General updates and Marie Antoinette Part Eight

Part Eight is finally complete!!!

It's been  hard part for me. The language wasn't any harder than normal but I've done this part probably five times now as, for some reason, files have been deleting themselves. Although it's only been stuff to do with subbing that's been affected, it's ended up with me losing translations and timings more times than I care to remember. I'll be honest, at this point, I am so fed up with this part that I feel I never want to see another video again!

This being the end of act one I am planning on taking a bit of a break. I am moving to the Netherlands this August and there is a lot going on because of that and I do need to focus my attention a little. I'm not saying there won't be an update until after the move but there is going to be a planned break. During this time I am going to focus on getting the Rebecca libretto done and uploaded. I also have a few almost finished translated librettos for Tanz der Vampire, Le Roi Soleil, and Roméo et Juliette, les enfants de Vérone which I am working on for friends. I'd like to get those finished at some point.

I am, of course, continuing with the Elisabeth fanbook project.


Onto the video!

This part features:
Cagliostro brewing a nasty concoction

Le Duc d'Orléans seting a plan in motion

Un veleno mortale - a deadly poison (Italian)

Affare publico - a public affair (Italian)

Alors, que faire. - Well, what to do.

Ah, bon - Ah good 

Très bien - Very good/very well (incidentally, written "trés" in the libretto which is apparently old French)

Renommé - rank 

 

Crowd Parts

I didn't subtitle the all the crowd parts because, with so many people/groups singing it would  have been uncomfortable to read. 

c.08:20-08:50 During Boehmer, the jeweller's, speech the crowd sing in French something that roughly translates to: "Good day ladies, gentlemen. What a day! What weather! Marvellous! Very good. Yes, yes! Good wine. The pie. The gosling. Divine!"

c. 09:20-10:00 This part is included in the subbing. Actually missing the first word because, ironically, I didn't hear it when subbing! The crowd is speaking in German and reacting to what the main characters say so it's a bit more important to have full context: "Listen! Look! Argument! Scandal! What? Brazen! She called him a liar. He can prove it."

c. 11:30-end You can see why I didn't sub this bit! They're saying: "Unheard of! Unbelievable! And you can say that you were there! Impertinent! Inconceivable! Unexpected! This day, without doubt, is a day that no-one will ever forget. Momentous and embarrassing. A Scandal!"

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace

The following part is spoiler ridden (but only for this part) and discusses the history behind the section, in particular the necklace that is discussed.

Cagliostro talks about a necklace and a couple of lovers and is brushing upon one of the great stories in French history, of which there are many! I'm kinda doing this from memory (the period of history around the last three Kings of France is my favourite) so this isn't going to be perfect but it's still a good story!

The necklace he mentions was made for the last mistress of Louis XV and was made up of large diamonds. When Louis XV died and his mistress was banished Louis XIV offered the necklace to his wife but it was rejected (rejected because the money could be better used, because she didn't want something made for someone else, or because Louis withdrew the offer - there are different stories). However, the jeweller really needed to sell this necklace as the cost of materials had pushed him to bankruptcy. Sadly, he couldn't find anyone able to afford it.

Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, or "Comtesse de la Motte" was born of a illegitimate son of Henry II (I think) and grew up in relative poverty. She was eventually given some money because of her royal linage and was sent to boarding school before marrying Marc Antoine-Nicolas de la Motte and, despite the family having tenuous links to nobility, they assumed the title of Count and Countess. 

It wasn't until she became the mistress of Cardinal Louis de Rohan that things got really interesting. Rohan had offended the Queen, I think through sending reports of her bad behaviour to her mother (!), and was desperate to regain favour. Jeanne was quick to pick up on this and claimed that she was a close friend of the Queen and initiated a correspondence between the Cardinal and "Queen" although the letters from the Queen were forgeries. I think that Jeanne even set up a meeting between the Cardinal and the "Queen", played by a prostitute who looked like Marie Antoinette... suddenly we see where the whole plot of this musical came from ;-)

Eventually, the letters suggested that Marie really wanted the necklace but that Louis refused to buy it because of the financial climate. She therefore asked that Rohan loaned her the money and made the purchase for her. Jeanne took the necklace and it went off to England where it was broken up and the jewels and gold were sold.

However, the affair came to light when the jeweller wasn't paid. A public trial was held and Rohan was acquitted, Jeanne was sentenced to imprisonment although she later escaped to London, and several other parties were involved (I think Cagliostro was imprisoned and then exiled). Although justice was done, the people were quick to jump on the scandal and it further fanned the flames of hatred for the monarchy and was one of the triggering factors for the revolution.