Introductions

Hi Chioco,

A good opera to start with? Now there's a challenge. But if you don't listen much to classical music (and thus already have a favourite composer/time period) I would probably go for the old war horses, after all there is a reason why they are popular. This would lead me to recommend either one of the more tragic/romantic operas such as:

Tosca, Bohéme or Madama Butterfly by Puccini
La Traviata or Aida by Verdi
Carmen by Bizet
Don Giovanni by Mozart

or if comedy is more your thing maybe:

The Barber of Seville by Rossini
The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

Then there is always the catch that a lot depends on who is singing and what the production team has come up with. With the tragedies there is always the risk of a boring production but, at least for me, when a tragic drama really works (acting, singing, sets and orchestra playing) it beats anything.

If I had to pick only one I would probably go for Carmen since I adore mezzo sopranos, but also since the story works and you would probably recognize some of the music. And you can compare it to the Takarazuka take on the story :-)

Hi Ann! I live in NYC and I've never seen an opera. Can you recommend a good "beginner" opera?

look forward to talking with you!

Hi everybody,

Thought I should add another country to the community. This is quinquin (or Ann if we meet in real life) from Stockholm, Sweden. As some of you may guess from my nick I'm foremost an operafan, but if you like musical theatre with crossdressing dark voiced women and grand emotions, sometimes Takarazuka works just as well as an opera by Händel :-) and unlike opera Takarazuka seldom gets boring. I am however very addicted to the unmiked human voice so I think I will stick to opera as my first choice. This also means that I tend to fall hardest for performers with good voices (in my fairly untuned ears) although I'm also quite easily distracted by women who look good in uniforms/suits. A good combination of voice/looks for me is Zunko or in opera Malena Ernman.

I first discovered Takarazuka through the Dream girls documentary about 10(?) years ago, but recently youtube has brought it back into my life with a bang. As a matter of fact I've just broken down and ordered my first dvds. Unlike some previous poster I actually decided that soundofmusic.de was the best place to order the first dvds from. Yes, it is huuugely expensive even by takarazuka standards but I took a look at the different fees and taxes that would be added along the way from Japan to my home and realized that the sum would be about the same as what soundofmusic.de would charge. I think it was the 25% swedish sales tax on top of everything that tipped the scale since that wont get added on deliveries from Germany/EU.

I am grateful for all the information on this wiki since it sure helps me navigate through the Takarazuka universe. Looking at the presentations I noted that I have also been lurking around quite a few of your journals on lj too. So a general thank you for all your information, reviews and entertaining comments might be in order. I'm usually mainly a lurker in online communities but I promise to add information where I can.

/qq

er hi all :) i'm actually a student from singapore :) currently in my first year in university. was introduced to takarazuka by a lecturer in a japanese studies module ... and another zuka fanatic also taking the module. and now i'm officially HOOKED :)

• i love osa!**

Hullo! I'm hardly new to poking around on the Wiki... I discovered it the same week I found Zuka, in July of this year... but I've only just started doing edits in the past few weeks. It's such fun! At Her Royal Princessnes' suggestion, I made a user profile tonight, so thought I'd pop over here and introduce myself. Most everything of importances is on my userprofile, but if anything isn't, feel free to ask. :)
~Jenn

> CuriousPanda:
> > csh_121476:
> > Hi! I'm from the Philippines, too! It's good to know that more and more people are getting to know Takarazuka. Ruka and Curious_Panda, I'm just curious, are you from Manila? If so, maybe we can meet sometime and discuss about Takarazuka ^^
>
>
> Yay! Glad to see someone from the same country. I'm from QC, not too far. :D Spread the Takarazuka love in the Philippines!!

Hi! Curious Panda, nice to meet you:)

I'm so glad to find another fan from the phil...cleofe

> Chioco:
> Hi Curious Panda! Nice to meet you. ^^
>
> My favorite actresses are Yuhi Ozora, Kei Aran, and Sei Matobu. I look forward to talking with you!!

Hi! Nice to meet you! :) I'll be sure to keep an eye on those actresses. I still have much to learn about Takarazuka!

> MagicCookie:
> hi cp, nice to meet you!!
>
> i am from germany and fan since only 1 month ... but i also like the duet sung by wao and mari very much even though the both are not my favorites ...
> my favorite is sumire haruno (osa) and you look on youtube for the flower-version of phantom where she performs the main-role ... it is only a digest-file but i was completely hooked ... my next dvd will be phantom from hanagumi ...

Hello, nice to meet you too. :) Actually the first clip I watched was of Osa in Elisabeth. She has a great voice!

> econn:
> Wow CuriousPanda, you seem to have discovered Takarazuka almost exactly the same way I did!
> Though I was watching the Sakura Taisen live stage shows. I haven't played the game, but I have the TV series and I'm a big fan.
>
> It's very nice to meet a fellow Takarazuka AND Sakura Taisen fan!
>

This is wonderful!! :) I started out watching the Sakura Taisen TV shows, then the OVAs, then the stage shows (so catchy!). I only got to play one of the games for PS2. I'm really glad Sakura Taisen led me to know Takarazuka. :D Very nice to meet you too!!

