#also Elisabeth is a QUEEN...

[archduchessofnowhere]

Queen Victoria to her daughter Crown Princess Victoria of Germany, on the engagement of Princess Stephanie of Belgium to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria:

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, MARCH 12, 1880 On Tuesday 9th the Empress [Elisabeth] of Austria came and stopped for luncheon and was most amiable. She is a little aged, but still very handsome and graceful and distinguished looking and the figure beautiful, only her dress was so tight she could hardly move or sit down. Poor little Stephanie’s engagement took everyone by surprise including the Empress and Leopold of B [King of the Belgians, Stephanie's father]. The poor thing has been completely shut up—never seen anyone—never been to a dance or a play etc. and suddenly the C. Prince of Austria is brought, speaks to her and she is engaged and brought out!! It is a most wonderful arrangement but you like children’s engagements and so you won’t be so astonished.

Crown Princess Victoria's reply:

PEGLI, MARCH 15, 1880 (...) I decidedly think with you that dear little Stephanie’s marriage is very sudden, and taking such a great leap all of a sudden, is of course very trying to a young girl’s mental and moral development! Though I was engaged at 14—and there are many other examples of the same kind, yet in principle I am strongly against it and think it far better to be a little older, but what I always pleaded is that there are cases where peculiar circumstances make it advisable and desirable—and unavoidable. I have heard no details yet. I suppose the Crown Prince (who has been rather wild and flighty) was urged to marry and chose Stephanie young as she was. It will be a great trial to the poor dear child to be grown up on such short notice and engaged to a young man she does not know, and had never seen.

Queen Victoria's reply:

WINDSOR CASTLE, MARCH 22, 1880 (...) Neither Leopold B. or the Emperor of Austria knew anything of the Archduke Rudolf’s plans. It seems Stephanie was entirely his own choice. It is a great thing that the Emperor and Empress have at length allowed the marriage or rather the engagement to be announced, and I hope Willie [Prince Wilhelm, Crown Princess Victoria's son] will travel and see the world a little before he marries, which I trust will be next year. Those very long engagements are very trying and not very good and poor Victoria [Auguste Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Wilhelm's fiancée] will be 22 in October.

Fulford, Roger [ed.] (1981). Beloved mama: Private correspondence of Queen Victoria and the German Crown Princess, 1878-1885

Pictured: Princess Stephanie and Crown Prince Rudolf's engagement photograph, by Géruzet Frères, 1880 (left); Crown Princess Victoria of Germany, by Alexander Bassano, 1879 (right). Via Wikimedia Commons and the Royal Collection Trust.

[yume-x-hanabi]

Last night of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, we'll know the winner in a couple of hours.

I didn't attend any performance this year, but have been enjoying following the final on TV. I love the commentators so much, it's always interesting to hear what they have to say, plus their humor is often funny. I feel there's a bunch of inside jokes going around this year haha (like tracking attentively who eats a banana before their performance 😂). Honestly I find it extremely funny to watch classical music concerts being sort of commentated on like they're sport events.

As to who I'm rooting for... no one in particular, really, they all sound incredible to my noob ears. I don't know enough about piano to have a favorite (last year was different because I've listened to violin concertos an ungodly amount of times and definitely can spot differences in interpretations now have preferences now. Piano, not so much :p)

I really really love the imposed work though, especially since learning about the background behind it. And it's always fun to discover what each finalist decides to do with the improvisation section :3

[down-bad-for-mothman]

i can’t believe it took me this long to realize my true love. nevermind big foot, the mothman is where it’s at. My heart belongs to the mothman and his heart belongs to me.

[archduchessofnowhere]

If I may add:

The Celebrity Monarch: Empress Elisabeth and the Modern Female Portrait by Olivia Gruber Florek (University of Delaware Press, 2022). I haven't read it so I can't vouch for it, but it might be useful for OP's sister, as the author analyses how Elisabeth produced her public image (ignore the analysis of a portrait of Elisabeth's sister Marie though, as the author is mistaken in both the author and date it was painted).

Sissi's Wolrd: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth, edited by Maura E. Hametz and Heidi Schlipphacke (Bloomsbury, 2020). It is mainly about Elisabeth's impact in pop culture so maybe it's not what OP's sister was looking for, but it does have some chapters relating to the celebrity cult around her today (my personal favorite was "Sissi, the Chinese Princess: A Timely and Versatile Post-Mao Icon" by Fei-Hsien Wang and Ke-chin Hsia).

I would also recommend to read the "trident" of Elisabeth's classic biographies: Corti, Hamann and Haslip. Mainly, because I noticed that even in academic writings the biographical information about Elisabeth is usually drawn from those books rather than primary sources, specially if they were written by anglophone authors. For a more recent biography, I highly recommend Sisis Weg: Vom Mädchen zur Frau - Kaiserin Elisabeths erste Jahre am Wiener Hof by Martina Winkelhofer.

Speaking of biographies, there were some published right after her death, which could be useful as sources on how she was perceived at the turn of the century: Elizabeth, empress of Austria, a memoir by Edward Morgan Alborough De Burgh (1899); The martyrdom of an empress by Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen (1899); Elizabeth, empress of Austria and queen of Hungary by Clara Tschudi (1901). These aren't good biographies, but I find fascinating how Elisabeth seems like an entirely different person in each of these books. All are available in Google Books/Internet Archive.

Lastly, the Bayerische Staats Bibliothek also has a collection of digitalized newspapers, in case OP's sister wants to look outside of Austria.

Hi! Some time follower, first time caller. My sister's currently working on a paper about the cultural reception of Elisabeth of Austria/Sisi as an early example of celebrity culture. Given your area of specialisation and also your username, do you happen to have any recommendations for sources that might be worth looking into/pointers re: where to go looking? English or German.

I'm not asking you to do the research for her, obviously, and if you're busy or just don't feel like it, please ignore this, but I figured you might well have a worthwhile suggestion or two, so if there's any that come to mind it would be hugely appreciated.

Hope you are having a lovely day!

Are you looking for primary or secondary sources?

If you are looking for primary sources, the Austrian National Library has a very good digitized collection of both images and newspapers.

If you're looking at secondary literature, off the top of my head:

Alice Freifeld, "Empress Elisabeth as Hungarian Queen: The Uses of Celebrity Monarchism" in The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiances, and State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Monarchy (Berghahn Books, 2009)

Agatha Schwartz, "From “Guardian Angel of Hungary” to the“Sissi Look-Alike Contest”: The Making and Remaking of the Cult of Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary" in Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Its Legacy (University of Ottawa Press, 2010)

Chapter 5 of Pieter Judson's The Habsburg Empire: A New History (Harvard University Press, 2016) also has a section that discusses curating the image of the imperial family, including Empress Elisabeth.

That should at least give her a place to start, and then I would suggest looking at the footnotes and citations from those.

[fulesthefirst]

Today was the Elisabeth staged concert with the OG Hungarian cast in Budapest. (And I have some notes that nobody asked for.)

It's marvellous that even after almost thirty years since the premiere, the original cast was able to deliver such a powerful performance vocally that I'm still buzzing a little. Now the negatives...

I know it's a staged concert, there was never meant to be a full set, but we only had these huge-ass LED walls, and they were godawful.

The stage direction was probably "just wander around aimlessly," cause most of the time that's what they did (which is a shame because the director was none other than "Seine Majestät der Tod," Szabó P. Szilveszter himself).

Speaking of whom, even as a fifty-something man, his stage presence could still easily outshine any young Tod, and his voice is still incredible. But for some reason somebody decided to leave his original genderfluid, glitter makeup, drag queen-fae costume behind in the past, and instead he was dressed up as a tesco priest who was also a raccoon... What's the point of a Hungarian production if there are no sparkly Hungarians, hmm?

