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Rudolf (musical)
Encyclopedia
Rudolf is a musical
conceived for the stage by Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden, with a book by Jack Murphy and Phoebe Hwang, lyrics by Murphy, additional lyrics by Nan Knighton
, and music by Frank Wildhorn
. Arrangements by Koen Schoots and orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg. It is about Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and his extramarital
relationship with Baroness Mary Vetsera
. Their 1889 deaths at his Mayerling hunting lodge apparently were the result of a murder
-suicide
pact, although historians have debated this explanation.
Loosely based on the book A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton
, the musical was developed under the working titles Vienna, Affäre Mayerling (The Mayerling Affair), and Rudolf - The Last Kiss. The pressures of the monarchy
have fallen upon Rudolf's shoulders, he is in political and personal conflict with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph
, and his marriage to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
is crumbling when he meets and falls in love with the 17-year-old baroness. Their secret liaison doesn't escape the attention of prime minister Eduard Taaffe
, who hopes to use his knowledge of the affair to destroy Rudolf's political career.
Rob Evan
as Rudolf, Brandi Burkhardt
as Mary, and Michael Shawn Lewis as Taafe. As a co-production of Vereinigte Bühnen Wien
, the Budapest
Operetta Theater, and the Szeged
Open-Air Festival, it had its world premiere in a Hungarian
translation at the Operett Színház in Budapest on May 26, 2006, followed by an outdoor staging that opened in Szeged
on July 28. Since then, the production has alternated between the two venues, playing in Budapest during the winter months and in Szeged for the summer season.
Rudolf was directed by Miklós Gábor Kerényi and choreographed by Michael Reardon, Éva Duda, Jenõ Lõcsei, and László Rogács. Musical Direction by Koen Schoots. Gergely Zöldi translated the book, and the Hungarian lyrics are by Zöldi, MG Kerényi, and Szilárd Somogyi. The original cast included Attila Dolhai as Rudolf, Bernadett Vágó as Mary, Tamás Földes as Taaffe, and Attila Németh as Franz Joseph.
A Vienna
production opened at the Raimund Theater on February 26, 2009 directed by David Leveaux
and starring Drew Sarich
as Rudolf, Lisa Antoni as Mary, and Uwe Kröger
as Taaffe. The cast album for this production was released at the beginning of April 2009. A complete professionally shot version of the Vienna production was released on DVD in October 2009. (Formally September 11, 2009). A complete cast album was released in December 2009. The complete cast album contained the changes to the score and the music left unrecorded on the first cast album. The production closed on January 24, 2010.
A second hungarian
production opened on December 10, 2010 in Pécs
.
The show was directed by Szilárd Somogyi (assistant director of the original hungarian production), with Zoltán Bókai as musical director and conductor.
In the leading roles: Dénes Kocsis/Árpád Zsolt Mészáros as Rudolf, Anna Györfi/Bernadett Vágó as Mary, Ádám Ottlik/Attila Götz as Taaffe, Dávid Pirgel/ András P. Petőcz as Pfeiffer, Veronika Nádasi/Éva Várhelyi as Stephanie and Katalin Stubendek as Larisch.
((As known, the hungarian musical theatre doesn't work like lead artist/understudy/standby, but both (or all three) casts are equal.))
Major changes showed up in the interpretation of the songs, and in some places the order of the scenes changed drastically.
The opening night was a success, and since then the show is on the repertoire of the National Theatre of Pécs
.
Act II
^ English lyrics by Nan Knightnon (Originally from The Scarlet Pimpernel
)
Act II:
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
conceived for the stage by Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden, with a book by Jack Murphy and Phoebe Hwang, lyrics by Murphy, additional lyrics by Nan Knighton
Nan Knighton
-Biography:Knighton is the daughter of Dr. Donald Proctor, a physician and his wife, Janice, an artist. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she is a 1965 graduate of Bryn Mawr School, with an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a master's degree in creative writing from Boston...
, and music by Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
. Arrangements by Koen Schoots and orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg. It is about Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and his extramarital
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
relationship with Baroness Mary Vetsera
Baroness Mary Vetsera
Baroness Marie Alexandrine von Vetsera was a member of Austrian high society nobility and one of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria's mistresses...
. Their 1889 deaths at his Mayerling hunting lodge apparently were the result of a murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
-suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
pact, although historians have debated this explanation.
