It does look like fun. Mind you: it was evidently written for the big Fritz centennary in 2012 and hasn't been performed since 2014, which doesn't augur well for its staying power as a musical. I checked out a review, and as I guessed from the songs available on YouTube, and the cast list, it's two thirds Crown Prince Fritz, one third King Fritz (racing through Silesia 1&2, Voltaire implosion and 7 Years War. Fritz dies immediately post having won the 7 Years War, at the height of his fame. Also, presumably someone felt there needed more heterosexuality, so in addition to Fritz getting deflowered by the Countess Orzelska - who exists in the musical, as opposed to Heinrich and AW, who do not - , Queen SD gets to have an affair as well, with, wait for it...Grumbkow. When the reviewer mentioned that, my jaw dropped. I mean. What even?
Never mind, though, musical treatments of history were never famous for their accuracy, as Verdi was the first one to admit, and I can see why the librettists mostly wanted to do the crown prince tragedy with some addendum re: what that did to Fritz' psyche in the long term.
okay, the people who made this musical clearly are 100% with our little group in both being fascinated by Fritz/Wilhelmine and being all "welp, that was sure one orientation and two sex drives away from a huge scandal!
Between the lyrics including "we were born for each other", "one soul shared in two bodies" and "we against the world", I'm getting that impression, yes.
But how can Voltaire possibly be a baritone? He's clearly a tenor!
LOL. I've always imagined him as a baritone myself for some reason - Rossini's Figaro from Il Barbiere rather than Mozart's came to mind - but a tenor works for me, too.
Re: what he actually was, one of us will have to read a Voltaire biography one of these days, maybe they're quoting someone's description which could tell us whether he had a high or low voice at least. I don't think the Duc de Croy, who met him and Émilie in Versailles, ever mentions that part in his diaries. And while Voltaire occasionally acted in courtly drama performances - like the one in Potsdam for Fritz where he was Cicero and Heinrich was Catiline in his own play Rome Sauvée - no one on the Prussian side of things ever mentions him trying to sing, which would indicate he didn't. Thus depriving us from a chance of ever knowing for sure. :)
Re: Fritz - the Musical
Never mind, though, musical treatments of history were never famous for their accuracy, as Verdi was the first one to admit, and I can see why the librettists mostly wanted to do the crown prince tragedy with some addendum re: what that did to Fritz' psyche in the long term.
okay, the people who made this musical clearly are 100% with our little group in both being fascinated by Fritz/Wilhelmine and being all "welp, that was sure one orientation and two sex drives away from a huge scandal!
Between the lyrics including "we were born for each other", "one soul shared in two bodies" and "we against the world", I'm getting that impression, yes.
But how can Voltaire possibly be a baritone? He's clearly a tenor!
LOL. I've always imagined him as a baritone myself for some reason - Rossini's Figaro from Il Barbiere rather than Mozart's came to mind - but a tenor works for me, too.
Re: what he actually was, one of us will have to read a Voltaire biography one of these days, maybe they're quoting someone's description which could tell us whether he had a high or low voice at least. I don't think the Duc de Croy, who met him and Émilie in Versailles, ever mentions that part in his diaries. And while Voltaire occasionally acted in courtly drama performances - like the one in Potsdam for Fritz where he was Cicero and Heinrich was Catiline in his own play Rome Sauvée - no one on the Prussian side of things ever mentions him trying to sing, which would indicate he didn't. Thus depriving us from a chance of ever knowing for sure. :)