saturday.

Watch on YouTube

(I can see the video has since been removed. A version of this song - another cast - with subs can be found over on Tumblr, this way.)

I rewatched the Hanagumi version of In the Amber-Hued Rain this morning which counts among my favourite musicals. I first saw it with Takumi Hibiki and Ootori Rei, a real classic, but this is the tour version with Haruno Sumire and Fuzuki Miyo in the leads. The above video is that cast as well.

There are several reasons as to why this is a favourite of mine.

It's an old musical, first put on in the... 50's, I think (research says 80's which is still old for a Zuka production), but was revived with Masatsuka-sensei (who also did Silver Wolf) as director and has been done by various troupes since. Most notably Hanagumi, but new-era Yukigumi (Nozomi Fuuto and Maaya Kiho) has also had a tour with it, likewise golden-era Hoshigumi (Yuzuki Reon and Yumesaki Nene). I will forever be bitter that Maachan didn't get to try her hands on Sharon as a role, but it was just never the kind of thing they'd cast her in, although she'd have been phenomenal.

Because that's the #1 reason I love this musical, tbh. Its musumeyaku lead (and musumeyaku roles in general) are meaty, nuanced, interesting and complex. Probably one of the most complex musumeyaku characters there is in the Zuka repertory, up there with Elisabeth and Mireille in Silver Wolf. As always, this complexity is shown in a huge wardrobe, I think Sharon changes outfits maybe ten times throughout the show which is a huge amount of wardrobe changes for a musumeyaku. In comparison, Maachan as Lilith in Lucifer's Tears has two. Which isn't normal either, but just to show the difference.

In the Amber-Hued Rain takes place late 1910's/early 1920's, when we're slowly entering the jazz age and the shift between 'old' and 'new' is shown in the introduction of the tango, in opposition to waltzing and the jazz-era wardrobe of some of the characters. It's the same period that Lucifer's Tears explores, actually. It takes place in Paris, with some brief changes of location to the Orient Express which is a main feature in the story, a dreamlike place.

I've watched two versions of this musical, the one with Charlie (Takumi Hibiki) and the one with Osa (Haruno Sumire) and I think I'd really like to mix them up to get the perfect version. Personally, I adore Charlie and think she's a better Claude than Osa, though Osa - upon revisiting - is also very good and does something a bit darker with the characterisation, whereas I think Fuuchan (Fuzuki Miyo) is a better Sharon than Midori (Ootori Rei) who is also excellent, but I prefer Fuuchan's acting. Midori is the better singer and that does suit the musical's many, a bit more complex musumeyaku songs, but I take good acting over good singing any day.

Not to mention, In the Amber-Hued Rain was at the very beginning of Fuuchan's musumeyaku career and at the end of Midori's and I still think that Fuuchan's portrayal is more nuanced and interesting. That's impressive. Along with her role in Immortal Thorns, also from the same period, Sharon is Fuuchan's peak as a performer.

Plus, she's so gosh darn pretty, I can't...

Besides Osa and Fuuchan, we have Ranju Tomu as Louis, a gigolo who acts as a second love interest for Sharon, and he and Claude compete for her attention. The role has been played by Osa before, opposite Charlie, but also by Sena Jun, opposite Osa. Like Fuuchan, Tomu isn't the best singer, but you get used to her style quickly, I think, instead she's extremely talented as an actress and an amazing dancer, so she fits the role really well. Very smouldering and jaded. I love her.

Last but not least, In the Amber-Hued Rain is stocked up on bangers. It is literally one of the only Zuka musicals that doesn't have a single forgettable song. All of Sharon's songs are amazing, Claude's theme is beautiful, everything sung by Claude and Louis is super catchy, the ensemble songs are killer and even Francoise's (Claude's fiancée) songs are nice. This is the musical with the gigolo song that basically has a refrain than just says "gigolo, gigolo" which doesn't sound half as cool as it's done. It has an ensemble song called "Train Blu" which is also really cool - and then, all the character themes. Sooooo good.

Last but not least, it has the song I've shared up above. C'est La Vie which is the most catchy and unforgettable song I've ever heard in a Zuka musical, that is counting Elisabeth and Lucifer's Tears. It is just so catchy. I still, ten years later, still sometimes randomly remember it and want to sing it.