Loosely based on the book A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton
Frederic Morton
Frederic Morton is a Jewish Austrian writer who emigrated to the United States in 1940.Born Fritz Mandelbaum in Vienna, Morton was raised as the son of a blacksmith who had specialised in forging imperial medals. In the wake of the Anschluss of 1938 his father was arrested but later released again...
, the musical was developed under the working titles Vienna, Affäre Mayerling (The Mayerling Affair), and Rudolf - The Last Kiss. The pressures of the monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
have fallen upon Rudolf's shoulders, he is in political and personal conflict with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
, and his marriage to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Stéphanie was a Belgium princess by birth, and then made Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf...
is crumbling when he meets and falls in love with the 17-year-old baroness. Their secret liaison doesn't escape the attention of prime minister Eduard Taaffe
Eduard Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe
Eduard Franz Joseph, 11th Viscount Taaffe was an Austrian statesman who held a hereditary peerage in the Peerage of Ireland.-Family background and early years:...
, who hopes to use his knowledge of the affair to destroy Rudolf's political career.
Production history
Rudolf was given a reading in New York City on December 16, 2005 withRob Evan
Rob Evan
Rob Evan is a singer and actor, best known as a lead performer in numerous Broadway musicals, a performer in national and international tours of musical productions, and a featured vocalist on several music albums.-Personal:...
as Rudolf, Brandi Burkhardt
Brandi Burkhardt
Brandi Lynn Burkhardt is an American vocalist, actress and beauty queen. She grew up in Pasadena, Maryland but currently lives in Los Angeles.-Education:...
as Mary, and Michael Shawn Lewis as Taafe. As a co-production of Vereinigte Bühnen Wien
Vereinigte Bühnen Wien
Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , or United Stages Vienna, is a musical production company based in Vienna, Austria which produced several own musicals that were very successful.- Original musical productions :...
, the Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
Operetta Theater, and the Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
Open-Air Festival, it had its world premiere in a Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
translation at the Operett Színház in Budapest on May 26, 2006, followed by an outdoor staging that opened in Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
on July 28. Since then, the production has alternated between the two venues, playing in Budapest during the winter months and in Szeged for the summer season.
Rudolf was directed by Miklós Gábor Kerényi and choreographed by Michael Reardon, Éva Duda, Jenõ Lõcsei, and László Rogács. Musical Direction by Koen Schoots. Gergely Zöldi translated the book, and the Hungarian lyrics are by Zöldi, MG Kerényi, and Szilárd Somogyi. The original cast included Attila Dolhai as Rudolf, Bernadett Vágó as Mary, Tamás Földes as Taaffe, and Attila Németh as Franz Joseph.
A Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
production opened at the Raimund Theater on February 26, 2009 directed by David Leveaux
David Leveaux
David Leveaux is a British theatre director who has been nominated for five Tony Awards as director of both plays and musicals...
and starring Drew Sarich
Drew Sarich
-Biography:Sarich received a BFA in Musical Theatre with a concentration in Directing from Boston Conservatory in 1997. Sarich made his Off-Broadway debut in Tony n' Tina's Wedding, followed by a tour as a backup singer for Liza Minnelli with the Cortes Alexander Trio...
as Rudolf, Lisa Antoni as Mary, and Uwe Kröger
Uwe Kröger
Uwe Kröger is a famous musical star in the German-speaking countries of the world. Besides starring on stage, Kröger has taken part in numerous galas and concerts, as well as making a few television and film appearances...
as Taaffe. The cast album for this production was released at the beginning of April 2009. A complete professionally shot version of the Vienna production was released on DVD in October 2009. (Formally September 11, 2009). A complete cast album was released in December 2009. The complete cast album contained the changes to the score and the music left unrecorded on the first cast album. The production closed on January 24, 2010.
A second hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
production opened on December 10, 2010 in Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
.
The show was directed by Szilárd Somogyi (assistant director of the original hungarian production), with Zoltán Bókai as musical director and conductor.
In the leading roles: Dénes Kocsis/Árpád Zsolt Mészáros as Rudolf, Anna Györfi/Bernadett Vágó as Mary, Ádám Ottlik/Attila Götz as Taaffe, Dávid Pirgel/ András P. Petőcz as Pfeiffer, Veronika Nádasi/Éva Várhelyi as Stephanie and Katalin Stubendek as Larisch.