Also... what about Mayerling, you ask? Yeah. Well, basically young Rudolf killed old Rudolf with a wooden sword. They no-homoed so hard Death was reported missing.

[royal-hair]

BELGIUM - Frédéric Van Espen, Claude Noterdame & Alain Tholl de l'Enclos

Starting with the current Queen's hairdresser, Frédéric Van Espen steppend into the position in 2013, just before she became Queen of the Belgians, and has been styling her for national and international events since then. He has also worked with Elisabeth and Eléonore.

He's the owner of Didier & Rosalinde hair salon in Brussels, but he usually works wiith Mathilde in the private quarters at Laeken Castle. Looking at the website and portfolio you can see the similarities of his other works and what we've seen on Mathilde for a while:

I found an interview on the occasion of his 10th anniversary as the Queen's hairdresser where Frédéric gave a lot of detals of his work with Mathilde, even how it all started (second link below). According to what he said to HLN he's good friend with Edouard Vermeulen at Natan and he recommended him to Mathilde's team because her previous hairdresser was quitting.

His very first work was for Willem-Alexander's enthronement events, a tiara event to launch his career as the Queen's hairdresser, and not a simple gala, but an event for history books. I gotta confess that even if it's not an updo, Mathilde's hair on the day of the entronement it's one of my fave looks on her and I do see a change in style from the previous years.

Frédéric talked about how sometimes is dissatisfied with his work and that he notice little mistakes and is concerned about the outcome but that Mathilde reacts light-heartedly with a "Oh, that happens!" and I think that's the most on-brand Mathilde.

He also stated that when there are public events, he styles Mathilde at 7AM at Laeken, but on the occasional time, she goes to his salon and they have a private box for high profile clients such as her or, surprise, Prince Laurent. Frédéric also talked about when there's a state visit or during national day, he goes to the palace several times because everytme Mathilde changes clothes, he match the hair with the outfit, or when there's a trip abroad, he works on the plane in the stewards cabin without a mirror (talk about trust).

While he talks about what Mathilde likes, he says that she likes to stick to her classic style, but that Elisabeth now that she came of age give him more room to experiment. This interview was made 2 years ago, and I can't assure that he always does Elisabeth's har, but because she isn't a full-time working royal and her events are pretty limited, it's pretty safe to say that he's the one behind her two tiara appearances.

And I don't want to end this post without mentioning Paola's two known hairdressers: Claude Noterdam and Alain Tholl de l'Enclos. While Alain is also mentioned as her hairdresser, my guess from what I actually found, is that Claude was her main hairdresser for about 40 years. He was the owner of Maison Roger in Brussels and in 2016 he stepped down handing the salon to Alain and that's why he is also mentioned, because of the conection to Maison Roger.

Claude Noterdame started working with her when she was newly engaged to Albert, so he was the one behind those big updos we all liked (because we do agree that she had the best hair of her generation of Queens, right?)

He said that she visited his salon at least once a week, but when she couldn't he went to work at Belvédère Palace. He also accompained her to visits to the United States of Lebanon.

I actually found a small interview that RTL did in 2017 with Claude where he shows an archive of pictures of her updos that I would kill to see for myself and he also keeps pictures of a young Claude with Paola in different gatherings. It's in french and I understand just a little bit. Here it is in case you want to see those pictures and him talkng for 5 minutes:

Of course there's less information about the older generation's hairdressers, or at least is harder for me because of the limited resources in languages I don't speak (you should see me translating the dutch interviews hahaha). But at least there's something to offer you in these series of royal hairdressers.

To close this belgian edition,, I found a few titbits about Alain: he also styled Mathilde (probably before Frédéric came into the picture in 2013) and Princess Claire. He also works with Princess Laurentien of The Netherlands and both ladies usually have their hair done like any other client in the salon. He also stated that when they're in Belgum, he styles Princesses Marie Astrid and Margaretha of Luxembourg and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie.

Sources: x x x x x x

[labuenosairesfrancaise]

Hvidøre House

Hi guys!!

I'm sharing Hvidøre House. 

This is my first build since last year... I have been off trying to make the game work again and also moved countries!!

This time I only focused in the house itself and did not decorated the rooms.

History of the house: 

Hvidøre Houseis a former country house at Klampenborg, most known for serving as the home of Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, daughter of King Christian IX and mother of the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, after she was exiled by the Russian Revolution of 1917.

At the beginning of the 16th century, King John of Denmark built a royal residence at Hvidøre, guarding the only landing place to the north of Copenhagen. King Christian II used it for his mistress and her mother after his marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Habsburg in 1515.

The castle changed hands many times over the centuries, and was eventually acquired by Counsellor Frederik Bruun [da] in 1871. He demolished it and charged the architect Johan Schrøder [da] with the design of a country house to be built in its place, for use as a summer residence for his family. From then on, the name Hvidøre denoted the house rather than the locality. Hvidøre was built from 1871. Counsellor Bruun died in 1887, but his widow kept Hvidøre until 1906.

In February 1906, King Christian IX's daughters, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, acquired the building for DKK 280,000 to use it as a summer residence during their frequent visits to their native Denmark. They commissioned an aging Johan Schrøder to adapt and modernize the house with modern conveniences such as central heating while the British firm Waring & Gillow was put in charge of most of the interior decorations.[1] A tunnel was also dug to provide direct access to the beach, which belonged to Hvidøre but was separated from it by the coastal road.

In the years that followed, the sisters generally stayed at Hvidøre from September until November, but this came to an end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

After the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia in the 1917 Revolution, Maria Feodorovna, known as Princess Dagmar of Denmark before her marriage, fled Russia and took up residency at Hvidøre until her death in 1928, together with her daughter and son-in-law, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Nikolai Kulikovsky, and their two children.

More history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hvid%C3%B8re

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

House file:

Location: Klampenborg, Denmark

Style:  Historicist design which combines Italian and Victorian Renaissance features

Date:  19th century

This house fits a 50x40  lot.

Hope you like it.

You will need the usual CC I use:

all Felixandre cc

all The Jim

SYB

Anachrosims

Regal Sims

King Falcon railing

The Golden Sanctuary

Cliffou

Dndr recolors

Harrie cc

Tuds

Lili's palace cc

CC Complete list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y4qmv1VFXpF-LBIw5YH-rIv6Ko5_4Pdk/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117019748829245817204&rtpof=true&sd=true

Please enjoy, comment if you like the house and share pictures of your game!

Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/sims4palaces/

@sims4palaces

DOWNLOAD FREE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/hvidore-house-125142231

[skobbeloff]

very rough and messy summary of the six the kids musical brainstorm first draft thing:

I think people liked the idea so here's the summary of what I came up with...

all of em – “Heavy Crown”

there is a sorta who lives who dies who tells your story vibe... it starts the musical i wanna establish that this musical is about succession and power.

OH!! this is how we connect the story. the crown drops cuz its heavy, it falls on ed, then mary, but it’s to heavy so at the end of their songs, the crown drops down, then finally liz. the crown falls on liz at the last part of her song (since her song starts w her as a child instead of crowned) and she puts the crown onto herself. (we're stopping there cuz of time concerns aka i got too lazy to read the wikipedia for what happens after liz)

//ah how do i… include the religious/political nuiances? //politics not my thing moment...

“Who will be next?” or “next in line” ig

just a small contextualising song (not even really a song). its giving that. "where will she strike next?" from wicked kinda vibe

henry dies! oh no! anyway…

establish liz and mary as illegitimate 

Edward VI – "King Before Dawn"

like a lullaby?? i was kinda thinking of bastille...? Idk but i guess i am also kinda going for the soft vibe yk. He's a bit inspired by rudolf from Elisabeth.

