Unfortunately, in the time I've been too lazy to update this blog, our little visit to Esslingen seems far past, as we've gone to Heidleberg, home to Germany's first University, as well as Strasbourg in France. Returning to finish our posts on Esslingen seemed slightly anti-climatic, as charming as it was. But I will soldier forth.
This photo isn't related to medieval architecture or history. It's just some weird, weird German advertisting. Is it a dentist's office? Ads for a fruit-based sequel to "Little Shop of Horrors"? Who knows?
It is frustratingly difficult to get information about Jewish history from the information centers, so we hadn't realized we stumbled upon the site of the former Jewish ghetto from the 1500s until Chris noticed the street name "Judengasse" ("Jews' Alley"). Although it now feels central, at one time this "suburb" was outside city walls.
Speaking of city walls, this is the "Wolf's Gate" and is the only remaining tower from the walls that used to protect the city. It was constructed in 1268.
Being the uh, athletic types we are, we walked up the hillside (with the intention of finding another historic building that I didn't realize was at the top of the hill) and stumbled upon the park in front of Esslingen's "castle." It wasn't a residence for princes, but rather the fortification for the city. The tower is called "Dicker Turm" which means "fat tower."
The tower houses a restaurant - booked that day for a wedding party full of unruly kids - and boasts an amazing view of the city.
The old city hall dates from 1420 and includes a moving clock, like so many important German civic buildings. In front of the building is a monument to the local people who died in World War I.
Esslingen has 3 important churches, the largest of which is St. Dionyus, seen here. It's now Protestant.
The Romanesque "Women's Church" just a few blocks away is notable for the detailed outside decorations, including scary gargoyle animals like this owl.
This decoration at the Women's Church of Judgement Day seemed pretty impressive, but just yesterday I was at one of Europe's great cathedrals, Notre Dame De Strasbourg, which is just breathtaking. Still - Esslingen was my first introduction to medieval churches and all three are lovely.
I haven't gotten around to finishing our posts on Esslingen, mostly because I've been too fascinated by two German musicals. You see, we're staying at a hotel at the "SI Center", which is a big complex full of restaurants, shops, and a movie theater. But the anchors of the property are the two large theaters, which show international and German musical spectaculars. "Wicked" was playing here until recently and will be again this summer, but the two current musicals are "Tanz Der Vampire" ("Dance of the Vampires) and "Ich War Noch Niemals in New York" ("I've Never Been To New York"). Judging by the huge evening and Sunday crowds, both are still very popular.
The advertising for "Tanz Der Vampire" seen here is literally all over Stuttgart. We found this image improbably cheesy and obviously trying to capitalize on the "Twilight"-induced craze of brooding, protective Vampire dude his fragile human love interest. So I was pretty surprised when I finally looked up the show and realized it wasn't primarily a star-crossed romance between the living and dead, but rather a musical based on a 1969 Roman Polanski horror-comedy (known as "The Fearless Vampire Killers" in the U.S.). Now I realize we have a whole untapped field of rich source material: Polanski films! Just imagine the song titles! To make things more bizarre, Polanski even directed the original German version of the musical. Who knew he had directed a musical? Crazy Euro secrets.
The show premiered in Vienna in 1997, and what is currently playing here is the 2009 revival. It's been a huge hit all over German-speaking Europe, so (American) composer Jim Steinman naturally wanted to bring the show to the English-speaking audiences, and that's where the story gets really weird.
Jim Steinman is the guy responsible for some of pop music's most overwrought songs, including (but not limited to) "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart", which incidentally is used, irony-free, in "Tanz Der Vampire".
Anyway, the American production had a lot of problems. The German version seems to be mostly "sensuous, gothic horror" (that's how fans of the musical describe it, anyway) but that sort of thing would obviously just seem ridiculously campy to Americans, so the creators decided to try to play up some of the more comedic and lewd aspects. Famous, venerated Broadway veterans were brought in to redo everything from costumes to choreography to sets. Broadway heavyweight Michael Crawford (i.e. the original Phantom of the Opera) and awesome character actor René Auberjonois (Odo from "Star Trek: Deep Space 9") were cast in lead roles. Unfortunately Crawford had aged and widened considerably since "Phantom" debuted in 1988, and this was apparently "hidden" behind lots of makeup and costume modifications - think ruffles, lots of ruffles.
Production continued. Millions were spent. Many efforts were made to bring Polanski to the States to reprise his role as director, but he ran into some legal issues due the fact that he is a justice-fleeing child rapist. (Whoops, what a shame that got in the way of your big Broadway debut, Mr. Polanski!)
To make a long and increasingly hilarious story short, the show suffered from the "too many cooks" syndrome and never found a consistent tone. Some people didn't care for the stereotypes used for a Jewish innkeeper (who sexually harasses his shiksa maid) and a swishy vampire who tries to seduce the male lead.
But really, it seems to me the failure of "Dance of the Vampire" had less to do with its numerous production problems and more to do with the fact that a schlocky, serious, scary, romantic, gothic vampire rock opera musical spoof that depends on a puffy, washed-up Broadway legend for sexual magnetism was probably the worst idea of all time.
It had the stink of a bomb well before it premiered, and critics seemed delighted that it lived up to the hype:
The show closed quickly after it premiered, but "Tanz" lives on in Germany. What I want to know is, was the American version so terrible, or is it just that American audiences might have significantly different tastes? Watch the clip of the exalted German show below and let me know what you think.
(And yes, I am trying to convince Chris to take me for Valentine's Day. What could be more romantic?)
On Saturday we were greeted with a (relatively) gorgeous day - sunny, with highs in the mid-40s, and a light breeze. After literally weeks of snow, drizzle, and clouds it looked and felt amazing. We decided to take the opporunity to visit a gem right in our own backyard, the largely preserved medieval town of Esslingen-On-The-Neckar, just 15 minutes from downtown Stuttgart via S-Train.
Most of the town's streets look like this: narrow and paved with cobblestones, filled with half-timbered houses from the early 14th century, as well as more magnificent baroque buildings and several important gothic churches. The town existed prior to 777, when it was first recorded in Catholic church records. It was an important trading post when Stuttgart was barely more than a village, a stopover on the route from the Rhine valley to Italy.
This statue tops a fountain dedicated to the "Postman Michael", and relates the 15th-century legend of a postman who found the signet ring of a local rich man on his travels.
He mistakenly shows off the ring at a tavern in Esslingen, unaware that the man to whom the ring belonged was very rich and recently murdered, with the killer unknown. Unsurprisingly, he is charged with the murder and confesses after horrific torture. On the way to his beheading, he passes the relative of the rich victim and realizes that he is the killer, but no one heeds him. He's killed, but every year he torments the real killer, blowing his postmaster's horn and riding around with his head cut off, until the true killer not only confesses his misdeed, but also donates his ill-gotten fortune to a fund to provide all travellers through Esslingen with a small donation.
Next to come is part 2 of Esslingen: The "castle" and the amazing churches!