((As known, the hungarian musical theatre doesn't work like lead artist/understudy/standby, but both (or all three) casts are equal.))
Major changes showed up in the interpretation of the songs, and in some places the order of the scenes changed drastically.
The opening night was a success, and since then the show is on the repertoire of the National Theatre of Pécs
National Theatre of Pécs
-History:Theatrical plays became a regular attraction in the city from the beginning of the 19th century in German and Hungarian language. Most often they were arranged in larger dancing halls, inns, the small stage of Tettye or the Elefánt-house Inn. While being continuously planned from 1815...
.
Original Hungarian Production Song list
Act I- Viennese Specialties / Ez Bécs!
- Curtain Up / A város ünnepel!
- Mary's Theme / Mária dala
- The Men Who We've Become (You Never Listen) / Mért nem ért meg engem
- An Ordinary Man / Hétköznapi hõs
- Prince of Wales' Ball / A walesi herceg bálja
- Something More / Ez most más
- Finish What You've Started / Fejezze be, kérem!
- How Will I Know? / Mondd, mit tegyek?
- Fear And Desire / Kétség és ábránd
- The Tra-La-La Ice Skating Song / Trallalla-dal
- The Moment I Saw You / Kettõnk közt nemrég
- A Better Life / A nemzet hív
- Bird Dog / Nyulak és vérebek
- It's Only Love / Szerelem vár és semmi más ^
Act II
- The Master of the Strings / A mester és a drót
- It Will Be Me! / Nem más, mint én!
- New Boy In Town / Kiskatonám
- Measure Of A Man / Így vagyok csak én
- The Steps of Tomorrow / A holnap hídja
- Only Heroes Dare / Csakis az lesz hõs
- Maintain the State / A rend a fõ!
- The Writing's on the Wall / Ez szimpla egyszeregy
- Can I Say Goodbye? / Ez a perc úgy fáj
- A Leaf in the Wind / Akár az õszi levél
- I Was Born to Love You / Te értem születtél
- The Fourth Dimension Ball / A Negyedik dimenzió bálja
- Only Love (reprise) / Szerelem vár és semmi más (repríz)
- Viennese Specialties (reprise) / Ez Bécs! (repríz)
^ English lyrics by Nan Knightnon (Originally from The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel (musical)
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a musical with music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics and book by Nan Knighton, based on the novel of the same name by Baroness Orczy. The show is set in England and France during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution...
)
Austrian Production Song List
Act I:- Ouverture - orchestra
- Vorgang auf / Curtain Up
- Wiener Schmäh / Viennese Specialties
- Wie jeder andere Mann / An Ordinary Man (short version)
- Du willst nicht hören / The Men Who We've Become (You Never Listen)- *Wiener Schmäh (reprise) / Viennese Specialties (reprise) -
- Ein Hübscher Krieg / Pretty Little War
- Mary's Lied / Mary's Theme (Mary's song)
- Der Ball / The Ball
- Marys Walzer / Mary's Waltz
- Der Ball (reprise) / The Ball (reprise)
- So viel mehr / Something More
- Die Strahlende Zukunft / Blue Skies (short version of "The Steps of Tomorrow")
- Zeit zu Handeln / Finish What You've Started
- Wohin führt mein Weg? / How Will I Know?
- Tralala / The Tra-La-La Ice Skating Song
- In dem moment als ich dich sah / The Moment I Saw You
- Vertrau in uns / Only Love (Trust in us)
Act II:
- Die Fäden in der Hand / The Master of the Strings (I hold the strings in my hand)
- Du bleibst bei mir! / It Will Be Me!
- Wie jeder andere Mann / An Ordinary Man (long version) (like any other man)
- Wiener Schmäh (reprise) / Viennese Specialties (reprise)
- Mein süsser Held / New Boy in Town
- Mut zur tat / Measure of a Man
- Der Weg in die Zukunft / The Steps of Tomorrow
- Die Liebe lenkt / Only Heroes Dare
- Die Fuchsfalle / The Bird Dog -
- Wenn das Schicksal dich ereilt / The Writing's on the Wall -
- So viel mehr (reprise) / Something More (reprise)
- Zeit zu Handeln (reprise) / Finish What You've Started (reprise)
- Du bist meine Welt / I Was Born to Love You
- Vertrau in uns (reprise) / Only Love (reprise)(Trust in us - reprise)