ignorance is bliss, also Dracula bites back

[incandescens]

Spent a while this afternoon - after cleaning the oven, duty before pleasure - watching a DVD of Dracula which I'd had on the side for a while.

Ah, but this was a very interesting version of Dracula. It was a musical composed by Frank Wildhorn (also responsible for musical versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel and Jekyll & Hyde), and it was the Japanese run of the musical, and it had a ex-Takarazuka actress, Wao Youka, as Dracula himself. Totally unsubtitled, but given I have some knowledge of the book, and given a summary of the plot on wikipedia, I was able to pick up what was going on.

... besides, come on, a fair number of the scenes were both somewhat iconic and rather straightforward. When Van Helsing is clutching people's sleeves and babbling about "nosferatu" there's only one way it can go.

Wao Youka was amazing. I must look for more Takarazuka stuff with her in it. The other actresses and actors (the show was otherwise on regular-gender-cast lines) were also very good. Mina was played by Hanafusa Mari, who I believe is also ex-Takarazuka and was Wao Youka's regular partner there. The two work very well together. The show in general was lots of fun, if occasionally a bit melodramatic... okay, well, what else could it be but melodramatic, but you know what I mean. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I tried looking up the English version on iTunes afterwards, as quite a lot of the music was pleasantly hummable, if not that distinguished. But I was let down - as I'd been afraid I might be - by the lyrics. They're... well, banal. Example:

I sacrifice my soul to be your bride,
I give into the feelings I can't hide...

I don't mind the first, but I draw the line at the second, and definitely at the two of them together. I ended up buying the German version of the soundtrack, which combined some excellent voices with more tracks than the English-language version (which was the original cast album). So now I can listen to it without having my attention drawn to any of the lyrics. I will be aware that the lyrics may be just as banal in German, but at least I can't understand them, so I won't know.

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Mhh but: IME Japanese lyrics don't translate into that kind of banality. Or rather, banal English lyrics may get turned into banal Japanese, but banal Japanese is serious weirdness by us. I'd be interested in seeing (hearing is probably not an option by now, given the attrition rate of language comprehension) the Japanese lyrics just to see what the translator did with them.

[incandescens]

I think I'd prefer serious weirdness to the total banality of the original English lyrics quoted above. And while there are some clips from the musical on Youtube (search on "dracula wao yoka"/"dracula wao youka", I'm afraid I can't point you at any text copy of the lyrics, I'm afraid. Sorry. I'd be interested to know what you thought of them.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

From a brief viewing of the English and Japanese and even smaller ability to make out what's being said, the content seems close but the Japanese strikes me as more mh prosaic? 'You're the one I've waited for, the one I've been seeking.' Or maybe I'm used to manga characters saying things like that.

[incandescens]

Even that sounds better than the attempts at rhyming English lyrics. Maybe it's the desperation to get a rhyme, but they come out sounding so ... trite.

I am therefore listening to the German version. ;)