#and then romeo gets the j’ai peurs

[cto10121]

Is “à la vie, à la mort” mainly a platonic vow of loyalty in French?

Huh, good question. I looked it up and Collins’ Dictionary defines it as “for better, for worse.” Literally it means “unto life, unto death” or simply another way of saying “toujours” (forever). In the context of the show, it’s a platonic we’ll-be-best-friends-forever type of vow among the Montacrew…with an elegant but ominous waltz melody as epic foreshadowing of the tragedy to come. For my English version, I rendered it as a toast: “Here’s to life, here’s to love,” etc.

[drawn-and-talk-of-peace]

1-7 for the truth or dares

1: (truth) Who was your first major celebrity crush? (dare) Put your music player on shuffle and post the first five songs.

I’ve never really had a celebrity crush, so I’m choosing the music one by default... 

1. “Con che pietà,” Romeo e Giulietta. 

2. “Over and Over,” Three Days Grace (I was an angsty thirteen-year-old and it’s a great song!)

3. “Poor Thing,” Sweeney Todd. 

4. “J’ai peur,” Roméo et Juliette. 

5. “Left Behind,” Spring Awakening. 

2. (truth) What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you in the past week? (dare) Refresh your dashboard and send an anonymous compliment to the person who posted whatever's at the top of your dash.

I did the compliment one, but the way I type is a dead giveaway, so the anonymity of it is questionable. 

 3. (truth) What are your three favorite things about your appearance? (dare) List all nine of your tumblr crushes, and describe each blog/blogger in one word.

I rarely have anything positive to say about my appearance, so I’m giving it a try. One, I like my hair; two, I think I have nice eyes (?); three, I have long eyelashes (except they always get into my eyes and that hurts like hell). 

4: (truth) What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you? (dare) Post the oldest selfie on your camera roll.

I’m going to reblog and post the selfie, because I’m currently on my computer. 

5: (truth) If your parents knew everything you've ever done, what would they think is the worst thing? (dare) Tag the three nonmutuals you admire most.

I went to the nurse’s office in high school a few times to avoid science class (in all, that class was a terrible experience for me). I’d say I had a headache (usually I did because I have insomnia) and she’d let me sleep for a while. 

6: (truth) What is the last thing you purchased? (dare) Tag three people you've thirst followed.

A phone app called “Reigns.” It’s really fun. 

7: (truth) How many hours did you sleep last night? (dare) Send an anonymous compliment to the last person who followed you.

I think I slept anywhere from 8 to 10 hours. But I woke up a bunch of times and I fell asleep at 2 or 3. 

--

Thank you for asking!!! 

[cto10121]

Hey! I️ love your blog and I️ was wondering if you had a favorite romeo et Juliette lyric or line. I️ just moved in to a new home and I️ wanted to get a line from the musical painted in my home since I️ have been in love with this musical for 10 ish years! Any suggestions? Thank youuuuu! Have a super day!

Oh wow, what an honor! I have to make it a good one, then. Let’s see…

‘‘Où vont les rêves des amants?” - Always loved this line from Le Poison, because it’s thematically resonant and pretty poignant. Of course, the answer is that they eventually, ahem, die (ouch). But as this is just a question, it’s probably not the most inspiring thing for your wall.

“Aimer c’est rester vivant” - A goodie from Aimer, nicely declarative

‘‘L’amour n’est pas une crime” - A little on-the-nose, but why not? It’s true. 

‘‘Par amour on peut gagner pour toujours l’éternité” - A grand statement, sweet. Again, there’s that theme of living your best life through love.

‘‘C’est par amour que les hommes meurent” - OH OH OH THIS IS A GOOD ONE. And honestly, it’s quite true (although Rosalind from As You Like It ALWAYS comes to mind when I think of this. If you know your Shakespeare, you know what I mean). But come on, let’s not take it too literally. It just means that people would literally do the craziest things for love, even risking death. And that’s very, very true. 

‘‘Avec vous, j’étais quelqu’un…Mais sans elle, je ne suis rien” - Okay, so this isn’t a real contender as it’s too specific, but I just want to mention it because I like the neat parallelism and also freakin’ Romeo oh god

‘‘L’amour, il y a ça qui compte” - Probably the best line of the Ouverture. At least, it’s my favorite.

‘‘On fait toutes les même rêves: D’aimer jusqu’à la fièvre” - If you’re aiming for more in the line of truisms, this is a good one. Plus, it’s true

‘‘Les fruits des coeurs sont les plus tendres, mais ils se meurent quand vient décembre’’ - One of the nicely poetic lines from J’ai Peur. You wouldn’t think it’d have ones, but it’s true. But it’s probably too pessimistic to put up, I think. 

