About the artist
Elisabeth das Musical refers to the German-language stage musical Elisabeth, created by composer Sylvester Levay and lyricist/book writer Michael Kunze, which premiered in Vienna in 1992. The show dramatizes the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, weaving her story together with a personification of Death as a central character who pursues her across the decades. It became one of the most successful German-language musicals ever staged, with long-running productions in Vienna, and numerous restagings across Austria, Germany, Hungary, Japan and other countries.
Musically the show sits in the pop-rock musical theatre tradition, built around a small set of powerful recurring themes rather than a long list of standalone numbers. Songs such as «Ich gehör nur mir», «Der letzte Tanz» and «Wie du» carry the emotional core of the story, sung across different cast recordings by the many performers who have taken on the roles of Elisabeth, Death and Emperor Franz Joseph over the decades.
Because the musical has been restaged so many times in different countries and languages, its songs exist in numerous cast-recording versions, making Elisabeth one of the most enduringly popular German-language musicals in the repertoire, alongside works like Tanz der Vampire and Mozart!.