AURORA runaway, When the party's over, or

i feel like the climax would be like this waking moment for him? cuz all this time he’s been in a dream, but its not bc he doesn't want change, like he’s trying, but its like they’re forcing him to sleep or something. the original title was “sleep, little king”, so i mean… he's just a kid, so his wants and visions are only regardes as dreams

motif thing: i want the kids to like, learn from their mothers, and jane says "i hope my son will know he'll never be alone" and "my love is set in stone", so, i think… something like "in my dream, I'm not alone, love carries me on the throne, but then i wake and then it falls away"... I'm not using "heart of stone" cuz it goes against ed's airy dreamy vibe (yk.. cuz stone...)

"i close my eyes, so i could be, king for one more day"? "before dawn"?? i unno.

This would reflect Edward’s child-like ambitions and dreams of reform, but also his helplessness due to his age and the weight of expectations (i see him sorta like a puppet king, yk? cuz his reign is ran by council)

Thats why I imagine a dream-like setting. cuz during his rule he was “asleep”.

Lady Jane Grey - "Nine Days" (should we even include her)

ed: i need someone to take care of england like i wish i had (lists a bunch of characteristics as liz and mary kinda do this like.. comedic pushing each other and posing thing) it will be… Jane grey! (jane snuck onto the stage and the light suddenly shines on her and shes awkwardly standing there just: :) hiiii 

mary and liz: ??

Jane never wanted the crown but was executed so… it’s pretty tragic. but i want to give her a light number! to lighten the mood a bit!! Also because everyone else who git beheaded had a lit number haha we're keeping the trend!!

since she’s called the "Nine Days Queen", what if… her song is in a count down format? and it gets faster? Yes I took inspo from 10 rule commandments.

towards the end she screams "Have mercy upon me, O God"

“Third Succession Act”

or a next in line reprise... it's a lot darker tho. Mary and Liz ride in on. "horseback" and instantly you get this vibe like "o something is about to go down..."

i just want like chanting but it’s still a short interlude. 

there’s a darker turn to prep for mary’s song? i was thinking a bit of like the starting chant of "the plagues" from prince of egypt.

wikipedia says: “Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August, on a wave of popular support. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen.”

Mary: wonderful. take Jane out of here, please.

Mary I – “To ashes”

as in she will stand strong until she is ashes, but also burning the heretics to ashes.

when i first started my mind went: LADY GAGA!! but i actually... want her to have a much more serious and solemn kinda vibe, so...

its like… p heavy and intense in terms of beat like im imagining some iron clanging but also seriously good choir.  dark, dramatic, grand... im thinking a lot about like... olim from the hunchback of notredame (the disney musical one).

I pull out a dark edit audios playlist... nah, but ummm Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Lorde Cover), You Should See Me in a Crown, Castle by Halsey? but with heavy choir backing...? Or like The Seed by AURORA? or a few of the Soap&Skin songs.

other titles ive considered are: “By My Own Hand/ For Her Own Good” (her refering to england). yk i want her song to be more from her perspective, to show her motivation instead of just "bro's a serious arsonist".

motif thing: i will make my way (instead of no no no no no no no way)

i don’t know i just think it suits her

bloody mary frfr she gon be big scary lady muahahaha

“Heavy crown reprise”

A transition number showing Mary’s downfall, and the crown slipping again. Could be a ghostly echo of the opening song; mary is up bathed in red light and then thud! the light turns like this light and beige in a small jail bar square shape onto liz who is kneeling in white (getting out from imprisonment and starting small)

Elizabeth I – "For good(? glory??), Alone"

get it? the song name is like “for good alone” but also “for good, (i am) alone”

her inspo was originally kate bush, Chappell Roan, and marina. However, after doodling her I wanted to give her a much more reserved personality. I imagine liz with this mixture of ham burr and ham eliza where she is quiet until she is sure. I know a lot of people give her a much more light and loud personality but idk if i see that...

i feel like it starts small then slowly builds to become grand or something. I guess I kinda take Aurora as a reference for her...?

towards the end of the song, in the background i wanna add a choir going “gloriana”

could have a speaking segment (like in teach them how to say goodbye) cuz she got some pretty fire quotes

Motif thing: "Just not to lose my head"

from Anne Boleyn’s "Don’t Lose Your Head," representing like… a constant balancing act of power, survival, and public image; taking charge without falling into the traps her mother did.

keeping her head (literally and metaphorically) could also tie into the calculated patience???

touch on how she carefully navigated political waters and worked to build England's glory, all while dealing with personal and political challenges that could have caused her downfall at any moment

quotes to use? I will have no master; i saw and i kept silent

Closing? like… something like.. like “Still she remains”

I was gonna end with liz so the first ideas were “Gloriana”, "No King But Me”, “Still I Stand". But then six ends with all queens, so I'm prolly gonna do that (not really including jane, tho); see i would say “England remains” but yk… ireland was there too, so…

“A throne of my own” would be cool, but i want this to end outwards, as in this was the past, but now look at the present and future.

“still she remains” could start with referring to liz, then to england (and ireland).

The last lines could hint that even Elizabeth’s reign will pass, and England will continue, liz holds out the crown and the lights narrow on the crown, not on any one person.

liz drops the crown down (as how it had dropped on ed, then to mary, then to liz). Her legacy. what is a legacy? It's dropping crowns for queens who you don't get to meet-- /j

//idk are these all to heavy? probably. where’s my pop girlies :( //i don't know if anyone would get me if i said... they're burn blister and blaze coded...

I hope this was fun :P

[beepbeepbirdie]

Introductory post

artist,

musical lover,

aspiring costume

designer

cats is my favourite musical!

It's the main topic of this blog <3 I especially love non-replica productions

Fav characters include Tugger, Cassandra and Etcetera

I also love other musicals like Starlight Express, Elisabeth, and The rocky horror picture show

albums I love

the queen is dead; the smiths

criminal; fiona apple

masterpiece; big thief

Other music I love is Adrianne Lenker, Finn Wolfhard, and David Bowie

random facts about me

I draw a lot traditionally, but never colour them in

I also do theatre, but want to stray away from acting and focus on costume design & making

The rocky horror picture show is the reason I'm even into theatre

I get inspired a lot by the Marauders fandom, even though I'm not actively in it

[royalty-nobility]

Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and the Court Painter

Artist: James Dromgole Linton (English, 1840–1916)

Date: c. 1910

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Sheffield Museums, United Kingdom

Elizabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth of Hungary (7 July 1207 – 17 November 1231), also known as Elisabeth of Thuringia, was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary and the landgravine of Thuringia.

Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. After her husband's death, she regained her dowry, using the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death in 1231 at the age of 24 and was canonized on 25 May 1235. She is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, and is today honored as its patroness.

[dmloae]

ROLE MODEL

#figureskater!caitlyn → idol!caitlyn x reader

[k-pop au]

CHAPTER 1.5

| masterlist | ← | previous chapter | → | next chapter |

𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝗻𝗼

𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗽 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗢'𝘀

𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗠 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄

synopsis : filler chapter (more about the group)

genre + wc: kprofile, group’s insta & twitter with official members accounts! smau kinda (??). wc : 452

enjoy! @dmloae2025

mantra 만트라

(especially in hinduism and buddhism) a word or sound that is believed to have a special spiritual power:

A personal mantra is sometimes repeated as an aid to meditation or prayer.

