open/close all folders
The stage musical:
- Regarding the ballroom dancers:
- They are simply credited as the Gigolo and the Countess in the libretto. In-show, the Baron refuses to let Elizaveta pay his ticket to Vienna, because he isn't a gigolo. He also flirts with Flaemmchen by telling her that he wished to be a Duke for her. Counts and Dukes outrank Barons. If Felix had lowered himself (to being a gigolo, in his mind), the lovers could have risen higher - in society, and in happiness.
- The New York City Center/Encores production possibly coded the dancers as Love (the Countess) and Death (the Gigolo). Right before the Bolero, Dr. Otternschlag says, "Once again, those two sworn enemies, Love and Death, come face to face." The choreography contains a move named the death spiral. At the end, Death offers his hand to the Doctor. He almost takes it, and then withdraws, to say, "I'll stay, one more day." Death smiles, also withdraws, and leaves with Love. Given how cynical the Doctor has been throughout the show, it can certainly be interpreted as him not giving in and being Driven to Suicide.
- It's also possible to interpret the Takarazuka Revue Bolero as a dance between the Baron and Death, played by Elizaveta's actress dressed in black. She begins the dance by awakening him with a kiss and pulling him up (his soul leaving his body). Her expression is cold, distant, and determined. He's initially frightened and tries to run away. She pursues him (at one point hugging him from the back and popping her head up, a move within Death's choreography in the Revue's productions of Elisabeth and Romeo et Juliette: De La Haine a l'Amour ) and eventually seduces him into pursuing her while she coyly flees. The dance ends with a Kiss of Death, the Baron's lifeless body slumping back onto the couch, and Death adopting a triumphant pose. Given that "Roses at the Station" is his Dying Dream in which he imagines he's on the station platform waiting for Elizaveta as if he hasn't been fatally shot, the Bolero is then an interpretation of the Baron's soul coming to terms with his death, and The Grim Reaper collecting him.
