Showtime - Spotlight On... URNivision
May 17, 2020, 05:00 PM
We, like the real Eurovision, may not be able to host a live competition this year, but join me as I look back over our past #URNivision winners and chat about some of my favourite European musicals!
Here's a few suggestions to check out:
Here's a few suggestions to check out:
-
Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange):
- Listen to the single version of the song ‘Morgen Is Vandaag’: youtube.com/watch?v=qeAXWKCo_Cs
- And for a taste of the incredible, 360° staging: youtube.com/watch?v=DgGAg62xh9s
-
Tanz der Vampire (finale number): youtube.com/watch?v=iEtez3VeAhg
- And for the oh-so entertaining plot on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Vampires_(musical)
- Michael Kunze’s Elisabeth (international trailer): youtube.com/watch?v=YPhxQy1ZiXE
- Michael Kunze’s Mozart! Das Musical
- Mozart’s “big song” (‘Wie wird man seinen Schatten los’) performed by Oedo Kuipers: youtube.com/watch?v=YPhxQy1ZiXE
- Mozart! (act 1) recorded live at the Rainmund Theatre, Vienna: youtube.com/watch?v=narShT7KhEM
- Mozart, l’opera rock is a rock opera about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (what a sentence) which premiered in Paris in 2009 before going on to have productions in Belgium and Switzerland. Take a listen to the song ‘Tatoue-moi’ which became a number 1 hit in France (and sounds like it was written by Mika): youtube.com/watch?v=KtTlVYG9o8Y
- Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour is a musical by Gérard Presgurvic that takes a more pop/rock-influenced approach to the Shakespeare play of the same name. It opened in Paris in 2001 and the song ‘Les Rois Du Monde’ was a huge pop hit in France and Belgium: youtube.com/watch?v=7gh81PYERlM
- Monte Cristo is one of the few Russian musicals to be recognised internationally and is kind of like a cross between Phantom and Jekyll & Hyde but with more electric guitar: youtube.com/watch?v=DOmK2PnN0II
- Another rock opera based on a Shakespeare play, Hamlet is a Czech musical that has (apparently) been compared to Jesus Christ Superstar: youtube.com/watch?v=OI6Ldc8ExLg
And to finish off, just a few of my favourite songs from foreign translations of hit English-language shows:
- Tarzan in German: youtube.com/watch?v=hcORe71UZXI
- Book of Mormon performing ‘Turn It Off’ in Swedish: youtube.com/watch?v=wJsgrdfbVrA
- Also in Swedish, why not a bit of Mamma Mia: youtube.com/watch?v=AThkmxENaOg
- And a dance-based musical that is reasonably universal, Cats: youtube.com/watch?v=LxG0P9PWApY
Music credits in order of use: Marc-Antoine Charpentier (‘Te Deum’); Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus (‘Waterloo’, Mamma Mia, Original Cast Recording, 1999); David Yazbek (‘Model Behaviour’, Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Original Broadway Cast Recording, 2011); Alan Menken & Howard Ashman (‘Be Our Guest’, Beauty and the Beast, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2017); David Baerwald & Kevin Gilbert (‘Come What May’, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Original Broadway Cast Recording, 2019); Lucy Moss & Toby Marlow (‘Haus of Holbein’, Six: The Musial, Studio Cast Recording, 2018); Tom Harriman, Pamela Philips Oland & Frans van Deursen (‘Morgen Is Vandaag [single vesion’, Soldaat van Oranje, Original Dutch Cast Recording, 2011); Jim Steinman & Michael Kunze (‘Totale Finsternis’, Tanz der Vampire, Original German Cast Recording, 1998).