The group debuted ⅕ years after Caitlyn went to South Korea.

mantra 만트라 SOCIALS:

group’s instagram

group’s X (twitter)

personal members instagram

mantra 만트라 DISCOGRAPHY:

## debut the 1st mini album (status : very very successful)

ascension

teaser : burn the bridge (o.g by LE SSERAFIM)

view count : 160.5M win : —

pre-release : butterfly effect (o.g by ARTMS)

view count : 178.4M wins : 4

title track : welcome to my world (o.g by aespa)

view count : 208.2M wins : 12

the first single album (status : very very successful)

ice queen

title track : ice queen (o.g by IVE)

view count : 150M wins : 3

japanese debut (status : very successful)

title track : supernatural (o.g by NewJeans)

view count : 118M wins : —

[end of the dreamy concept with the 3 albums]

## the 1st full album (status: very very successful!)

pre release: blind red eyes (o.g by Minnie g-iDLE)

view count : 198M wins : 4

[writing credit : Caitlyn K.]

title track : mantra (o.g by Jennie)

view count : 210.3M wins : 13

bside : chaconne (o.g by Enhypen)

view count : — wins : —

bside : swim (o.g by Chase Atlantic)

view count : — wins —

bside : satellite (o.g by Youha)

view count : — wins : —

bside : tempo (o.g by Kyu)

view count : — wins : —

mantra 만트라 KPROFILE:

mantra (만트라) stylized as mantra, is a 6 member South Korean girl group under [..] Entertainment.

consisting of Caitlyn, Sophia, Ena, Beth, Nani and Vale.

They made their Korean debut on November 23th with the mini album “Ascension”, they made their Japanese debut on July 8th with the single “Supernatural”.

Caitlyn :

Stage name : Caitlyn

Birth name : Caitlyn Kiramman

English name : —

Nationality : Filipino, Chinese

Position: Leader, Main dancer, Lead Rapper, Vocalist, Visual, FOTG, Center.

Birthday : January 4th 2003

Representative Emoji : ⚔️

Fun Fact : She was a figure skater before becoming an idol for unknown reasons.

Stage name : Sophia (소피아)

Birth Name : Yu Sophia

Position: Main Vocalist

Birthday: October 2th 2004

Nationality: Korean

Representative Emoji: 🧚

Fun fact : Known for her powerful vocals and stage presence.

Stage name : Ena (에나)

Birth name : Kim Ena

English name : Esther

Position: Lead Dancer, Lead Vocalist

Birthday: November 27th 2004

Nationality: Korean-American

Representative Emoji: 🕷️

Fun fact: —

Stage name : Beth (베스)

Birth Name : Elisabeth Brown

English name : Elisabeth

Position: Lead Rapper, Vocalist, Dancer

Birthday: May 6th 2005

Nationality: Japanese-French

Representative Emoji: 🪞

Fun fact : She was a child model before debuting.

Stage name : Nani (나니)

Birth name : Nani Yizuho

Position: Main Rapper, Sub Vocalist, Dancer

Birthday: May 26th 2005

Nationality: Chinese

Representative Emoji: 🦊

Fun fact: —

Vale (발레)

Position: Main Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Maknae

Birthday: June 5th 2006

Nationality: Afro-American

Representative Emoji: 🐈‍⬛

Fun fact: —

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

a/n : this took so so long😭. hope you enjoy tho!

oh, also :

logo made by me (ibis paint x)

inspired by a lottttttt of tiktok and yt videos for group concept so credit to all of them🩷!

[archduchessofnowhere]

The Ducal Wittelsbach family and their relatives, early 1890s. From left to right, standing: Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria, Duchess Sophie Adelheid in Bavaria, Archduchess Maria Annunziata of Austria, Princess Maria Immacolata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria.

Sitting: Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria (née Infanta of Portugal), King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies, Queen Marie Sophie of the Two Sicilies (née Duchess in Bavaria)

Via As Infantas de Bragança e a Sua Descendência - História das Filhas de D. Miguel by Dativo Salvia Ocaña

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Romanov Rare Footage Analysis:

This footage was taken while the Romanov family was visiting Romania in 1914. In the foreground we see Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna bouncing up and down in a silly way. One might wonder why she is doing this. To find out we have to analyze this piece of rare footage.

Anastasia seems to be talking to someone in a white dress and a hat on. That person is who i believe to be Princess Marie “Mignon” of Romania (later Queen of Serbia). In the background of this footage we also see Queen Elisabeth of Romania (far right with baby Prince Mircea of Romania being held by someone), Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (talking with people), and Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna who we see towards the end of the clip holding what looks like a Brownie Box Camera which the Romanov family used to take pictures.

Now what are Anastasia and Mignon doing? My belief is that Mignon went to greet Anastasia by naturally curtsying (which was the correct protocol) and Anastasia also did the same thing at the same time. I think Anastasia was doing several small curtsies afterward to kind of make a joke out of the moment (hence the giddy bouncing we see in the footage). OTMAA always felt embarrassed or shocked when close members of their family, or anyone at all, treated them with their normal official rules that the protocol demanded (aka curtsying or using official titles). Anastasia probably wanted to break the ice in that moment or make a funny joke of the curtsying at the same time thing. Also we can see the two girls having a good laugh so that could also be why Anastasia is bouncing so much. In the end of the footage we see Tatiana come up to the two girls with her camera ready and it looks like she is going to take a picture of them. The following photo could be the one she took but I’m not sure that it is.

Here are some other photos from the day that this footage was taken:

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Kay Francis (Jewel Robbery, I Loved A Woman, British Agent)— kay francis was an icon of glamor in her time and a top star of the 30s - she was the highest-paid actress at warner bros from 1930 to 1936. she tended to play characters who were charming, sophisticated, and elegantly dressed, and starred in at least one legitimate masterpiece, the sublime 1932 comedy trouble in paradise. her first big role was in the marx brothers movie the cocoanuts in 1929, and she and william powell made seven movies together between 1930 and 1932. even in her sillier movies she always elevates the material with her charm and presence - she never phones it in and there’s a sort of warm, knowing wittiness about her. a really good short promo from a retrospective of her movies that i think really gets her Vibe across

Elisabeth Welch (Song of Freedom, Big Fella, Dead of Night)— Starry-eyed, honey-voiced, magnetic. A Broadway star in the 1920s, she SHOULD have become a torch-singing Hollywood star when talking pictures came in. Instead she was faced with Hollywood racism, so she moved to Europe and juggled British movie roles and a top-class cabaret career. (Heard the classic songs "Stormy Weather" or "Love For Sale" or "As Time Goes By"? She introduced them all.) You need to hear her croon, so here she is co-starring with certified hot vintage man Paul Robeson [video below the cut]

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Kay Francis:

Jewel Robbery clip

"From 1932 through 1936, Francis was the queen of the Warner Bros. lot, and, increasingly, her films were developed as star vehicles. By 1935, Francis was one of the highest-paid actors, earning a yearly salary of $115,000, dwarfing the $18,000 Bette Davis – who would one day occupy Francis's dressing room – made. From 1930 to 1937, Francis appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, second only to child sensation Shirley Temple's 138." Source: Wikipedia. Kay Francis is like the MOST FAMOUS Actress from the 1930s you've never heard of--and it was her and Norma Shearer who wore and made classic the 1930s tall, slim, bias cut silhouette. She ALSO has a WHOLE PODCAST episode devoted to her life and career in Hollywood--it's fascinating! She is both tough and a total wet cat.