That’s all I can think of so far - I’m sure there are more lines that would fit. I’m not sure if you’d want them all about love, but for the most part the best lines do touch on that theme. I’d recommend either “Par amour on peut gagner pour toujours l’éternité” or “C’est par amour que les hommes meurent”, as they seem the strongest. If any of you have any suggestions, feel free to share!

[cto10121]

so as i am on an retj roll lately, i’ve decided to rewatch the italian version, this time with english subs just to make sure i don’t miss anything. going to hugo montenegro it once more because why not

the good:

vincenzo incenzo’s translation is ok overall with a couple of provisos: really don’t like the new io tremo (j’ai peur) for rosaline, of all things—it’s just too dramatic a song for love angst. even most of the lyrics resist it, with only minimal reference to rosaline. les beaux les laids is really lazily translated, though, and while some of the shakespearean paraphrase worked in l’amour heureux, for instance, other reworked songs trying to fit the shakespearean mold (par amour in particular) feel incomplete. there is also a overly sexual strain running through the lyrics, (did lady m just say she was turned on by lady c or...?) which is amusing since this is just above the takarazuka in the fluff au meter of retj adaptations

the scenery and costumes are nice, and the latter especially for the men. the only qualm i have about the costumes is that they were too smooth; they lacked an edge, particularly for the montague boys. mercutio looked more princely even than romeo and tybalt felt weighed down by his cape. the costumes for the m&c youths were disappointingly homogenized—there was not a sense of individual stories or even collective identities as in the other productions; it’s been a rule of thumb that the montagues are generally depicted as a wilder, rougher, or generally more modern crowd than the capulets, who are more feudal. i did not really get that here. there definitely needed to be a sense of tribalism and group identity: here the dancers are almost purely allegorical

some of the performers really were solid, italian capulet (frollo!! god, it’s so nice to see him again), the friar, and the prince. bless the prince in all his khal drogo glory. also lord capulet (frollo!!!)

the new revival songs are kept, le sigh, but they are decently translated and better integrated than in the revival. lady capulet’s new tu dois te marier does work much better as a soliloquy-monologue, i’ll give it that, and tybalt’s chi son io? is much more palatable than je suis tybalt

the verona reprise is nicely cinematic, although i still prefer the austrian.

paris’ ballet moves were really good at parts. actually trained dancer ftw

this is really just my bias, but this is the closest thing i’ll probably get to a (actually audible) spanish retj in awhile (*wipes away tear for portuguese retj*) so you can bet your bottom dollar that i appreciate the fact that i can understand 70-80% of this version’s lyrics and will sing them in my awful spanish accent at random intervals. i truly do

the bad:

the choreography ranged from ok to wtf even within songs. really did not like most of les rois du monde with the exception of mercutio’s verse, the bal was a weird, lackluster bird mascarade and les beaux, les laids, again, was a mess

some of the direction was disappointing too. l’amour heureux was nicely sung and even translated, but the staging was a distracting mess of whirlpools and sweeps—i guess trying to convey the swooping nature of first love? in any case it’s more distracting than anything else, and undermines the intensity of the first meeting. it needed more focus

ok, that’s it, i’m officially making #bringbacklamuette a thing. of all the productions that have cut her character, there is not one, not ONE, that has a decent transition to les beaux, les laids. hungarian had peter, which worked too, but i prefer a female maidservants because the nurse’s indignation over her teasing more naturally leads into lbll. here the shakespearean paraphrase was especially awful, awkwardly translated and confusing

speaking of which. the shakespearean paraphrase. ho boy. apart from the whole idea of injecting shakespeare’s early modern blank verse into a modern pop rock operetta, (@retjproductions pls stop) the execution was wildly uneven. the “if i profane with my unworthiest hand” sonnet courtship was not only unnecessary, since incenzo’s lyrics already incorporated the shakespeare paraphrase, but they were badly delivered. most of these actors are not trained in delivering early modern dialogue, even translated and simplified, so it’s just cringe all around. the teasing of the nurse was particularly atrocious, definitely inferior to the hungarian. mercutio’s “ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” pun only works in english. the list goes on. the only lines that worked were probably the prince’s savage “mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill” and “for there never was a story of more woe.” the friar was also good at delivering the lines but the nurse, bless her, was the worst

which leads me to the heart of what makes the italian ultimately not work for me: the fact that it is really two different shows with two different types of lyrics and two different sets of characters, presgurvic’s and shakespeare’s. you have your meek peace-loving shakespeare!benvolio with your cheeky wine-women-and-so-long presgurvic!benvolio, your tortured soul!tybalt against your fight-everything!tybalt, your angsty-rock-star-gigolo!romeo with your sensitive boyish!romeo, dickwadpatriarch!capulet with cautiousandconflicted!capulet...it’s a mess. yes, presgurvic’s lyrics and book are inferior to shakespeare’s verse—so are sondheim’s lyrics and laurents’ libretto for west side story and cole porter’s for kiss me kate. they’re inferior in the sense that they are lyrics and dialogue for a modern musical targetted at modern audiences. there’s really nothing you could do about it—except to respect shakespeare enough to leave him out of this except as an inspiration.

