Here's finally my long, long review (as usual) on the CD :P
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CD : RUDOLF - AFFAIRE MAYERLING - Original Wien Cast
Year: 2009
Author: Frank Wildhorn
Artists: Drew Sarich, Lisa Antoni, Carin Filipcic, Wietske Van Tongeren, Claus Dam, Uwe Kröger.


Finaly after the show is on the market for 2 years, the Vienna production opened and the first Cast Recording was released. Unfortunatly for all fans no Hungarian Cast Recording was yet released, but then again, perhaps it was better this way, otherwise the Vienna CD would be really really disapointing. However it's not THAT bad, mostly thanks to the music of Frank Wildhorn. But lets go into details!

About the singers:

Drew Sarich (Rudolf) - Drew is an amazing actor and singer. Proof is that he jumps from Wien to the West End, to Broadway, back to Wien, again to West End...you get the picture. As Rudolf there couldn't be a better one. Specially when compared with his hungarian counterparts: Atilla Dolhai and Mészáros Árpád Zsolt. Atilla just plays "the cute boy" and Árpád sounds pretty much like a goat going to the butcher...So Drew is even more fantastic compared to them. He does screw up a lign in "Ordinary man" when he sings the "schuldig siiiind" but apart from that he's totaly flawless. "Steps of Tomorrow" are unbelievably inspiring and "I was born to love you" is an amazing love song.

Lisa Antoni (Mary Vetsera) - When casting Frank said "This Mary or no Mary." when picking Lisa. I can't say I FULLY agree with that, since this time the hungarian counterpart - Zsuzsi Vágó - is both more pretty and her voice is more "sweet". I felt Lisa would be a great 2nd Stephanie rather than a Mary. Still she does a good job in the role and although her solos aren't that interesting, her love duets are great.

Carin Filipcic (Larisch) - She has only 2 songs in the CD but she's absolutly great. Specially in "Pretty War". She works great in that context. In "Only Heroes Dare" however she did nothing for me unfortunatly. She's still far better than the hungarian Kata Janza but I still prefer Pia Douwes redention of the song.

Wietske Van Tongeren (Stephanie) - This is the first CD to make justice to Wietske's voice. Thank God! I was amazed by her in REBECCA because the CDs didn't showed how great her voice was compared to the live version. In this CD she sounds like the Wietske I remember from REBECCA. Apparently people who saw her live say that she sounds better on the CD than Live in the song, but I wouldn't be surprised. "It will be me" it's one of those great hard songs to sing and demands passion too which normaly leads to: 1 - the actress sings it wonderfully and forgets the passion in acting or 2 - the actress acts passionatly and the song doesn't come out as well.

Claus Dam (Franz Joseph) - I must confess I didn't knew Claus that well before Rudolf. He was around for some years indeed but never in those show's I love to I noticed him. He is a great singer and an excelent Franz Joseph. I thing he manages to get closer to the real Franz Joseph than any actor in ELISABETH every did. Mainly 'cause in RUDOLF, Sisi is not around and so the show shows the political side of FJ rather than the "I'm a silly weak guy who does whatever his spoiled wife wishes".

Uwe Kröger (Taaffe) - Honestly...I mean... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! I really, really hope this wasn't Frank's choice but rather the VBW's. Uwe is done. He lost his voice, he can't sing without hurting my ears anymore and they give him the best role in the show? He sounds like a psyco, he totaly ruins "The Writings on the Wall" (one of my favourite songs that I can't listen in the Wien CD) and Master of the Strings is only saved due to the magic of computers, and even so he sounds like a goat very time he says "in der Haaaand". I enjoyed him in REBECCA but in RUDOLF he's done. He better retire and leave his place for someone who can still sing. I won't even compare him with his hungarian counterparts - Hommonay Zsolt and Tamás Foldes - 'cause it would just be cruel.

About the songs:

Ouverture - A short overture. That's all there is to say. It's not great like THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO's one nor hipnotic like DRACULA. It's just...an ouverture. Curiously in the booklet of the CD it brings the lyrics to the short version of "Ordinary man" Rudolf sings after the girl kills herself in the opening of the Theater. Apparently they decided to replace the song with the overture.