One of the TALLEST Warner Brother stars at 5’9” and known as a “clothes horse” for her glamorous roles wearing the height of 1930s fashion. She fell out of popularity in the 40s, but her 30s work sizzles. The scene with her and Herbert Marshall in Trouble in Paradise where she says she doesn’t care about his reputation (because she’d rather sleep with him?) HAWOOGA

melted my gay heart with her butch look in stolen holiday

"My life? Well, I get up at a quarter to six in the morning if I'm going to wear an evening dress on camera. That sentence sounds a little ga-ga, doesn't it? But never mind, that's my life ... As long as they pay me my salary, they can give me a broom and I'll sweep the stage. I don't give a damn. I want the money ... When I die, I want to be cremated so that no sign of my existence is left on this earth. I can't wait to be forgotten." —From Kay Francis's private diaries, c. 1938

Elisabeth Welch:

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Elisabeth: das Musical (1992) [Elisabeth: the Musical]

Ayyyyyyyyy its been several months but Im BACK BABEY!!! Im not gonna be back for long though because Im not unemployed yet so I dont have the time to watch movies and write reviews about them all the time, but I do have the time to sit down every once in a while and write a little bit of this. which has been taking me several months now

Anyway, if you thought I wouldnt use this project as an excuse to rewatch my favorite musical, you would be very wrong >:)

Now, since this is my favorite musical you would probably think that writing a review would be easy, but because Ive basically been thinking about it nonstop for a few months, its caused me to have this giant buildup of thoughts, its kind of like theres a clogged faucet in my brain right now, to the point where I struggle to properly articulate any of them, especially if Im not being prompted somehow. Like it goes beyond vampire-autism at this point, its not enough to just invite me to talk about Elisabeth, you need to ask me specific questions (on that note, my askbox is always open <3)

So yeah, Im not going to go into a lot of detail but to make up for that, I will be talking about all different productions Ive seen so far in the order that I watched them in (all proshots because Im unfortunately very picky when it comes to my musical-recordings looking and sounding good lol)

The Vienna Production(s)

Thats referring to the original 1992 version, the 1998 version and the 2005 revival.

oughhhhhhh its so good, they really put everything into this one: beautiful songs, strong artistic direction, incredible social commentary, a portrayal of death that serves mad cunt, gay sex etc etc

My first experience with this musical went as follows: my mother bought me the 2001 Essen cd and just kinda put it (and a few other musical cds that dont matter) in my room while I wasnt there without telling me, because we were arguing and our relationship was pretty bad at the time, and it took me a while to listen to it, in part because I was mad at her and wanted to spite her (?) but also I didnt look at the cd cover very closely and for the longest time I thought it was about one of the british Elizabeths and I was like "tch. i dont care about some british queen, im not listening to that". And then one day I actually looked at it and saw that it was a Sissi-musical, which, I also didnt care about her at the time so that didnt really pique my interest either. A few days later I decided to look at the back of the cd cover which had all the song titles, and then I just kinda did that again every few days until I finally took the little booklet with the lyrics out of the case, read through them, and then at last listened to the songs. I do not know why I was doing like, regency-era courting rituals with this random cd, I have never done this before or since, but I did it this one time. And I really liked it so I would listen to it atleast once every day, usually in the mornings because I always wake up at 5am and I needed something to kill time before I had to leave at 7 lol

Theres only 16 songs on this cd and I think they do a decent job at 'summarizing' the story, but I could tell I was missing a lot (although I thought it was just dialogue at the time), and I was really curious about that but I didnt even try to find a proshot or a bootleg or look further into it because I didnt think I was going to find it because I thought it was super obscure because its. german. Idk, does anyone else kindof instinctually assume that every piece of media from your native country is some obscure bullshit that no one cares about (including other people from your native country) or is that just me? Whatever, despite me not looking further into it, I did eventually get the 2005 proshot recommended to me on youtube which is great, i love that google knows my every move and I love that I cant do anything about it. But for some reason I still needed that push to get me to actually watch it, and that push came in the form of a Diana: The Musical review. I watched it and then I read some of the comments and then I left my very own, very long comment where I compared it to Elisabeth: das Musical. Since I obviously hadnt seen either musical in full it was honestly probably pretty incoherent, but my main point was that it looks like Diana couldve really used some satire and social commentary elements similar to the ones present in Elisabeth, which I knew were there because the cd had Milch and Kitsch. Those songs are actually one of the things that I initially found very intriguing because they seemed so out of place among most of the other songs that are these very emotional and earnest ballads and duets, like Wie Du, Ich gehör nur mir, Elisabeth mach auf mein Engel, Ich will dir nur sagen, and Boote in der Nacht are more or less what I would expect from a Sissi-musical, and then Der letzte Tanz is more or less what I would expect from a Sissi-musical where death is a love interest, but Kitsch especially was such a wildcard in there.

Anyway, after I wrote that comment under the Diana: The Musical review, it occurred to me that I should probably watch Elisabeth: das Musical before I start writing needlessly long analyses in random comments sections. And then I thought to myself "oh! since these are both musicals about generally beloved royal women, it would be interesting if I watched both of them for the first time back to back and then maybe made a video essay comparing them" I decided to watch Diana first because what little I heard of the songs in that review sounded pretty bad so I wanted to get that out of the way first, and it was indeed bad, but I was still sure that there was enough there to make a video essay about, especially if Im comparing it to something else. And then I watched Elisabeth and it was so good that I was like "you know, I dont think i want to compare this to that other piece of shit" so I didnt write the video essay I wanted to write originally and started on something that was just about Elisabeth das Musical, which I also didnt end up writing because I usually have a low attentionspan and I struggle with writing alot, thats a big part of why these posts take me so long, along with the fact that I have a job now thats been sucking all the time and energy out of me like a cruel vampire

So yeah, the 2005 proshot was my first time properly experiencing this musical and I do think its a good introduction because things are explained a bit more and it feels like more of a cohesive story compared to the original one which feels more loose with less connective tissue; like, you can tell this musical was made the assumption that the aufience already knew about Elisabeth as a historical figure to some extent, which is fair enough but I missed out on three years of highschool history so I knew literally nothing, like Rudolf's suicide was a huge surprise to me. And it spared me the disappointment of watching the full musical for the first time without getting to hear my second favorite song, Wenn ich tanzen will. That being said, I do vastly prefer the 1992 version simply because the cast is the definition of perfection. I have yet to see or hear an actor that managed to do a better with Lucheni than Ethan Freeman, and ohhhhh you shouldve seen how insane I was about Uwe Kröger's Tod after I first watched that proshot

Of course I also loved Pia Douwes, Andreas Bieber and Else Ludwig but I just feel a little less strongly about them because I think they usually do a pretty good job casting Elisabeth, Rudolf and Sophie, whereas I feel like they struggle to cast actors for Lucheni and Tod that manage to live up to the original cast even a little. Its definitely less bad with Lucheni, the main issue I have with most of his actors besides Ethan Freeman is that none of them ever even try to do an italian accent (probably because they cant do a good one which is good, no accent is definitely better than a bad one in this case, but still) so all the italian bits of dialogue sound really unnatural imo. But with Tod its like, straightup i dont even know what on earth theyre trying to do most of the time, but it very rarely works for me.

Now, the eagle-eyed of you will have noticed that ive talked about the 1992 proshot and the 2005 proshot but not the 1998 proshot, even though I mentioned it at the very start of this section. Thats because i FUCKING HATE IT!!!!! No just kidding, its mostly the same as the 1992 production except it has the longer version of Nichts, nichts, gar nichts and the cast is a bit worse. Its actually kind of impressive because thinking back on it, I feel like literally every actor was just the slightly worse knockoff version, with the exception of Maya Harkvoort as Elisabeth. And thats not to say that theyre bad, I just like them less than the original cast and I dont think they make any interesting acting choices to make up for it. And then theres the guy who played der Tod, whose name I am not looking up because Im about to get mean and I'll feel less bad about that if I dont use his actual name. He just sounds so bad. Hes like Uwe Kröger from an alternate universe where he cant sing. And to be fair, Im pretty sure this is the same guy as the one who played Tod on the 1996 cd and hes literally unbearable on that one, so he has improved quite a bit, but it just wasnt enough.

