Road-show 'Blossom Time'

[moon_custafer]

Me: So, are Lilac Time and Blossom Time the same show under different titles? (checks Wikipedia) Huh. Weird.

Apparently, they’re different English-language adaptations of the same Viennese operetta in which Franz Schubert shows up as a character and in some versions, so does his music. Or pastiches of his music.

Poor Schubert – he could seldom get any of his works performed publicly, and then he had such a lurid afterlife as a character in other people’s stage shows and movies. Often played by performers who were significantly older than he was when he died. Sort of the same thing happened to Toulouse-Lautrec, I suppose. For my part I can never bring myself to see either man’s life as a tragedy.

Comments

[sovay]

and then he had such a lurid afterlife as a character in other people’s stage shows and movies.

What are you thinking of? (I have never actually seen Schubert as a character in anything. I feel deprived. I associate him most strongly with Winterreise and some other art songs I have sung.)

[moon_custafer]

Well, Lilac Time, Blossom Time, and Das Dreimäderlhaus (the show they’re both based upon) all have Schubert suffering unrequited love over various, usually fictional women. I thought Schubert was gay, but Wikipedia claims his friends all had different opinions on who he was attracted to, and of course it’s possible they were all correct and he was bi. According to the link below, the popularity of the original show started a whole trend of operettas based on the fictional unhappy love lives of famous composers.The movies I'm less sure about.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070707075837/http://www.franzschubert.org.uk/articles/mlbhist.html

[sovay]

but Wikipedia claims his friends all had different opinions on who he was attracted to, and of course it’s possible they were all correct and he was bi.

I would be charmed if that turned out to be the case.

operettas based on the fictional unhappy love lives of famous composers. The movies I'm less sure about.

Well, somebody should feel bad!

TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC

[sovay]

So I also became curious about the source of this panel you linked on Tumblr. This Instagram post from last year looks like ground zero for a lot of the Tumblr reblogs—I traced it back from this one—but contains no useful information whatsoever, thanks, Instagram. The gruesome punch line and the art style made me think of EC Comics. If so, I am still looking. Point is, I briefly wondered if it could be "The Acid Test!" from The Haunt of Fear #11 (1952)—and it's not, but "The Acid Test!" itself turns out to be a comic-book adaptation of an honest-to-God Grand Guignol play called Le Baiser dans la Nuit/The Last Kiss and I was so delighted, I felt you should know.

Re: TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC

[moon_custafer]

Thanks! I think several of those plots were picked up by other writers over the years.

Re: TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC

[sovay]

I think several of those plots were picked up by other writers over the years.

It makes perfect sense that horror comics are where Grand Guignol went, I'd just never seen it before.