Hi Curious Panda! Nice to meet you. ^^

My favorite actresses are Yuhi Ozora, Kei Aran, and Sei Matobu. I look forward to talking with you!!

hi cp, nice to meet you!!

i am from germany and fan since only 1 month ... but i also like the duet sung by wao and mari very much even though the both are not my favorites ...
my favorite is sumire haruno (osa) and you look on youtube for the flower-version of phantom where she performs the main-role ... it is only a digest-file but i was completely hooked ... my next dvd will be phantom from hanagumi ...

Wow CuriousPanda, you seem to have discovered Takarazuka almost exactly the same way I did!
Though I was watching the Sakura Taisen live stage shows. I haven't played the game, but I have the TV series and I'm a big fan.

It's very nice to meet a fellow Takarazuka AND Sakura Taisen fan!

> csh_121476:
> Hi! I'm from the Philippines, too! It's good to know that more and more people are getting to know Takarazuka. Ruka and Curious_Panda, I'm just curious, are you from Manila? If so, maybe we can meet sometime and discuss about Takarazuka ^^


Yay! Glad to see someone from the same country. I'm from QC, not too far. :D Spread the Takarazuka love in the Philippines!!

Hi! I'm from the Philippines, too! It's good to know that more and more people are getting to know Takarazuka. Ruka and Curious_Panda, I'm just curious, are you from Manila? If so, maybe we can meet sometime and discuss about Takarazuka ^^

Hello! I'm CuriousPanda from the Philippines.

I first heard about Takarazuka 6 years ago from a Japanese friend. I've always been a fan of theatre, but at the time, I was more into drawing and anime. A few years later, I became a fan of Sakura Taisen (a game somewhat inspired by Takarazuka) and I was finally interested on finding information about Takarazuka. However, I could hardly find anything online since I was a non-Japanese speaker.

Last week, I was checking out clips on the new Sakura Taisen game on YouTube when it came to mind that the site might have clips on Takarazuka too. I was really glad to find that there were, since I had been curious about Takarazuka for a long time already. I enjoyed the clips but I wasn't really hooked until I watched the duet sung by Yoka Wao and Mari Hanafusa for Phantom. This was quite different from the Broadway Phantom that I am also a fan of and yet I found it extremely captivating (KyaaSparklyWao!!). Since then, I've been watching clips from YouTube umm…almost everyday.^^

I’m really glad that this site was put up because it’s the only other place I can learn about Takarazuka aside of YouTube since I can't even buy a DVD. Hopefully, someday if I ever go on a trip to Japan I can watch one of their plays live. (If I can even get a ticket that is!)

>I'm glad you ordered the Asian Winds and Elisabeth!
>Asian Winds is really good... I like it a lot! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Yes, I second that! I like Asian Winds too and indeed a wonderful performance. I have a copy of the themesong and always play it. But my brother doesn't like the song and make such faces, coz not only that he can't understand the lyrics but always surprised by the introduction. You know, the song had a startling intro, but I like it. I told him Bear it! Lol. the same also happens to other zuka songs I played..... cleofe

I'm glad you ordered the Asian Winds and Elisabeth! Asian Winds is really good... I like it a lot! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

> Chioco:
> Well, it's hard to find anything that is better than a current Takarazuka version. They are just all so talented.
>
> MagicCookie, are you able to buy anything from Takarazuka in Germany?


chioco, with one simple word NO it is not possible to buy something in germany ... i searched the net and found the page sound-of-music, there you can get some stuff and some dvds and cds from takarazuka - but they are so very expensive, that i cannot order them there, f.e. dvd elisabeth 2003 with sumire should cost 169 euros (that is ca. 24.000 yen i think) and than adding the costs for shipping ... may be i had to pay ca. 30.000 yen for only 1 dvd!!!
but my husband has a colleague, and his wife works together with japanese women, one of them kindly ordered for me the dvds in japan at the official takarazuka-shop and will bring it to germany when she visits her sister living in japan the next time ... i do not know when this will be (hope at christmas), but i have ordered 5 dvds, so that it will be profitable ... i hope this works - if it does i will get elisabeth 1998, elisabeth 2003 (cannot decide which i really want to have, so i took both), phantom with wao, excalibur and asian winds ... phantom with sumire was at the time i made my order unfortunately not yet out to buy ...
please wish me luck, because it is the only way for me to get some takarazuka-dvds to an adequate price :) and would be very happy to get them and would be able to watch the whole shows, not only the digest-versions and short clips on youtube ;)

Well, it's hard to find anything that is better than a current Takarazuka version. They are just all so talented.

MagicCookie, are you able to buy anything from Takarazuka in Germany?

> Chioco:
> Hi MagicCookie! I'm glad you posted about the Austrian Elisabeth. I was trying to get tickets for it when I went to Austria last year, but my schedule didn't work out. Maybe I would have been disappointed!!

hi chioco, i think you would not like the austrian version because it is so difficult to the takarazuka-versions ... for example the scene in the coffee-house where they meet to discuss something about hungary plays in an car-scooter *shock* - i was really shocked and thougt i could not trust my eyes ... they put the whole story in modern art, but using costums of the time the story realy plays ...
and the voices from men and women didn't fit very well together ... there is no real harmony ...

may be if you watch this version without knowing the japanese ones, you can find some nice things in it - the voice of elisabeth sounds not bad and her performance is o.k. --- but all in all what a difference if you know the takarazuka-versions!!!