I remember a while ago when all my Elisabeth-mutuals reblogged this gifset of 1998!Tod and I dont remember if I only liked it or if I reblogged it as well but whatever I did, I did it with gritted teeth because I had recently watched that proshot and hated his performance. Everyone was going #woa mama hes serving cunt and in my head I was just like "yeah, but hes not serving a good performance thoughhhhhhhh". Also, he literally looks and has a lot of the same mannerisms as uwe!Tod, I'd be gravely disappointed if he didnt serve cunt

So yeah, its not like, awful or anything but I think the 1998 proshot is really only worth watching if you wanna see Maya Harkvoort as Elisabeth but in a pre-2001-changes production

The 1999 Schevening Production

Now THIS is an awful Elisabeth production! I hated this fucker so much I didnt even bother rewatching it for this post. Fortunately I did write a little review of it immediately after watching it, so if you care about my fresh 1999 Schevening Production Thoughts, feel free to scrawl through the bog that is my blog to find it

The first (and pretty much only) thing that you need to know about this one is that they cut all of the political songs. So theres no Hass, no Jedem gibt er das Seine, no Milch im pretty sure, and definitely no Die Schatten werden länger Reprise. Honestly I might be missing a cut song or two here because they somehow managed to shave a whole half an hour off this thing. I would be impressed by how they managed to do that without rendering the story completely incomprehensible if I wasnt so busy being angry at the way they just completely gutted this musical. I dont even understand why they did it, the musical is SO MUCH obviously worse for it! Like, okay, I could kinda get it if they had just cut Hass since thats obviously the most uncomfortable song (i would think less of them for it, but I would get it, the takarazuka version does it too) but them cutting the other political songs is just baffling to me because its like. bro. its politics from the 1800s, how is that upsetting or discomforting nowadays?

Whatever, lets talk about some other stuff. The cast was mostly not remarkable enough for me to remember ~1 year later. Pia Douwes is here as Elisabeth and shes very good as always, thats kindof it. This version of Der Tod is the most aggressive and overtly antagonistic Ive seen, which was kinda interesting in the sense that Death is usually personified as a straightfoward villain and vienna!Tod was kind of a subversion of that and a little more complex and now this production is basically subverting the subversion, but I untimately wasnt all that into it

I remember initially quite enjoying the sets and overall style of this production, Im pretty sure in my original review I said something along the lines of "I like the symbolism and abstractness of the original production, but its neat seeing a more literal take on it" and now Im just like. chuckles nervously, Okay guys, its been fun, can we go back to the symbolism. please.

So yeah, I really dont think this one is worth watching unless youre a hardcore Pia-stan or youre just really committed to watching every version of Elisabeth: das Musical you can get your hands on, like meeeeee <3

The 2004 Budapest Production

This is a really good one! I actually rewatched it for this post and I was excited to do so. I dont have too much to say about it though, in terms of story its fairly similar to the Vienna productions except that it has Kein Kommen ohne Gehen and the conspiracy song and der Tod has a bit more of a romantic vibe. Actually, i think a better way of describing it is, its like the takarazuka production but un-takarazukafied, which might not make that much sense if you havent seen both of these especially considering I havent talked about the takarazuka production yet. But what I mean is, both of these productions focus a lot more on the hungarian revolution-side of things and make it into more of a proper subplot, and the way they do it is mostly structurally the same (as in, new scenes/songs are inserted at mostly the same points in the narrative) but takarazuka version is a lot more glitzy and overdramatic where this production is a lot more grounded. I dont really prefer one over the other because the approaches are so different that I feel like they cant really be compared. I do like that they do that overall and I really like the conspiracy song for drawing additional parallels between Rudolf and Elisabeth, even though I know its not historically accurate, although I will say that it feels a little bit off in this production which otherwise does seem to be going for historical accuracy. Like, it doesnt bother me at all in the takarazuka production just because i feel like that one takes so many liberties that it doesn't really stick out, but even here, its not the biggest deal to me

Anyway, other stuff. The stage feels weirdly small, but I really like the sets, they lean a bit more towards being literal rather than symbolic but they do some really cool stuff with them, I especially like the way they'll spin essentially the whole set sometimes, it makes for some very interesting and dynamic staging. The performances were great, obviously Szabó P Szilveszter as der Tod was amazing, he has such a beautiful and powerful voice, and I also loved Janza Kata as Elisabeth. I feel like she played it a bit angrier than Im used to, like you can really feel her her frustration at the world around her even early on during Wie Du, and its so good. mwah

This production is the first one that Ive ever liked Franz Joseph in even a little. With him Im usually like "goddddd he sucks so much, i literally cant believe they got married" from the very start, but with this guy I was like "oh..... hes kinda cute, I get what Elisabeth sees in him" during So wie man plant und denkt and Nichts ist schwer. And I was initially worried that I only thought that because they didnt give him that historically acurrate haircut that the Vienna productions give that looks really bad and stupid, however I have since seen the takarazuka productions where they also give him a better haircut, and out of all the performers Ive seen Ive only liked two, so. yay! Im not shallow as fuck! Although I will reiterate that that era was truly a dark age for men's hair, I have such a viscerally negative reaction to most of those styles. And ugh, dont even get me started on the facial hair...... So yeah, while the haircut is not my only reason for liking him so much, it does help quite a bit

I will say, I noticed quite a few lyrics that I didnt really like. Or rather, because I dont speak hungarian so i dont actually know what the lyrics are and have to go off the subtitles and other translations, I dont like the sentiment behind them regardless of whether the lyrics sound good when you can properly understand them, if that makes sense. Like, the last line of Kein Kommen ohne Gehen was something like "You will be my queen of the night forever" and I just dont like that idea fundamentally, like my opinion of what this line is communicating wouldnt change if it was communicating it in a different way. But there werent too many lines that bothered me like that and most of them are not particularly (negatively) memorable, they just made me frown a lil as I was watching and then I basically immediately forgot about them.

So yeah, its really good and I'd definitely recommend watching it if you havent already

The Takarazuka Production(s)

That's referring to. all of them. I have seen all the normal proshots from 1996 to 2018, all the concert proshots and I have seen a few of the shinjinkoen ones as well (not all or even a lot of them bc theyre very hard to find unfortunately). Fortunately, theyre fundamentally all the same, the only big change that they ever made was adding Wenn ich tanzen will in 2002, and they change the costumes sometimes but thats it, so I dont have to get into every single individual production. Atleast not right now, I might at least compare the different Tod-performances because there are some striking differences, but that would be for a different post

I went on a bit of a journey watching all these different proshots, the first one I saw was the 1996 Star one and I absolutely loved it, then I watched a few more and I started noticing some issues which caused me to start disliking it, but then I watched some more and came around to liking it again. Its like, I have all these criticisms and complaints but I dont really think about those as Im watching it, Im just kinda along for the ride and having a good time and then when Im like, on a walk and I randomly start thinking about Elisabeth: Ai to Shi no Rondo I go "man, theres a bunch of shit here that sucks"

So yeah, lets talk about the shit that sucks, from Bothers Me Most to Bothers Me Least

It feels like they tried to make der Tod the protagonist instead of Elisabeth by giving him more stagetime and also giving him like three reprises of Ai to Shi No Rondo, effectively replacing the Ich gehör nur mir melody as the most important one, which I dislike on principle, but it also just plain doesnt work. Like, theyre trying to make this guy a protagonist with a rich inner world but first of all, hes supposed to be a personification of aspects of Elisabeth's (and Rudolf's) inner world and second of all, even as a more straightforward and human-seeming romantic character, his whole appeal is that you cant really know his inner world because hes mysterious like that and ultimately nonhuman, so all you can get out of him here is shallow little songs about his feelings for Elisabeth that are really bland and boring. Also, him singing about his love for Elisabeth so many times (and at such inappropriate moments like directly after she considered killing herself and at her sons funeral) makes him seem unbearably pathetic, but that actually doesnt bother me that much because I think its very funny