Du willst nicht hören - A nice duet between Claus Dam and Drew Sarich. Again the booklet brings more lyrics than those in the song but still. It's a nice song which reveals right in the beggining things between Rudolf and Franz Joseph aren't that well. Still it's a song I can imagine some fathers saying to their sons.

Ein hübscher Krieg - Terribly funny. Nan wrote the original lyrics and it shows. Larisch, Mary and the girls are shopping so the song is about that...fashion and how to conquer a man with beauty. It's like the counter-song to "Creation of Men" in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. There men sing about clothes and show out vanity and their plan to fool the british society. Here girls sing about clothes, show out vanity and talk about plans to fool/conquer men. "Pretty War" however sounds like something I'm almost sure Frank wrote for SVENGALI. But since that show apparently died young, I'm glad he reused the tune.

Marys Lied - Mary's first solo. I can't say I love it. It's actually a bit boring. But then again it's that kind of "ohh I'm a dreamy girl waiting for my prince" bla bla kind of song and I rarely have pacience for them.

So viel mehr - I know people who love this duet. I don't know why. I mean it's nice, but it's far from great and some parts, specially in the lyrics, really annoy me. It's those songs I really start to get irritated after earing them for a while. The electric guitar that appears sometimes is nice but...for love songs this CD has better!

Wohin führt mein Weg? - Is it me or the beggining of this song, with those vocalized "ahhhhahhhahhh" sounds like something from Titanic (the film) ? Apart from that, it's Rudolf's first solo in the CD, and I do like it a lot, specially, again the electric guitar, and the way the song gradually grows. It's kinda the "rebel song" for Rudolf.

Vertrau in uns - I love this song. I never missed it in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL honestly, and I really don't think it did anything there specially if Percy also sings "She was there". In RUDOLF the song works as it should work, since it was always planned for this place. However I prefer the english version much more. The viennese translators (of which I'll speak later) changed Nan's lyrics considerably and now "Only Love" became "Trust/Have confidence in us". I don't know how is that suposed to be romantic but well...The orchestrations are lovely though.

Die Fäden in der Hand - This is my favourite song in the show, and one of the best ones Frank ever wrote to me. I just LOVE it. In Wien...they had to ruin it!!! If picking Uwe was not enough they changed the Budapest orchestrations and the song became much weaker again. They also made Taaffe sing more and redistributed the ensemble ligns (I was about to say Puppets but they are also gone in Wien!!! grrr). The reduction of the orchestra didn't helped either and what you ear more during the entire song is the drum beat, eventually one or two violins and a flute. I have no idea where Koen or Kim had their minds. I liked the fact that they cuted the spoken parts from the song that exist in the Budapest version but they didn't needed to change the entire orchestration!!! This song is the reason I pray almost everyday for a Budapest Cast Recording. And I'm sure to record a version of the song myself when the Sing Along comes out to put in my Creative. At least I won't have to hear Uwe and the chorus are great so... =P The most irritating is that I love the song so much that I have it on repeat since the CD was released!!! Grrr...

Du bleibst bei mir - LOVE IT. Again suffered from the reduction of the orchestra but still kept his amazing power. Honestly? I would freak out if my girlfriend entered the room singing that song to me...or then again I would forget all about any "go away with my mistress". Wietske also contributed for this. And I really can't wait for the Sing Along 'cause the music by herself, without vocals is exquisite.

Wie jeder andre Mann - Love the song, pitty Drew misses that lign. The german lyrics are also quite good and I do like the idea of "a Land where Prince's aren't slaves". Some people didn't liked this lign, but I think one has to fully understand the spirit of a Monarchy and I trully understand this even though I don't agree with Rudolf neither ideologicaly (yeah I'm for Taaffe) nor sentimentaly (yeah I do think Marriage is sacred).

Mut Zur Tat - This song is nice...but still...I don't know why I never care much for it. Drew makes it great but still... It's one of those songs that are completly indiferent to me.