re: the revival songs. mercutio’s la reine mab was cringy, more acted-shouted than anything else and la follia was just as bad. on prie was decent if simplified in translation, but overall why

the transitions were slow and transition music was all over the place: coupables for lord capulet’s rage at giulietta, the original ouverture music for r&g’s courtship sonnet scene, the opening with two family show-off for the juliette-est-morte scene...not necessarily bad, since the musical’s flow did zip by but eh

there are some productions (okay, just the hungarian really) that are complete enough so that you don’t miss la mort. this is not one of them. the hallucination ballet with the juliets was definitely a missed opportunity—a nice female death could have given romeo the poison, maybe even via mouth. that way there would be no “interference,” so to speak, of death in the lovers’ death

DRAMATIC POINTING. EVERYWHERE

and now the ugly:

the song order. damn, it’s wonky. let’s even put aside the on dit dans la rue fake-out in favor of le pouvoir as the opening act: the worst is still putting j’sais plus before the deaths. three hours, man, he had THREE hours, and he chooses to waste it on a faith crisis. talk about a gaping plot hole. it just undermines the tragedy, and it also robs the pang you feel when the families start filing in and discovering r&j’s bodies

speaking of undermining the tragedy, an emphatic NO on romeo seeing juliette waking up. juliette’s happiness at seeing romeo turning into a strained denial turning to a dawning horror (also french juliette’s RÉPONDS! just tears my heart) is worth a million leonardo di caprios. get that baz lurhmann shit out of my face

romeo being included in les beaux les laids and le duel from the start. emphatic NO. for one thing, he is totally superfluous and for another it totally ruins that awesome iconic “arrêTEZ” entrance to le duel.

but also on the on dit dans la rue fake-out: i actually LIKED the CD version, it was genuinely good, and had looked forward to seeing it performed. NOPE. one of the most interesting and fascinating changes to the shakespeare, so much so that every other production kept that angle—just gone.

the nurse and lady montague. i know, can’t be all réjane perry or carin flipcic or the badassery of eleanor beaulieu, but it was almost physically painful to see their caricaturish acting. i particularly resent making the poet’s song a duet between lady m and giulietta—even the takarazuka one is better

benvolio’s -.- faces throughout are actually golden and hilarious and very much #me, but still

speaking of which, benvolio’s comment lui dire was really underwhelming, mostly because of the blocking (all the moving around) and benvolio not being alone even though he explictly says he is...again, one of the collateral damages that come from mixing musical and shakespeare characterization

the lack of girls in les rois du monde and les beaux les laids and in other places and the removing of key dialogue for lady capulet before la vengeance (they just have her sob at capulet’s shoulder—not likely she would do this, as the capulets have a loveless marriage) borders on uncomfortable. i’m definitely not one for diversity quotas, but in retj the women and the female dancers’ participating in, criticizing, and aiding and abetting the feud is crucial. it contributes to the theme of the feud being everyone’s fault and everyone’s problem, verona’s problem. it lessens the feud’s impact and so weakens the forbidden charge to the lover’s love affair—this retj read more as a cute couple in love who just got really, really bad luck with a dickwad father and knife-happy friends. add in the removal of on dit dans la rue and the stakes are much lowered. also, musically speaking, it’s just much better to have a mixed chorus than just the guys, so there is a loss in quality as well

paris. i really must make a post about my own theory regarding paris’ varying characterizations, but in terms of this production, it is more or less clear what they were aiming towards: italian romeo is just too cute and wholesome, so how to make romeo look desirable by comparison? ergo: ballerina!paris. i get it. still. did they really have to include his death?? at least the hungarian had a cool le duel reprise. this on the other hand was so pointless.

in sum: this production felt as if the makers of the italian just watched the revival and said “GREAT but it def needs 90% more shakespeare and dramatic pointing” and then halfway through someone kindly informed them of the existence of the original, so they dutifully watched it, but really only liked the duo du desespoir staging and having mercutio in blue. and ok, le poète is a really nice melody, we’ll find some (worse) use for it

and then while they are talking about dialogue and song order, someone just stands up on the table and screams HUNGARIAN SONG ORDER OR GTFO and refuses to get down from the table until they agreed to at least switch out tybalt’s solos and include paris’ death. meanwhile poor incenzo is in the corner like “ok but guys do you want me to stick to presgurvic or shakespeare, i’m so confused” and they all reply “YES exactly thank you” and incenzo looks at the camera like in the office. me too incenzo me too

