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| Flower Troupe's | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ludwig II Asian Sunrise |
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| Revue | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 12/17/2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I attended Flower Troupe's musical, "Ludwig II," and a revue, "Asian Sunrise," at Takarazuka Grand Theatre. The first part of the performance, "Ludwig II," is about the king of Bavaria in the late 19th century. Ludwig, played by Mire Aika, is a beautiful young king with his beauty not only outside but also his mind. All his tragedy comes from his sensitive beauty. He is a good king thinking about his people, but the ministries do not like him, as they can not control the king. They and a psychologist, Hibiki | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Takumi, decide to take the place of the king by creating a false report of his madness, oh him being related to the mad family and of his love for fantasy shaping a beautiful woman, played by Rei Otori. Ludwig decides to die for his fantasy rather than living a mad king locked up inside a castle created by him. The story was not organized clearly, as it is a very complicated period with changing from the royal government to democratic. However the actresses support the play by acting greatly. Mire Aika did a great job on expressing king's sadness, fear for being mad, loving for beauty, and dignity. Rei Otori was so beautiful as if she was really a illusion. Hibiki Takumi played a cold psychologist, but showed the psychologist also had a human heart and knew the king really knew the truth of life. She hurt her leg the day before I attended the show, but she took a part in this musical with crutches. The young star, Jun Sena, greatly played Ludwig's young brother who had a mental problem caused by attending a war. Misao Hoshihara acted Richard Wagner, the composor whom Ludwig patronized, and showed how much Ludwig loved art and music by expressing the appreciation for Ludwig with a few scenes. Aki Nagisa acted as Ludwig's cousin, Elisabeth, and gave a clearer image of Ludwig with Elisabeth's personality that was similar to Ludwig's one. The revue, "Asian Sunrise," was focused on Asia. The scenes were full of traditional dancing from countries in Asia. As Flower Troupe has such high skills of dancing, this revue was really enjoyable and exciting. The revue was performed without Hibuki Takumi, who is one of the best dancers in Takarazuka, but the substitute stars danced greatly as if they originally took the Hibiki's parts. The duet of Mire Aika and Rei Otori was beautiful with Asian exotic costumes. |
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| 3/9/2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The musical "Ludwig II" is much more understanderble with some changes in some scenes and lines. These changes made the story simple and the isolation of Ludwig more deeply. The scene with Richard Wagner was added, and it made the relationship with Ludwig and Wagner more close. The only scene I liked the first one better was the place with Ludwig and Elisabeth. The scene was shorter than the one in Takarazuka Grand Theater. Hibiki Takumi was not fully recovered, so she was only on the stage in "Ludwig II." Her part in "Asian Sunrise" was replaced by Naoka Iori. The performance was really enjoyable with the a lot of energy of the performers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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