#if this post gets 50 likes i'll contact antonio macipe and ask for a la mort makeup tutorial

[fitzrove]

PLEASE tell me more about Death/La Mort in the Brussels production I'm begging you

Okay :D

This is going under a cut because it's going to be LONG. What the Festival Bruxellons did with La Mort is completely unique and special, and honestly, just thinking about the production makes me vibrate with joy. It's a bit ironic in this case, but the characterisation really breathed life into the show in a way that's never been seen before.

Forgive me if this is rambly or if I miss some details; I'll be happy to clarify if any questions (about specific songs, blocking choices) arise.

In general

Death, or La Mort, is a seductive figure. There's no doubt of that - when the first promo photos surfaced, a lot of people made jokes about the fact that he's literally wearing a mesh shirt and has his chest out for the entire show. However, it's a completely different kind of seduction from Tods like Máté or Mark. His vocals are silk-smooth; there's zero growling; and the choreography in numbers like WITW or Schatten doesn't have any of the rough bodily manipulation that we're accustomed to seeing.

But this is not a 1992 UweTod rehash (detached, inhuman) either! La Mort can experience deep emotion, and whenever he sings about how he feels, he's genuine. Of course, some of this comes down to song changes - you couldn't really do another 1992 UweTod and have Kein Kommen Ohne Gehen, which every production is probably obligated to have nowadays - but in my opinion, Brussels utilised the current song list well to tell a coherent, emotionally resonant story.

Physically

Generally, La Mort is like you would expect an eternal force to be; calm, confident, charismatic, smooth in the way he moves. He looks and feels like a prettier rockstar version of Heinrich Heine - a very magnetic presence on the stage. He has awesome makeup. In the prologue he sings "All meet their end in my arms, girls and boys" while lifting up two members of the ensemble (a woman and a man) by their arms. The smoothness kind of goes for almost all of the Deaths across different Elisabeth productions, but in the case of La Mort, there are also some key differences.

La Mort seems to be able to control people without touching them physically (he does a bit of this to Sisi during Letzte Tanz), but he doesn't use that power to hurt them - in this case, he mostly flings her around a bit. Notably, he uses his powers to "throw" Sisi BACK into FJ's arms at the end of the song. He doesn't touch her directly nearly as much as Tod does Elisabeth in the Vienna productions: to put it bluntly, zero groping or hip thrusting here, even though he grabs her hand. Sometimes he also delegates physical touch to his Anges de la Mort (in this prod, a group of four young dancers, who seem to act as kind of like his children or some "little cousins" he's taken along to work - in any case, family): notably, he directs them to touch Rudolf in Schatten (and Mayerling, but we'll talk about that later). He does also touch humans directly on occasion - after Bellaria, he kisses Sophie's hand before he and the angels lead her off the stage, and during WITW and Schatten he hugs Sisi and Rudolf from behind. But there's very little WITW airplane choreography, no Schatten puppet/doll choreography, and no Mayerling or DSF kiss. Again, I'll talk about this later.

He's also not above being bodily influenced by humans: during WITW, Sisi pushes him multiple times and he falls on his rear, kinda echoing what happens in Vienna Letzte Tanz to Sisi. (Also, to get up off the floor, he does a one arm side flip like it's no big deal.) He's also not above letting go of his effortless grace in moments where it's important: yet again, more on that later.

Emotionally: Elisabeth (1)

The most important thing about La Mort is that he doesn't care that he's getting rejected. Sure, he's invested enough to keep turning up to bother Elisabeth: but he knows he's going to win eventually. Their first meeting in KKOG has them both smile and seem to genuinely reach an understanding, acknowledging that Elisabeth still has a journey to go through before she can go with him. (Lyrics: "En attendant ce jour où tu posera ta main / J'ai un chemin que je veux suivre").

In Letzte Tanz, Elisabeth goes in for a kiss and La Mort evades it. He's trying to get her to come with him, sure, but there's no hurry, and he seems to think the moment isn't right yet. In Mach auf, he tempts her again, and then smiles for the entire time that Elisabeth is screaming at him to leave her alone - he doesn't mind. This also repeats after Maladie. In WITW, he tries to caress her face and she pridefully turns her head away - this seems to sting a bit, but he still doesn't try to coerce her violently.

Emotionally: Rudolf

For Mama wo bist du, Rudolf's bed is pushed onstage by the angels. Rudolf is tossing and turning, in the midst of a vivid nightmare, and gasps awake. During the first verse, La Mort hears him singing to himself about how there's nobody to comfort him and approaches, his eyebrows furrowed, frowning a little. He's quite gentle in telling Rudolf that it's useless to call for his mother, and after Rudolf begs him not to leave, he sits on his bed opposite him, leaning back against the frame, seemingly a bit perplexed by the child but also feeling pity for him. There's a cute bit when Rudolf says he can be strong and flexes his arm: the angels and La Mort mimic it. At the end of the song, La Mort makes a hand gesture to direct the angels to tuck Rudolf in, which they do.

