schneefink

I'm feeling better, but I went to the doctor's office and to the pharmacy and to the store this morning and afterwards I was absolutely wiped.

Too tired to catch up on chores just yet, but I can start catching up on reviews, at least.

Three weeks ago, friends and I went to see Maria Theresia the musical at Ronacher. I rarely go see musicals in Vienna; the last one was the Falco musical in the same place around 1-2 years ago, both of them premiered there. I enjoyed "Rock Me Amadeus" more than expected, so I was very curious about a new one about empress Maria Theresia. A key figure of Austrian history; I only remembered bits and pieces of what I learned about her at school and during museum visits etc, but I briefly looked at her Wikipedia page beforehand just in case.

I had a good time! The beginning was the weakest part imo, but then it picked up the pace and focus. Of course they took plenty of liberties with historical facts but that was inevitable. I liked the music (not especially memorable but I am also not great at remembering music in general tbf) and staging, and especially some of the things they did with the lights. I found Falco too loud in places, but not this one, possibly because we sat further back.

It started first with a song about Maria Theresia, and then with Maria Theresia (later also referred to as MT, which I'll happily use because it's shorter) rebelling against her parents who don't think she needs to study philosophy or statecraft or anything, after all she's a woman and everyone must submit to god's plan for them and a woman's position does not require philosophy (only languages, and dancing, and instruments - it's not that they didn't study anything.) [I was surprised they didn't mention that her father specifically made her his heir because he didn't have sons; later I looked it up and found out that he passed that edict even before her birth. But was clearly so convinced that he would have sons that he didn't bother educating his daughters.]

The ~low-ranking noble Franz Stephan comes to court and the Emperor and chancellor Bartenstein immediately dislike him because he has no manners, but he realizes that MT is actually smart and gives her books and the two of them fall in love, their secret meetings supported by MT's governess. The king of Prussia Fritz comes to Vienna and he and the Emperor want to betroth him and MT, but MT refuses because she's in love with Franz Stephan, an outrage.

I was a bit skeptical about that at first: are they really going to make the rivalry between MT and Fritz about scorned love?? Fortunately they did something more interesting with it: Fritz later sings about how outrageous it is that MT thinks she can have both love and power and anything she wants, when he himself couldn't have that either. (Sidenote, on the evening I was there Fritz was played by the actor who I'd previously seen as Falco, and somehow he sometimes still sounded more ~Viennese than MT did, funnily enough.)

Bartenstein, determined to make the best of a bad situation, comes up with a way to get an advantage out of the marriage with Franz Stephan: if he gives up his country, they can exchange that for an alliance with France, and that alliance is worth the hand of MT. MT tells FS she can't ask that of him, and he initially leaves but then returns to marry her anyway. The court happily hopes for a male heir, finally, but before that happens the Emperor dies.

Here was one of my favorite scenes: MT, distraught, doesn't know what to do and says she's not prepared to rule. Bartenstein tells her she has to talk to the court, but he'll do the actual ruling. MT steps in front of the court but talks hesitantly, and the nobles are not convinced. Bartenstein steps in to reassure the nobles with a firm tone, but they're not convinced by him either. And then MT speaks up again and copies Bartenstein's tone perfectly, and because she's the monarch they have to listen to her, and they're all (including Bartenstein) surprised because they didn't expect that of her.

Brief interlude with a Bavarian, a Saxonian, and a Swiss ambassador sending congratulations and well-wishes, and then immediately telling their home countries to prepare their armies for conquest, in very strong accents too, that was fun.

Then Fritz attacks, war montage, MT agonizes over not having enough troops and not being taken seriously as a woman by the generals, then in a conversation with her governess (the countess fox) realizes that one of the few roles women are allowed in this society that could be of use to her is that of a mother; and with her newborn son in arm she appeals to the Hungarian counts, calling herself "mother of the nation," and successfully gains their support, winning the war (for now.) Break.

Act two starts with MT as "working mum," working tirelessly to enact reform after reform and only having limited, scheduled time to talk to her many children. She starts marrying them off throughout Europe, as admiringly noted by Fritz. Her husband is now officially emperor thanks to her, but they are estranged because she's so busy and doesn't involve him in statecraft while looking down on his ~merchant enterprises. She tells her son and heir Joseph he's too young to be involved with her work. She denies her daughter permission to marry the man she loves, singing the exact same song about needing to submit to god's plan that her father once sang to her. (Other than that religion barely came up, but those two moments made it seem quite important, especially for her hard turn to her father's familial policies post-timeskip, so it was an understandable (time-wise) but still somewhat glaring omission.)

MT hears about Franz Stephan cheating on her, but governess fox convinces her to make an effort to repair their relationship, so she travels to his castle, interrupting an orgy in progress. Oops. Right after that she finds out Fritz declared war again, helped by secret intel about her plans. She sings a despairing song, but her mother, who admits she underestimated her and says she now believes in her, and governess fox manage to revive her spirits. Joseph admits to having sent Fritz secret letters, and when she wonders what to do with him, he says he knows the punishment for treason is death. (Mmm the good angst. I also immediately started thinking about an AU where Fritz wins and decides to keep toying with Joseph. Ahem.) Instead MT forgives him and promises to involve him in the future, and allows Marie Christine to marry the man she loves [historically, Marie Christine was her favorite], and Franz Stephan also arrives and promises to stand by her side.

Fritz is losing badly, but refuses to retreat because he can't afford to lose face. He talks with one of his men, Fredersdorf, about how his father treated him terribly and when Fritz tried to rebel his father killed his male lover; then he kisses Fredersdorf but Fredersdorf leaves and Fritz is alone. (I was amused that I remembered enough from what I read on

rheinsberg a whiile ago to go !! when Fredersdorf was mentioned and "that doesn't seem right" when he left xD Also a good musical review there btw, here, with some more historical notes.)

Franz Stephan dies; I really liked how they used light and the stage to show his death causing black despair.
To end the war MT and Fritz meet privately. She agrees to officially surrender Silesia to end the war, which means Fritz can save face. She tells him they are similar in several ways: she always faced the pressure of how a woman is supposed to act and what she can do, he faced the pressure of how a man is supposed to act and what he can do.
Final agreement, then the final song is a retrospective on how much she achieved etc. etc. (With some exaggerations, naturally.)

Afterwards I was in the mood to read a book about the Habsburgs, and the only one currently available as an ebook from the library was one about "scandalous love affairs of the Habsburgs," by Hanne Egghardt. Fortunately a quick stop to any romanticizing of the Habsburgs through sheer, hm, mundanity. It features several scandalous affairs throughout the centuries, from the wife of the emperor falling in love with and almost certainly having an affair with her sister-in-law, to Napoleon's widow having kids with a general sent to look after her, to several archdukes falling in love with "commoners" - with varying degrees of happy endings that all showcase why such relationships were viewed with much skepticism.
It was often mentioned that these nobles had allowances of specific sums of money that all sounded like a lot, but I have no context how much so-and-so thousand guilders were worth back then so I couldn't say whether they were extremely rich or just moderately wealthy for their station.