Emperor Joseph II. SO I see honestly no reason for Kunze to turn her into a pitty figure. Songs like "Das Einzige, was richtig ist" really irritate me because of that. Not to mention "Jenseits aller Schmerzen" and the extrem focus of the show in Fersen/MA relashionship...
I will give this CD a 2/5 and only for the amazing job of actors & ensemble and for the song Illusionen.
