Got my copy today. I must say that the cover, in the context of the entire CD case doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. And it has 2 improvements over the English Concept: 1st - Jewel Case. I hate digipacks (they get "ruined" easly. with jewel cases you just need to get a new case.) 2nd - LYRICS! The CD brings the german lyrics this time. And that, to me, it's great. Now to the review...

This CD, even though it's pretty cool, was a huge disapointment. Why? Because it's basicly a replica of the Concept CD. They used the orchestrations they had in the English CD. Therefore it's also only 13 tracks. WORSE, they even kept the same "Prolog". Meaning the first song isn't even sung by the artists in St.Gallen but Coleen Schoots. The CD doesn't reflect therefore the new order of the songs ("When we are Kings appears before "When the world was mine" in the show...but not on the CD...) and it doesn't reflect the way the songs are performed in St.Gallen. Examples: "Niemals allein" is preceded by a small introduction to the tune of "When the world was mine" where Mercedes is praying to God to bring Edmond back to her. Then the song beautifully turns into "Niemals allein". That's not on the CD. In "When we are Kings" in St.Gallen the song is "splited", meaning it doesn't have that "big" ending. It's more emotive than the CD shows.
And then there are amazing songs like "Warheit oder Wagnis", "So wie man hört" and "Zuviel ist nie genug" that aren't on the CD. And that is A SHAME 'cause they are true masterpieces. For all this, this review will be smaller than the others.

So...

Thomas Borchert - Unlike the Concept CD, Thomas is less "powerfull" here. On the other hand he performs more close to what he does in St.Gallen. That becomes more clear in "Jeder Tag ein kleines Tod" and of course "Hölle auf Erden"...'cause there's no way he could sing that song the way he did in the Concept on a stage while moving from one side to the other. In the rest he's still awesome as usually.

Sophie Berner - She does a good job as Mercedes. She's a more mature Mercedes than Brandi, but honestly I prefer Brandi. In "Niemals allein" Sophie seems to lack emotion just like in "Diese Augen/Der man ist tot" but in "Wie mich die Welt umarmt" she's clearly stronger than Brandi. So...basicly Brandi is better for the sweet songs like "When love is true" and "I will be there", but Sophie is more mature and better to the "angsty-Mercedes" songs like "When the World was mine" and "All this time".

Carsten Lepper - Honestly...he does play wonderfully the role of the "bad guy" Mondego. Carsten is good at that and he shows it in "Geschichte". However I still don't like his singing and I would have prefered if they had casted Patrick Stanke in the role instead...but well, Carsten comes across nice too.

Christoph Goetten & Karim Khawatmi - They only show up in "Geschichte" and I can't say I'm thrilled by any of them. Christoph is better then Karim but since the song is so fast they end up getting mixed. The both Mark and Mathias in the Concept are better.

Dean Welterlen - He prints emotion in "Könige" no doubt about that. But when you had Alexander Goebel in the Concept it's difficuld not to compare. Dean is great though. I only have a problem...his voice is WAY to similar to Thomas. And that doesn't help 'cause if I didn't knew who sings what I would have get them mixed in some parts. Still very good though.

Daniel Berini - Does his job as Albert but he's no match for Jesper. I don't know him so I have little to say.

Barbara Obermeier - Again...it's pretty unfair to compare her when the term of comparison if Pia Douwes...Barbara is younger and more naïve and that definitly works better in the song. I still don't like the song that much but she does a really good job.

I would now normaly go to the songs but since they're precicely the same as the Concept I won't repeat myself. Just a couple of notes, mainly regarding the translations...they are good...IF you are expecting a close translation of the english lyrics. Meaning, when the english lyrics are great keeping them faithfull is great. When they're not so great it's a pain. Here it's 50/50. I liked some passages a lot, but I didn't liked other parts...specially in "Könige".
So...in the end this is the same CD as the English Concept but in german and with an overall weaker Cast.
It will get a 8.5 out of 10, and that's because I gave 9 out of 10 to the English Concept. It was a deception but still better than nothing and worth having for any fan of the show!

I honestly hope that MWB does a DVD of Monte Christo...after all if they did of Rudolf, Monte Christo is a superior show so it also deserved a DVD... *keepsdreaming*

Your dreams are just a few clicks away ... You certainly know the songlist, from that you can generate a DVD menu. When playing this DVD, it gets stuck after choosing from the menu. This is already a better situation than reported somewhere else of the Rudolf DVD. This report stated that the Rudolf DVD gets stuck just after playing the FSK hint. Hopefully you got the joke.