[ON STAGE] Elisabeth Loved by Death... Compassion and Anger Toward Him

'Elisabeth' Returns for Its Fifth Season Marking the 10th Anniversary of Its Domestic Premiere

Photo by EMK Musical Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo Mideum] Piercing the darkness and silence, the male Luigi Lucheni appears on stage. He is the anarchist who assassinated Elisabeth and, in a trial that has lasted 100 years, he insists that he did not kill her but that she simply loved ‘death.’ The play begins as Lucheni summons the dead to stand as witnesses and recalls past stories.

The work is a fantasy that adds fiction to fact. The original author, Michael Kunze, based it on Elisabeth’s diary, which was kept confidential by the Swiss government for 70 years, and added an Austrian folk tale that ‘Elisabeth brought death to the Habsburg palace.’

The distinctive feature of the work is the personification of death. The lively and free-spirited Elisabeth faces death in her childhood and is in danger of losing her life, but death, captivated by her beauty, spares her life and instead lingers around her. Lucheni plays the role of the narrator, moving freely between the stage and the audience.

Photo by EMK Musical Company

Perhaps because she walks with death, Elisabeth’s life is a series of misfortunes. Although she briefly enjoys the joy of marriage with Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria who fell for her, she soon faces painful times due to conflicts with her mother-in-law Sophie. Under strict rules, her freedom is taken away, and even her children are taken by her mother-in-law, erasing her motherhood. The effort to raise the children as strong rulers reflects the threat to the empire’s authority amid the Hungarian independence movement at the time.

“I can’t live like a bird in a cage / Now I want to live my life as I wish / My life is mine / I am my own master / I want freedom / Freedom” ? from ‘I am Mine’

Though she dreams of freedom, reality is harsh for Elisabeth. In the process of freeing her only support, her husband, from her mother-in-law Sophie’s control, Sophie’s schemes drive a wedge between them. To be precise, believing that her husband gave her a venereal disease through an affair, she embarks on decades of wandering. The suicide of her son, who was politically and ideologically estranged from his father, adds to her pain.

The work does not portray Elisabeth solely as an object of pity. It sheds light on the side of her who was both most loved and most hated. In a situation where the people’s anger blazes with cries of ‘Give us milk,’ she uses shampoo made by pouring milk into a bathtub with cognac and raw eggs, foreshadowing her dark fate.

Photo by EMK Musical Company

The lavish sets recreating the 19th-century Habsburg royal family and over 370 beautiful costumes are highlights of the play. Among them, the highlight is the 11-meter-long bridge. The movement of the bridge carrying death creates a dizzying and transcendental atmosphere. The ‘Last Dance’ scene, where six angels and death perform a magnificent group dance, is the climax of the play.

Marking the 10th anniversary of its domestic premiere, ‘Elisabeth,’ returning for its fifth season, is about to undergo changes. The existing double revolving stage, lifts, bridges, stage sets, direction, and costumes will conclude with this season. The performance continues at Blue Square Shinhan Card Hall until November 13.