When they meet again in Schatten, Rudolf is in sore need of reassurance, and La Mort sees this. They seem to have had an ongoing, long-lasting friendship (link: my lyrics meta about it). La Mort encourages his ambitions - he seems genuinely concerned about his despairing state and the state of the world, and there's no ">:DDD" (or anything resembling the expressions that MátéTod, for example, makes). He hugs Rudolf in reassurance for almost an entire verse (the 'nichts ist schlimmer' one); later, during the "what's holding you back" verse he directs the angels to surround him, and as he sings "Take the power!" he puts his hand on Rudolf's heart, almost as if he's "putting his power into him"? And at the end, he and the angels bow to Rudolf ("l'empereur Rodolphe"), and Rudolf seems to gain courage to act from this. When Rudolf sang "you are always there in my heart / my friend of terrible days / you alone reassure me when i'm afraid" and when La Mort sang "call for me, and i'm there", they meant it.

And then we get to the most interesting choice of them all.

HOLYSHITBRUSSELSMAYERLING

Rudolf, standing on the center of the stage alone, having been denied any help by his mother. Enter MARY VETSERA from the back. She goes up to him, they talk, seem to reach a conclusion, and hug. Enter LA MORT and the ANGELS. La Mort stands to the side of the stage looking at the pair, perplexed, and the angels go up to them, trying to pull them apart and embrace them. Rudolf and Mary are angry at this and push/shrug them away. As Rudolf and Mary embrace each other again, La Mort steps forward and hugs himself, prompting the angels to try to pull Rudolf and Mary apart once more. They again shrug them off. The angels helplessly turn to look at La Mort; Rudolf and Mary kiss, and then, Rudolf pulls out a gun. Immediately, La Mort makes a quick, sweeping gesture; the angels rush in to take away the gun. They pass it to each other, drawn into a sort of dance with Rudolf chasing them; but eventually Mary, standing in the middle of it all, manages to catch the gun and passes it to Rudolf. She calmly turns to face the audience, and Rudolf shoots her in the head.

As Rudolf lifts the gun to his own temple, La Mort SPRINTS. He takes off running towards him in full speed, hair and coattails flapping, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to intervene; but he's too late, and can only catch Rudolf in his arms as he falls, dead. He hugs Rudolf tightly against his chest, looking at him in disbelief; as the angels move in to clothe Rudolf and Mary in the veils of the dead (seen in the prologue), La Mort reaches forward to caress Rudolf's face, but Rudolf turns away from him and walks offstage, followed by Mary. La Mort is left standing there, his hand still outstretched, before he slowly lowers it and follows them (and the angels follow him).

Motives & The Extent of La Mort's Powers?

It feels like La Mort doesn't control when a person dies. He can only take them when worldly circumstances cause their life to end, whether it be an act of violence or something like old age. He actively tries to stop Mayerling from taking place, but because Rudolf's desperation is so deep, he fails - and seems genuinely mournful about it. He tried to encourage Rudolf to take action and make the world a better place, for Rudolf's sake as well as the sake of others, and in the end, that encouragement unintentionally was what led to Rudolf's premature death.

Emotionally: Elisabeth (2)

In Totenklage, La Mort is quite cold and even angry with Elisabeth. Still no violence or aggression: he's just quite unsympathetic to her lamenting. With the choices made in this production, I would be drawn to interpret this as it being because of what happened to Rudolf, though I could be wrong.

After she's stabbed, there's no more ill will between them: like is his duty, La Mort comforts her as she dies, and at the end, she jumps up into his arms and he carries her off towards the back of the stage: then, as he turns and sort of presents her to the audience, she goes limp. This is an interesting contrast considering that Rudolf and Mary walked off the stage on their own feet, wearing the Veils of the Dead (visible in the prologue). Elisabeth gets no veil.

In Conclusion

OH MY GOD LA MORT SPRINTS TO CATCH RUDOLF BEFOR EHE FALLS OH MY GOD OH MY FUCKGIN G

also the director confirmed la mort is panromantic and asexual

also did you know the makeup artist in charge of la mort's makeup was LITERALLY THIS PRODUCTION'S LUCHENI and his eye makeup looks amazing i want to wear it every day

photo & starring: Kaplyn (La Mort)

makeup: Antonio Macipe (Lucheni)

source: Kaplyn's Facebook