Der Weg In Die Zukunft - Amazing song, amazing singers, medium orchestrations. Sorry but I prefer the original orchestrations used in Budapest, Japan and in the english version to these ones. It's a song that I always imagine bursting in a Political Convention. This one in a Liberal Party convention, socialists etc. On the other hand I always also imagined For the Glory from Frank's THE CIVIL WAR as an ending song for a Conservative Right Party.

Die Liebe Lenkt - Orchestrations again weakened the song. It's a great song though. I just don't like the "The love steers" lign. "Only Heroes Dare" is so much better and less suggary...maybe that's the reason why the song did nothing to me even though Carin is great in it.

Wenn das Schicksal dich ereilt - This song was soo great. Yeah. WAS. Uwe and Lisa ruin it. Unfortunatly this time even Lisa sounds bad. Uwe sounds even more like a psyco than he does in Master of the Strings (where he could sound since it's a nightmare). The orchestrations sound also weaker, but still nice, and I really want the Sing Along to be able to at least hear to the song without this kind of singing. And it's a pitty 'cause I really love the song. It's one of the reasons that made me be not that sad they cuted Taaffe's duet with Larisch "Kétség és ábránd". I really wouldn't need Uwe ruining that one too even though I know Carin would do a great job.

Kann Ich Einfach Gehn? - Mary's second solo and again boring. Not as boring as Mary's Lied but still boring. Reasons are the same.

Ich schütze den Staat - Love the song. It sounds much better than the Budapest version, also because the Wien Franz Joseph is much superior to any of the hungarian ones. I also like the guitar they added in the orchestrations. And then when FJ says that his son is not worthy to be his successor it's just heartbreaking...I mean...it must be awfull for a father to have to say such thing to a son.

Du bist meine Welt & Vertrau in uns reprise - I LOVE this duet. It may not sound like something two people who are going to kill themselfs would sing, but it's a marvellous "I love you, farewell" song. And then turns wonderfully into Only Love. My favourite part is however the small waltz in the end followed but two shoots and then the big orchestra ending. I mean...it's great and I do see the romantic side of the suicide. But I'm just that messed up XD

About the recording & translations:
The recording suffers from the illness the show itself in Wien suffers: a small orchestra filled with synths. The music therefore sounds "fake" like the Broadway DRACULA music. VBW has a great orchestra and honestly I don't see why they didn't used it. As for the translations they are weak as always when comming from those ladies. In some songs it passes but there is one song which is REALLY bad and that's Master of the Strings. I know it's a great song and allows a bit of freedom within the rage of the "perverse things to write for bad-guy-Taaffe to say" but one thing is to change the lyrics other is to have NO IDEA whatsoever about metric and the way words must flow when put togheter.

The two biggest examples of those errors are, in the first lign of the song "Hier in Wien lebt es sich heiter und beschwingt" there is one extra syllable. the "es" shouldn't be there. Thing is...it has to, so what have they done? Re-write the lign? NO! They leaved is and the actors manage that as they can. I even feel sorry for Uwe to have to "sing" that. It's pure cruellty. I don't know which lyrics did they used for the translations, the hungarian or the english ones, but you don't need to be a College graduate to understand when a lign doesn't fit into a song. You just have to know a little about music. Which Ms.Jäger should know...
Another is in the last refrain sung by Taaffe "Diese Kunst ist schließlich alt" . I dunno if they noticed but it's a fload of "s"s. KunSt iSt SchlieSSlich". It's very hard to sing that. It's like having "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" in a song...Jesus where do they get these people?...
I also miss some of the great ensemble songs that were cuted like "Finish what you've started" and "New Boy in Town". I'm hoping a Gesamtaufnahme comes out just to have these great songs (and hoping that Uwe gets out meanwhile and a decent Taaffe takes his place:P)

So overall I'll give this CD, unfortunatly a 3 out of 5.
And it's because of the amazing actors (apart from Uwe) and the quality of the music. 'cause if I was judging just the orchestrations, Uwe and lyrics quality I would probably give it a 1.5/2 out of 5.