This version is definitely a lot more sanitized with there being no Hass, Kitsch and Kitsch Reprise being heavily altered to be less poignant, the bigger focus on Tod's romantic nature and Elisabeth's rougher edges being sanded down. The colorful costumes and sets also just make it feel like more of a silly fun time which contributes to the sanitized-ness imo. In a way, its kinda like the Scheveningen prod except this one went about its sanitization with surgical precision, where that one just started senselessly chopping off limbs

This version is very sillygoofy, thats the best word for it. This is my last complaint because if you catch me in the right mood this isnt even a complaint, this is just an aspect of the show that I think is fun and that I like a lot, but if you catch me in a different mood then boy will I complain. I dont really know how to properly explain this one in a concise way to someone who hasnt seen it. Instead of that little scene of some hungarians gossiping about little Sophie after Stationen einer Ehe, we get a scene of some hungarians being upset at the austrian empire and planning to stage a protest next time Elisabeth and Franz Joseph come to do some kind of assembly (? i guess) and then the assembly happens and they do the protest and the imperial guards shoot up into the air to intimidate them into stopping and then Franz Joseph turns to Elisabeth like "cmon, we gotta leave" but shes like "no wait" and she takes of her cloak (shes been wearing a cloak that hides her whole body basically this entire time btw), revealing her dress which is hungarian flag-colored and then she says "Éljen, Hungary!" and the crowd goes wild!!!

That scene is the sillygoofiest thing that happens in this production, nothing tops it, all the other sillygoofy bits are more subdued in their sillygoofiness, but still, I feel like its a good scene to use as an example of this show's sillygoofiness. Also, whenever I think about scenes in this show that are sillygoofy I always think of the scenes that are part of the whole hungarian revolution-subplot. Theyre actually not that tonally different from any of the other parts of this show, like obviously they would be absolutely hilarious if you just inserted them into the original austrian production or the hungarian production as they are, but they dont stick out within the takarazuka production itself, yknow what I mean? They've made enough subtle changes to the original material that the things that they added (which would otherwise seem incongruous with that material) dont immediately stick out.

All of this to say, I think the people who have tried to adapt this musical into the 'takarazuka style' have done an excellent job at it, but I could definitely see people who are fans of Elisabeth das Musical not really enjoying it because of that, unless theyre like me, and can be momentarily distracted from its flaws by virtue of featuring a bunch of beautiful women singing beautifully for 2 and a half hours. But if that sounds good to you, I would 100% recommend it because its a fun and very well-made time. I dont have a specific proshot that I would recommend over the others, but I will say that I have a huge soft spot for the 1996 Star one because its the first one i saw and I absolutely adore Asaji Saki's Tod, and for the 2009 Moon one because thats the one I spent a bunch of time making german subtitles for to show my parents

Okay, before I move on to talking about the next production, I just have one more thing to say, or rather ask: why are the takarazuka and hungarian productions so similar? They both premiered in the year 1996 (and there was no pre-takarazuka japanese prod to my knowledge) so it seems impossible to me for one to have taken from the other, and from what I can tell, the changes that are specific to both of these productions and that dont really appear in any others (except for the toho production but we'll get to that) have existed in both of them from the start, so like, how did that happen, what overlap was there between their creative teams because there must have been something or else they wouldnt have turned out so similar? So yeah, if anyone reading this knows more about the behind the scenes history of these productions, please tell me about it, Im very curious

The 2016 Toho Production (White Cast)

Its kinda funny going from the Takarazuka section where I had seen literally as many of them as I could physically get my hands on, to this one where Im just like "yeah, Ive just seen the one that Im pretty sure is the most popular one, its atleast the one I see people post gifs of the most". To be fair, I think theyve only released 6 or 7 proshots even though theyve been putting it on since 2001, god knows why

Whatever, this production is really good and I like it a lot. The songs are overwhelmingly the same as they were in the takarazuka production, although theyve made some changes to the ones that were the most different to make them more like they were originally. Thats honestly a good way of describing this production as a whole; if the Budapest one felt like the takarazuka one but completely un-takarazukafied, this one was like, 50% un-takarazukafied. I was really debating with myself what percentage I would say there, because while the changes are for the most part subtle and the overall sillygoofiness remains intact for the most part, they did keep Kitsch the same and they kept Hass the same which was honestly shocking to me, I was kind of expecting them to censor it somehow or atleast tone it down or something, which is why I was actually looking at the screen during this version for once (Hass usually gives me horrible intrusive thoughts and I usually watch musicals on my tv so I cant just skip ahead, so if Im watching it and its a language I dont speak I just look away for a bit, and if Im watching it in german I'll just leave the room for a bit) but uh. they dont, and not only that but they put a gigantic swastika flag on the stage that takes up basically the entire screen and just gives me the worst intrusive thoughts. And honestly, even though this caused my brain to torment me for like two weeks, Im glad they did it because Hass really isnt a song you should try to censor or downplay, you either do it or you just dont even try. Anyway, my point here is, because that alone was SO un-takarazukalike, I was originally going to say that this production was 80% un-takarazukafied, but then I thought about it some more and I was like "well yes, but then they also added that bit to that already-sillygoofy scene where Elisabeth reveals that her dress is hungary-colored to the crowd where Batthany tried to assassinate her at Tod's behest, so. i gotta lower that percentage I think" and thats how I ended up with that number

Anyway, time to talk about some stuff that isnt the tone and how it compares to other productions. I really liked the sets, theyre leaning more towards being symbolic, although I will say that the symbolism felt a bit more simplistic compared to the Vienna productions. Still, how can i deny the sheer effect of just having like half of the stage taken up by three gigantic coffins? I feel like there are so many scenes that were kindof elevated for me because I was just like "ohhhh theyre singing about this thing while standing on this gigantic coffin and it symbolises that death is all around them and the monarchy is built on death and theyre in the midst of this dying era". One example of this is in the Jedem gibt er das Seine scene, they do it exactly like you would expect, they dont do a carousel-thing like the Vienna production, but they put Franz Joseph and his desk and his whole entourage on those coffins and then the mother comes in below them on the stage, and its just so good, I dont know what to say

I dont have too much to say about the cast, it was pretty good all around, the only thing that I can remember rn is that I thought Hanafusa Mari as Elisabeth was a bit off. Specifically whenever she had to be sad, I just never quite bought it, but I did like her whenever she was happy or glad or during Wenn ich tanzen will when she was all spiteful, and obviously her voice was absolutely beautiful. Shirota Yu as der Tod was also great, he plays it like a real freak, he actually reminded me a lot of Matè Kamaras except I like this guy more because I feel like hes not constantly hissing and growling

So yeah, it's a good production that I would definitely recommend checking out if you can

The 2009 Antwerpen Production

I never thought I'd see a version of Elisabeth: das Musical that I would consider to be basically completely uninteresting, but those freaks over in belgium somehow managed to make it

But before I get into that, I want to tell you something about my experience watching this one (and also the Scheveningen one). So, the only languages I can speak and understand fluently are german and english, so I need subtitles in order to understand all of the non-austrian productions. However, I couldnt immediately find subtitles for the Scheveningen prod and I didnt even really try to look for them that hard because I thought "eh, it doesnt matter, i know this musical inside and out and I'll probably be able to atleast kindof of understand the lyrics without subtitles anyway" because in my head I just kinda think of german and dutch as being very similar because germany and the netherlands are geographically close, even though they really arent, so I ended up watching it just not understanding the vast majority of the words. But again, I know this musical very well so it really didnt matter, although I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting to have an interesting experience listening to this musical in a language that I can somewhat understand but that is also clearly not a language that I can actually speak, do you know what I mean? Anyway, smash cut to like a year later and Im on vk.ru looking for musical proshots to download and I stumble upon this one. Because antwerpen sounds kinda german to me I assume its a german-language proshot I hadnt heard of before so I dont look for subtitles and I just watch it as is, and Im very surprised when it is not in fact german. But I feel like I can kinda understand it, so I just keep watching and I end up having that I expected to have with the dutch proshot with this one which I think is flemish (?). I'm not sure, I dont recognize this language and when I looked it up to see if anyone online knew what it was, all I got was someone on reddit being like "idk, its probably flemish" so

