Takarazuka Revue: Mayerling (Flower 2023)
a Takarazuka original based on history
Let me preface this by saying that from the little literature I have found for reading in preparation for this entry, there are so much evidence that Rudolf was not mad or stupid. So although I will draw a parallel of his situation between him and his cousin, the Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria, such a comparison does not include their mental state.
Without going too much into the detail, here’s my take on the musical based on my very shallow understanding of this section of history that, quite literally, turned the world into a living chaos. Rudolf was the Crown Prince, meaning he would be the immediate heir to the Emperor Franz Joseph. His death quite definitely took a lot of people then in surprise, although when we look back now, he does seem to have some degree of depression or at that time called melancholia, and suicidal tendencies — so it wouldn’t be that of a surprise when his character dies onstage. Anyway, the hell unleashed by his death includes: the lack of an apparent heir so his dad has to pass the throne to his bro; but the bro died early before he could take over so Rudolf’s cousin, the very famous (only at death) Franz Ferdinand. Franz Ferdinand also didn’t have the chance to sit on the throne, too, because his death triggered a series of events that tipped the balance, and The Great War happened.
Although not everyone knows the characters of this musical, like Rudolf and Franz Joseph, or the musical about Rudolf’s mum, Elisabeth of Bavaria (”Sissi”), you would definitely know that World War I was a catastrophe. And not to mention that in less than 50 years this catastrophe happened “again” — I put again in parenthesis because this time it killed more people, created more physical and psychological trauma, and has even greater impacts (good and bad) to the world’s development. So putting it into the context, Rudolf’s death — and it seemed inevitable in the musical — was one of the root causes of the outbreak of WWI.
I don’t really read a lot about the Habsburg except for the part where they were still Holy Roman Emperors, so I couldn’t possibly analyze more about the situation here without offending my history professors (they won’t see it but just saying). But the thing is, I think the musical did bring out a lot of sides of Rudolf that provides a more humanistic perspective into this historical character that was more often framed as ‘the womanizer’ or that sort. He was more than this. And the playwrights know. You see, even his mum didn’t get why he had to commit suicide, and that is the ambiguity of his death to the people then: WHY do a crown prince resort to doing something so dramatically tragic?
Looking at some of the more academic sources (rather than independent research that was not peer reviewed, sorry), here are some things about Rudolf:
- He failed miserably when he tried to get involved with the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s politics as he was a liberal on matters about Hungary etc., while his dad Franz Joseph was a high-time conservative (especially with his wife’s success in bringing Hungary under his crown)
- Rudolf was noted as a very intelligent man with a lot of new thoughts about an unified Europe (of course, far from the European Union we are having now, but still), as well as domestic-diplomatic relations but was all banned by his dad
- In a few years before his death, he got some STDs and which caused him great pain; that made him take morphine (an opioid) daily; so it was like womanizing and having opioid high are his interests to get away from the world like how Ludwig II puts himself into Wagner’s works and building palaces
- His STD was transmitted to his wife, Stephanie of Belgium, which caused her to be barren; there were great resentments on Steph’s part about her infertility and shame (because everyone in the court knows), so it wasn’t like Rudolf can stop wooing other women for a happy marriage (not saying it’s right)
- In 2 years before his death, his doctor remarked that he showed signs of what we would now call neuropathic pain (headaches, eye pain), and depression (depressive episodes, an ‘obsession with death’
Some pieces of extra information from unrelated sources are that Elisabeth, his mum, were not very close to him when he was young because she was travelling all around Europe to get away from the Habsburg court; while his teacher were emotionally and physically abusive towards him.
Adding all these up — and almost all were addressed in the musical, it is really no surprise that Rudolf could’ve planned to die very early on.
And then in his final letters to his family and friends, he mentioned about dying to preserve his honour. The ‘honour’ mentioned were still a mystery to this day, but from some other evidence of his activities in Mayerling could’ve suggested something done by his dad or someone up there in the court. First, before this there were a Hungarian uprising that he wants to laissez-faire, but his dad refused and rebuffed him. And then there were Hungarian insurgents telegraphing him about the uprising. This part is where the musical describes it very well: people in the court, perhaps even his father, pitched against him for supporting the Hungarian liberation forces even though he hadn’t voiced out his support for those people yet. And the tarnation of this part of his honour was too much for him to bear. And, as one of the papers mentioned: Marie didn’t cause the suicide to happen, but it is her that gave Rudolf the courage to do the deed.
References
- Fuchs, D. (2012) ‘MYTH TODAY’: The Bavarian-Austrian Subtext of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, Poetica, 44(3/4):379–393.
- Mitis, O. (1927). Crown Prince Rudolf and the Croats, The Slavonic Review, 5(15):580–593.
- Binion, R. (1975). From Mayerling to Sarajevo, The Journal of Modern History, 47(2):280–316.
Cite as: Bachmanov, G. (August 22, 2023). Takarazuka Revue: Mayerling (Flower 2023): a Takarazuka original based on history. Opera of the Day. https://operaoftheday.medium.com/takarazuka-revue-mayerling-flower-2023-34e1072abc79
