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| Antwerp - Dans der Vampieren | |
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SandraZ 06:48 am UTC 09/21/10 |
| Hi all, Wrote this last night. I should have been making myself dinner, but I was totally uninspired... At least, I think you can call it that when you only stare at your fridge's content. So why not share some thoughts on Dans der Vampieren? My apologies to those who hate long posts. Let me start by saying I really enjoyed it. Not quite as good as the German ones I've seen so far, but as someone said during the weekend: we are spoiled. Besides, I'm already happy getting to hear Jim's music preformed live. ;) And the Steinfans are also great company! Now, costumes and decors have already been mentioned. And I'm not having an opinion about the dancing. Honestly, I'm already impressed when people can reach their toes without bending their knees. :D The translation. I liked it. I heard no annoying words or sentences. Although, I have to admit that translating 'komisch' (in Tot zu sein ist komisch) to 'ironisch' is somewhat bothering me. Being dead is ironic? I don't know. But it's a tough one to translate and 'ironisch' is a word with soms nice vowels to sing. Maybe it'll grow on me. --------------------- GRAAF VON KROLOCK - Hans Peter Janssens This man is a really, really good singer! His CV from the past 20 years tells me others had already noticed. ;-) Powerful voice. He managed to do the last long note of Die Unstilbare Gier on an 'ee' (that vowel sounds like the 'He' from He Ho Professor) and made it sound easy. I found that impressive. I also could understand every word he sang. On the downside, he doesn't make the most handsome Von Krolock. O well. BTW I watched an interview with Janssens. He feels really passionate about Jim's music for Tanz. The music was the reason why he dreamed of playing this role. When he started talking about the music, his face lit up: "First this instrument, then comes in a second layer and then another one, and another one... it builds up and then you suddenly notice a musical line you hadn't heard before." So, one very happy man. ;-) SARAH - Anne van Opstal She was nice, good vocals. Has that cute, young girl-thing going on. Crossed the line to overacting a couple of times. Which I only found annoying at the end, after she bit Alfred. You see, my mind has it's own will and it puts on the weirdest tunes when it feels like it. So I had to listen to a tune from Spamalot. Just one sentence in a loop: "we'll overact like hell" (from A song that goes like this). Thankfully my mind got distracted by the finale. ;) PROFESSOR ABRONSIUS - Sebastien de Smet A decent professor. He does still struggle a little with the lyrics in Wahrheit. I saw the show two times, but there were parts I just couldn't make any sense of. Granted it's a lot of text to be sung at high speed! So take a moment to really admire Gernot Kranner. CHAGAL - Frank Hoelen Doing a good job. And stays calm when things go wrong. Like; when you're supposed to hammer a nail into wood with four loud bangs and at the moment supreme the hammer falls out of your hand. Or when they are supposed to lay your dead and frozen body on a table... but the table almost falls over and you can only hope nobody will drop you, as you're not supposed to move a muscle because well, you're dead and frozen. ALFRED - Niels Jacobs "Dear people of Stage Entertainment, When you finally, finally, finally realize you need to bring Tanz to The Netherlands (maybe even improve some of the lyrics, choose one of your theaters -let's say the one in The Hague- and confiscate the Stuttgart sets and costumes the second the Germans are finished with it), then there will be no need to start looking for an Alfred on tv. We have already found him. So please come to your senses before Niels is 45 years old?" MAGDA - Goele de Raedt Didn't really like her voice for the first act (which is just personal taste) Once she's a vampire, it's a powerful voice in the right place. HERBERT - Michaël Zanders Now there's a voice I like! Ok, I've seen Tanz a few times, I know the story. But I'm always curious at what moment the rest of the audience discovers the son is gay. This one appears in the doorway, opens his cape showing a light pink costume and sings two words 'Eindelijk iemand...', takes a couple of steps over to Alfred... and the audience starts laughing. For me that collective AHA-moment is what makes it even better. ;) And finally, the nameless vampire that starts Carpe Noctem. The program gives me no clue as to who it is, but I liked him very much. ------------------- Always great moments in this musical: Starker als wir sind, the final minute of the first act (for me the build up to the closing castle door alone is worth the 70 euro's ;)), Carpe Noctem, Fur Sarah, Ewigkeit and Tanz der Vampire. For the Dutch... there's a Hyvespage for Tanz: tanzdervampire.hyves.nl Reports by Tanz-obsessed people who travel Antwerp three times a week and give you their opinion on what the cast needs to do to make the next show even better. One last thing: in his program preface Geert Allaert (creative director Musical van Vlaanderen) says something along the lines of: "Dans der Vampieren is proof musical isn't art for 'watjes' (wimps). And this musical wasn't made by 'watjes'... Four great man made it happen. The music has originated from the just as genius musical mind of composer Jim Steinman, the man behind Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler. He made it a rock musical. " We can only hope Jim will take the "being just as genius as Polanski" as a compliment... ;-) Sandra So, no dinner for me last night. However, today things are looking up as I suddenly feel inspired: EGGS! :-D | |
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