Anyway, back to the actual review part of this whole thing. Why do I find this to be the most uninteresting version of this musical? In a lot of ways, its basically just the 2005 Vienna production except flatter; a lot of the physical sets have been replaced by screens, the performances are all good albeit pretty unremarkable otherwise, the few times they deviate from the Vienna production are fine but also unremarkable to the point that I dont feel like going into detail about them, and the costumes felt worse somehow? Like, theyre not trying to have any kind of symbolism, theyre just historical clothes, which, to be fair, none of the non-Vienna productions that Ive seen so far really try that hard for symbolism with the costumes, I think the reason it stuck out to me here is that its otherwise so similar to the Vienna ones. They dont have a mayerling dress which is immensely disappointing for the same reason, and also now that Ive written that out, Im fully realizing for the first time that literally no production other than the Vienna ones has it and Im getting pretty upset. sighhhhh. when will men-crossdressing enjoyers win

Moving on, while I find the cast mostly unremarkable, I do have a little bit to say about them. I really enjoyed the pathetic wet cat vibes that Jan Schepens brought to Lucheni, especially in the prologue where he has that very brief interaction with Tod, although I will say that I dont like how they made him so unaware of the main plot of the musical. Like, during his little narration bit before Jedem gibt er das Seine he has a newspaper and he has to read it in order to remember that its 1854, I know they do this in some Vienna prods as well and I hate it every time. Because the whole point is, hes just been stuck in this endless loop of retelling this whole story since he died 1898 so by the time youre watching this musical in 2009 or 1992 or whenever, he knows it in and out, thats why he seems so goddamn tired in the 1992 version!!! But other than that hes fine 👍

The other person I have something to say about is der Tod, although its not relly about his performance. His performance is like. in the nicest way possible, the reason i would say hes not literally the worst in terms of singing or cuntserving is that 1998Vienna!Tod and Scheveningen!Tod respectively exist. But while I was watching I was really distracted because I keept thinking "this guy looks so familiar but Im 100% sure Ive never seen him before, he just looks like someone else i know, but who is it that he reminds me of" and then when i got to Mama wo bist du, I realized: he looks so much like one of the guys who played Sebastian in some of the black butler musicals, or atleast my memory of what that guy looks like. And I felt kind of embarassed because I was like "ohhhhhhhh ive enjoyed the concept of Young Boy And Fucked Up Non-Human Have A Relationship Which Is Oddly Soft While Also Being Nothing But Red Flags for way longer than I realized huh" And also, OF COURSE i noticed the similarity in that exact scene, good god

Whatever, theres only one last thing that bothers me and that I wanted to talk about and its Wenn ich tanzen will. I dont like how Tod grabs Elisabeth and manouvers her around like that, which, the choreography here is the same as in the 2005 Vienna production, but I didnt fully realize just how much it bothered me until watching this one so Im talking about it here. I was originally going to do a whole analysis about how I dont think it fits the song very well and thats the reason I dont like it, but upon thinking about it, I think it works well enough. Yknow the contrast between Elisabeth being so defiant and refusing to give into him even though its clear that she knows hes right about all the stuff hes saying and her compromising physical position, and also how it lays bare that der Tod has no real power because hes ultimately a manifestation of her wants, thats all pretty good tbh

No, the reason I dont like this choreography for Wenn ich tanzen will is that its sexual in a way that I dont appreciate because the woman is in the submissive position. Its like. okay so, you know those dark romance/romantasy books about a 17-20 year old girl falling for a ~500 year old guy with overpowered shadow magic and having a bunch of sex with him that are really popular right now and also really popular to make fun of? Well, I used to really like hanging out in the making-fun-of spaces until I realized that people were getting really puratanitical about what people are 'allowed' to write and the extent to which authors are 'responsible' for imparting 'good messages' to their 'impressionable audience' which, these books are not usually categorized as YA, theyre pretty clearly aimed at women who are 18 and up and even if they are, teenagers are not that impressionable but Im not getting into that rn which bothered me, not just because I fundamentally dont agree with that, but also because my issue with them is not that theyre presenting relationship dynamics that are problematic in the sense that the age gap is too big or the power gap is too big or that theyre abusive or whatever, but that theyre presenting relationship dynamics that are problematic in the sense that theyre extremely sexist

And like, to an extend this is just an issue with mainstream romance books as a whole which is why I dont really read them, and Im not saying that anyone who enjoys them is sexist or bad, its just that it personally discomforts me to the point of killing my enjoyment in things like large age gaps or crazy power dynamics, which, for the record, I do genuinely really enjoy! I just dont like it when its like "oh the virginal teeny tiny girl whos barely legal gets with the biggest most bigdicked most powerful ancient MALE to ever exist and whos lowkey highkey abusive", but if a book like that came out where the genders were reversed and it was a cute barely legal ingenue boy and an ancient powerful evil woman, I would not only not have an issue with that, I would find it extremely hot. or if it was gay in some capacity which, books that are exactly like typical romantasy books but gay probably do exist, but I dont really see people discuss them as much, so. My point here is, the typical romance/romantasy relationship dynamic just feels like a model of the patriarchy except its two people instead of like, all of society, and I dont like that and I feel similarly about this Wenn ich tanzen will choreography. Like, its not quite the same feeling but I have trouble articulating my exact discomfort with it, so Im comparing it to a different kind of discomfort that I have with something else that I am capable of articulating.

So yeah, its a fine enough Elisabeth production. watch it if you want, dont watch it if you dont want

Aaaaaaaand thats it. I know Im still missing a couple of korean proshots that I havent seen yet because I havent been able to find subtitles for them, so if theres any korean-speakers in the audience who would be willing to make and share them, I would appreciate it. If no one wants to share them, there is a website called lyricstranslate where people can submit translations of any song into any language, and the korean lyrics are on there so if Im really lucky, someone has translated all of them into a language i know and i can make my own subtitles with those. But Im still working on making a subtitle file for the 2004 Budapest proshot (the version thats available with subtitles on the internet archive is hardsubbed and I'd like the option of having softsubs), so thatll have to wait. I also downloaded a video of the 2001 Essen production, I dont know if thats a proshot or a complete bootleg but I'll watch that one eventually too and if I can muster up the motivation, maybe I'll even write reviews for those as well

Anyway, how many of these have you seen and what did you think of them? Please tell me in excruciating detail, I love reading other peoples Elisabeth-thoughts

[royalchildreneurope]

News : The future of Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, The Duchess of Brabant, at Harvard University is uncertain as U.S. President Donald Trump wants to ban international students from Harvard.

The Guardian : “Princess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, has just completed her first year at Harvard University but the ban imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on foreign students studying there could jeopardise her continued attendance.

The US president’s administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students on Thursday, and is forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status in the US, while also threatening to expand the crackdown to other colleges.

“Princess Elisabeth has just completed her first year. The impact of [the Trump administration’s] decision will only become clearer in the coming days/weeks. We are currently investigating the situation,” said a spokesperson for the Belgian royal palace, Lore Vandoorne.

“We are analysing this at the moment and will let things settle. A lot can still happen in the coming days and weeks,” the palace’s communication director, Xavier Baert, added”.

Princess Elisabeth is now doing a 7-week internship at an international institution in Brussels -May 27th 2025.

📷 : Max Bueno/Belgian Royal Palace.