New Concert Production in Vienna

Happy 10/11/12 to you all! Assuming your dates are arranged in that format; otherwise, you may have to wait about a month.

A new concert production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s POTO has been announced in Vienna, Austria. The announcement was actually made a few months ago, but yesterday, a casting announcement was made on Facebook. Christian Alexander Müller, who had played Raoul and then the Phantom in the Essen, Germany production in 2006, returns to the role of the Phantom for the concert. Lisa Antoni, who previously starred in the Viennese production of Frank Wildhorn’s musical Rudolf, will play Christine. And Raoul will be played by Oliver Arno, who previously starred in the popular European musical Elisabeth, featuring a book and lyrics by Michael Kunze (who also did the German translations for the lyrics to POTO) and music by Sylvester Levay. The concert will run from November 29 to December 9 at Theater Ronacher, where the Viennese production ran in the early 1990s.

I’m quite interested in this production; I really liked what I heard of Christian Müller’s Phantom when he played the role in Essen, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his portrayal has evolved. I haven’t heard a whole lot of Lisa Antoni or Oliver Arno, but I look forward to seeing how they play their characters as well, so I hope there will be some sort of recording of the production.

I’m also looking forward to this concert because I’ve always enjoyed the German-language productions of the show. The productions in Vienna, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Essen have had some of the best casts I’ve heard (though I’ve never seen the show live in German). Alexander Goebel and Ernst Dieter Suttheimer from the original Vienna cast were two of my favorite Phantoms, and I’ve also loved performers like Peter Hofmann, Thomas Schulze, Shuler Hensley, Dale Tracy, Roy Weissensteiner, Ian Jon Bourg (occasionally), and Ethan Freeman (who, in addition to the Vienna and Essen productions, was also superb in London and Toronto). Now they just need to cast Chris Murray in a production someday, and all will be complete.

In any case, I don’t know yet whether there will be an official video or audio recording of this concert. I’m hoping there will be, but as with all things, we’ll see, and I’ll post here with the relevant info when I find out. In the meantime, I encourage you to look up the performers I mentioned; most if not all of them can probably be found on YouTube.


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

"Operaza no Gaijin" - POTO in Japanese is complete!

Greetings, fellow Phans! I have completed my translation of the Japanese lyrics for ALW's POTO on Operaza no Gaijin! Please go there, check 'em out, and leave me a comment or two. ^_^

For those interested, I'll next be attempting translations of the Japanese lyrics for Wicked, Les Misérables, and Yeston & Kopit's Phantom. Wish me luck!


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

Happy 1/11/11! Also, something new...

Hi, everyone! I hope you're all having a great New Year so far, and that it continues to be Phantastic. I've started a new website that may interest those of you who are fond of listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber's POTO (and other musicals) in different languages. On this website, I'll be translating the Japanese lyrics for musicals back into English to show how the translation compares to the original. So far, I have Act I of POTO posted, but Act II is on its way as well.

And here it is... Operaza no Gaijin! Enjoy, and please do leave comments either here or on the Guestbook there!

I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

A Holiday Gift For My Phellow Phans

In the spirit of the holiday season, here is a video I made for an audio compilation I put together some time ago. I love listening to POTO in different languages, and this is something I made to demonstrate why. Enjoy, and please leave comments and/or subscribe to my YouTube account!




I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.