[cto10121]

original english lyrics for la folie (hungarian: a téboly)

For some very odd reason, Paris’ voice comes to me fairly easy in song. Maybe it’s because he is a common personality, the smug, parent-approved suitor. Either way, I’ve always kind of liked the Hungarian La Folie - the idea of it anyway if not the execution so much. The Capulets retaliating against the Montagues for Juliet’s death makes sense in the context of them knowing about Romeo and Juliet to begin with. And it makes sense that even Paris as the spurned fiancé would lead the way. I also like the idea of Benvolio bopping and weaving through the chaos, poor guy. 

The reason I didn’t have that in my script is probably because it made Paris into an actual character, so I would have felt obliged to have his death. And I wanted to leave the death scenes with just Romeo and Juliet. I also felt it would clutter an already-busy musical and plus, Paris isn’t just that special to warrant it. I preferred to have Benvolio have his angst. But in a version of the script in which I chose Mercutio’s La Folie over J’ai Peur, then hell yeah, let the reprise happen. It would be so thematically resonant, considering they’re related to each other. In any case, here is my attempt at a version. Note that this isn’t really a literal translation of the Hungarian, though it follows pretty much the same format. I followed my own beat here.

It’s Madness (A téboly/La Folie)

Paris Death has come for us at last Sins of the fathers on Sins of the past

Lord Capulet Death has took my daughter away

Lady Capulet Now our lives have lost their way

Paris But we will make them all pay

Now, we know who’s at fault We can start our assault

(Spoken) My lord, we cannot stand idle and let the Montague dogs get away with this! We must retaliate, for what Romeo has done! For Juliet!

The Capulets gather around. Paris addresses them.

Paris Show them you no courage lack Run them through hell and back And attack!

High time that we prove ourselves true High time we make them all rue The name of Montague

He made Juliet take her life So come, war and strife

The Capulets attack the Montagues. Benvolio weaves in and out through the fighting.

All It's madness! The madness! It's madness! The madness! Mad for the payback We'll get them back 

The madness We must end And defend Our house and our pride Yes, we will forfend With God by our side

W/Paris It's madness The madness For justice For vengeance For she he/I Love(s)!

Paris Follow all the prompts of Fate We must defeat their hate Or it's too late

My fiancée may be gone Perhaps someday I'll move on But now let war and chaos come

I will have no regret For it's all for Juliet

All It's madness! The madness It's madness! The madness Mad for the payback Mad for the attack

It's madness (Paris: She was mine) We must end (Paris: Now she's gone) And defend  (Paris: Can't move on, no) With God by our side Yes, we will forfend Our house and our pride

W/Paris It's madness The madness For justice For vengeance For she he/I Love(s)!

It's madness!

Exit. Benvolio is left alone on the stage.

[cto10121]

english lyrics for romeo’s death or j’ai peur/miért fáj reprise

why the hell do i do this to myself? now i feel all the regrets, i’m crying

Ahem, so anyway, I obviously did NOT plan on replacing the original Mort de Roméo with the Hungarian Miért Fáj reprise, and I still don’t, but for some very strange reason, I got a sudden bolt of inspiration from that corner and now I deeply, deeply regret everything. The only way this would ever get included in my version is if I followed the Hungarian route with Paris’ La Folie song and death, which isn’t too likely. I do like the symmetry what with Death also there and about to cop her greatest feel yet, but the rock-angst gives a different musical significance to Romeo’s death. Anyhoo, instead of having Romeo have a mental breakdown as in the Hungarian (seriously WTF) and catatonically repeating the same lyrics of J’ai Peur, I decided to change it up, like in actual Broadway reprises. Feedback is appreciated, etc.

No Fear (Miért Fáj Reprise)

Romeo No pain, no fear All I want is near with her All of life is here with her The stars I thought were friends They've led me to the end Our end

No more, no more, this pain, this fear, No more lies, no more hate I'll be once more where you are To the ice world that awaits Where just wind thrums our guitar

My love, my wife, my friend, my own You took your life, now mine is stone What did they do, that you would dare To leave me here in dark despair?

What have they done, to make you leave With their regrets, to suffer, grieve? As I am yours, my life is tied Where I belong, here by your side

No pain, no fear My time here is done I'll be near you, my sun I'll have nothing to regret And with my Juliet I'll end!

I end...

He cannot continue, and lies with Juliet. The music of J'ai Peur continues. At the climax Death kisses him. He dies.