Fanbook Project

Chatting to friends and Elisabeth fans I've come across quite a few people who have wanted to send their thanks to the creators and artists behind the musical. Allumerlesoir and I were discussing this a few days back and came up with the idea of creating fan books for the creative team and 'favourite performers'. 

The idea is to create several books to send to members of global Elisabeth shows, past and present - the people who we as fans particularly appreciate and admire. These books would be artist specific (i.e. a book sent to Uwe Kröger would have letters to/pictures to/etc Uwe and would be unique to him). 

As for what the fanbooks would contain: anything that's not creepy and can fit within a book (dimensions to be confirmed but probably A4 which is approx. 210x297mm or 8.3x11.7inches). It would be great if people wrote/made their own things but if people wanted to email letters or messages which could then be printed off that would be fine - I'll only be able to do black and white text printing through because I can't afford to print full colour or ink dense things en mass. I have a (UK) postal address which I can give out to receive submissions and I will then assemble the project and send it on via agents, theatres, or where possible hand deliver to the stage door. More information on the project itself (etc.) when we get things going properly!

At the moment we've spoken to people and worked out that there's some general interest but would like to ask who people would like to send things to. We will create a fanbook for anyone linked to Elisabeth as long as there is enough demand for that person and it is possible to find some way to get the book to them. So, if you would personally be interested, or have any questions, please do contact myself or Allumerlesoir and tell us who you think we should all write to!


Where to contact me:
Through the contact form below
Through tumblr
Facebook
Twitter 
Youtube
Or leave a comment :-)

How's the subbing going then?

Oh yes, that.

Well, life is taking over once again, in oh so many ways. I have a personal blog to talk about all that though so I wont harp on too much. Things aren't likely to get any easier though as I'm still refurbishing a house and, to top it all off, will be traveling out to the Netherlands for a university interview. Okay, I'm not complaining about the latter ;-)

I am, however, going to be making an active effort to sit down and subtitle. This probably means more late night subbing full of typos but it's better than nothing, I suppose. I'm sure that people will quickly point out any mistakes!

I desperately want to get Marie Antoinette finished before the end of June because, come the summer, I will definitely have other things to focus on!

New Elisabeth Tour 2014-15

So, this appeared on the internet a couple of days ago:

The musical "Elisabeth" by Sylvester Levay (music) and Michael Kunze (libretto and lyrics) is expected to tour in Germany again in autumn 2014. This emerges after an audition call from the production company La Belle. The auditions take place in February in Berlin and in March in Vienna.  According to the casting call, the tour should last until at least June 2015. The exact dates and tour locations are not yet known.

-translated from thatsMusical

This was posted on the sixth of this month and I have been trying to get onto the website of La Belle since, to see if there's any more information. It refused to load - I assume there's been too many people trying to view the site and that this has caused problems. Anyway, I just managed and this is what they have to say:

A La Belle touring production, directed by Harry Kupfer and choreographed by Dennis Callahan.

By Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay

Audition

on Monday 24.02.2014 in 12161 Berlin

on Monday 10.03.2014 in 1010 Vienna

Elisabeth (Empress of Austria)
Aged 25-40 years, strong personality with exceptional musical and acting skills.

Belt/Soprano with ab'

Der Tod

Aged 25-40 years, charismatic, seductive, must be able to move well.

High Pop-Baritone/Tenor to b'

Luigi Lucheni

Aged 25-40 years, very good actor with excellent singing voice, high Pop-Baritone/Tenor to b'

Emperor Franz Joseph

Elisabeth's husband, very good singer, aged 25-40 years, baritone to g'

Archduchess Sophie

Elisabeth's mother-in-law, good actress with a strong singing voice, authoritarian presentation.

Aged 40-55 years, Alto/Mezzo

Crown Prince Rudolf

Elisabeth's son, fragile character, stage age of 25 years old, must be able to move very well.

Pop-tenor to b'

Duke Max

Elisabeth's father, actor with very good singing skills, age 40-60 years, Bass-Baritone (classical)

Ludovica/Frau Wolf

Elisabeth's mother/madame, accomplished actress with a strong singing voice, age 30-40, Alto/Mezzo

First-class ensemble, fully trained musical singers of all voice types (classical and rock), must be able to dance too!

Accent free German is required.

Please  prepare at least one ballad and one up-tempo number in German (from Elisabeth, if possible). Bring sheet music glued and in the correct order. And please don't forget dance clothes.

Rehearsals begin the beginning of October 2014 (Minimum contract period to June 2015)

Applications with CV and photo (preferably by email) to casting@labellemusical.de or by post to

La Belle Tournee GmbH, Hackhausen 1, 42697 Solingen

We will notify of appointment scheduling.

-translated from La Belle Musical

The above translations are a bit rushed as it's late and I've had a really long difficult day but all the same, isn't this exciting! I don't know what's meant by Elisabeth's vocal range of Ab' and I might not have translated it properly (maybe the 's' signifies sharp or something, I don't know) but my technical musical vocab is limited in English and pretty much non existent in German ;-)

It's great that Elisabeth's not going to be gone for long and it'll be exciting to see who's cast!

The birth of Damien Sargue's child!

It appears that congratulations are in order as Damien Sargue has just welcomed his daughter into the world.

At 32, Damien Sargue will soon become the father of a little girl. The singer, who participated in the fourth season of 'Dancing with the Stars' on TF1, alongside the beautiful Candice Pascal, revealed on the show that his woman was pregnant. The baby is due on February 2nd.

In an interview conducted by our colleagues, Gala, the father spoke of his impatience to become a father. "On a practical level, we are ready. Everything has been bought, push-chair, crib, clothes..." he said. "As for me, I think that I'll really feel like a father when I hold my baby in my arms and my gaze meets hers", he predicts.

Emilie has shared his life for three years.

Damien Sargue met the mother of his child more than three years ago. The woman who shares his life is called Emilie and is a professional dancer. It was on the set of the musical Roméo et Juliette, in 2010, that their paths first crossed.

No marriage in sight

However, Damien Sargue and Emilie can't imagine formalising their love story through marriage. "A baby is already a really strong commitment to the other!" the young man said before adding: "That's worth all the world". It was a few months ago that Damien Sargue confided with the magasine 'Public' that "every ultrasound was an overwhelming moment. When I heart the heart beat of my daughter for the first time, it was very moving." He also spilled the beans on the couple's potential names for their baby: "We're hovering between Mia, Mina, Ava, and Vic..."

There are just a few more days left for them to decide...

 -a translation of this article from TéléStar

And I can only assume that this means that the baby arrived a bit ahead of schedule.

Heureux comme un... Papa 😊
— Damien Sargue (@DSargue) January 31, 2014

I'm presuming that the mother, and Damien's partner, is Emilie Sudre as she is the only dancer from Roméo et Juliette 2010, called Emilie, who I can think of, although I could be wrong. Either way congratulations to them both!



As always, translations are provided by myself to enable people to better understand a foreign source. Any mistakes within the translations are made because I'm a numpty... but with good intentions and if you point them out I'll correct them at once.