So, luckily, someone has uploaded it to YouTube for y'all to enjoy.

It's a classic love story with some Lady of the Camellias vibes in there, with a poignant, sad ending. What's not to love?

I fell a little bit in love again, at least, upon reviewing it.

saturday.

For the first time in a very long time, I was able to sit down today and read a whole poetry collection, start to finish. I'm not an advocate for doing that, generally. I think most poetry collections benefit from sitting a bit with each poem and not necessarily in the given order, rather than rushing on to the next and the next. However, you have to understand, I haven't read a whole book of any kind for months. I haven't been able to concentrate - so this is a huge milestone and a great success for me. Along with the feeling of actually being motivated for something that wasn't directly my own creation? Haven't experienced that in maybe years.

And I say directly, because these poems are the inspiration for my three swan poems that will hopefully become a small collection little by little. In time for me to send them to Stephanie, when and if she gets to dance Odette/Odile.

( I'll just keep talking about the poems behind this cut. )

saturday.

This is going to be a warm-up for my Manon/Marguerite story which will either go up before I go to bed tonight, depending on how late I can hold out, or first thing in the morning.

Because this is going to be yet another post about The Lady of the Camellias. Are you sick of this canon at this point? I wouldn't be able to sympathise, but I could probably understand why, lol.

I've roleplayed Marguerite for years and she remains my favourite character, but for some reason I can't write fanfiction from her PoV. Manon's story is told from Manon's PoV, I've written fanfiction about Prudence Duvernoy's thoughts and views of Marguerite, I've written Olympia/Marguerite fanfiction - from Olympia's PoV. Until now, I for some reason haven't dared touch the lady herself.

I hope, one day it'll come.

Until then, I have a lot of fun exploring the ladies around her. I think I've exhausted my thoughts on Manon, those 50 pages did something about the itch... that one fic I wrote about Prudence years and years ago, ditto. That leaves us with Olympia. I've already written and posted two fics about Olympia that I'm pretty satisfied with, but she keeps intriguing me as a character.

I think it's two very separate things. In both novel and ballet, she's Marguerite's contrast. Probably a girl from the same kind of background, but she is everything Marguerite is not. She is not noble or "good", she is greedy, shallow and every other thing you might imagine a courtesan to be, if she has no heart. I really want to work with that perception. Because I don't think it makes a person less "good" to think of their own needs, requirements and wants. It makes them wise. It makes them strong. But of course, both then and now, we don't like strong, wise, self-reliant women, do we?

She is described as such in the novel: The girl was beautiful - and in terms of her figure, more beautiful than Marguerite. This became even clearer to me as I saw the former looked at Olympia while I was talking to her. The man who would be the lover of that woman could be as proud as M. de N..., and she was beautiful enough to inspire a passion equal to that which Marguerite had inspired in me. If you just threw up a little in your mouth, I fully understand. Really.

The second reason I think Olympia intrigues me is due to her solo in the ballet which is set to the prettiest Chopin music in existence.

Watch on YouTube

I love everything about this scene, from Olympia's pink costume, so bright and spritely in comparison to Marguerite's dreary brown, her playfulness, youth and liveliness. And the way she owns wanting Armand, it has nothing to do with him and everything to do with Marguerite herself. What she wants to have and own. How she wants to advance.

My favourite Olympia to this day must be Stephanie who was just promoted to principal at the RDB. She danced Olympia in 2014 when I saw three separate performances of the ballet in a week. She was the highlight of that evening and that cast. I might have a picture...



So if I'm going to work more with this canon right now, I think Olympia is my best bet. She's a fittingly minor character that I have a lot of wriggle room, but also established enough that there's personality and plot to stay true to.

A new round of genprompt_bingo is coming up, so maybe I'll have a prompt table made just for Olympia fic, or to afford myself more freedom - more broadly for The Lady of the Camellias fic. There are truly so many female characters in that canon that are never given voice that it could be my mission to grant every single one of them a time to speak.

I mean, don't get me started on Astrid Elbo's Nanina...