„The world is a ship. And the ship is sinking.“
Synopsys
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ACT I
A fateful choice
One hundred years after the event, Elisabeth’s assassin, Luigi Lucheni, is being cross-examined by an invisible judge. Leading through the musical’s plot as a vibrant and sardonic narrator, Lucheni claims his murder of Elisabeth was only what she herself had longed for. He summons their dead contemporaries as his witnesses and starts to recount the story of a haunting love affair: the fatal romance between Elisabeth and Death.
The 15-year-old Princess Elisabeth would rather ride the horses and climb mountains than attend social functions. At one such gathering, her mother announces that Elisabeth’s elder sister, Helene, is to marry the young Emperor Franz Joseph. The tomboyish Elisabeth shocks the aristocrats with her antics, performing a circus act during which she falls and encounters Death for the first time, who is presented as a seductively attractive and darkly charming young man.
Franz Joseph meets Helene, his intended wife, at his summer residence Bad Ischl but instead falls in love with her sister Elisabeth. His strict and domineering mother, Archduchess Sophie, is horrified. Commenting on the events, Lucheni makes a somber prophecy: Franz Joseph’s love for Elisabeth will bring about the end of the Habsburg Empire.
Trapped and liberated
Following her wedding, Elisabeth soon feels stifled in the straitjacket of court life and smothered by her despotic mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie. The couple’s first child, named Sophie after her Grandmother against Elisabeth’s will, is taken away from her by the Archduchess and soon claimed by Death. The Archduchess also keeps Elisabeth from having any contact with her son, Rudolf, who, also against her will, is designated for a soldier’s career.
Eventually, Elisabeth presents her husband with an ultimatum, insisting on her right to educate her children herself. The Emperor yields, and Elisabeth wins in the power struggle against her mother-in-law. She sings “I Belong To Me” as a passionate declaration of her refusal to be dependent on anyone, and even rejects Death.
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ACT II
Triumph and withdrawal
Elisabeth’s political support of Hungary in the country’s fight for independence is her greatest triumph. But Lucheni predicts that these events will initiate the decline and collapse of the Habsburg Empire. At least temporarily, Elisabeth also triumphs over Death, proclaiming that she will dance her last dance only when she is ready. She withdraws into splendid isolation, neglecting her duties and her son, Rudolf. In her place, Death steps in and befriends the lonely little boy. In an effort to break Elisabeth’s hold on the Emperor, Sophie and her entourage send a prostitute to seduce him.
Death continues his advances to Elisabeth and, to prove the Emperor’s infidelity, tells her that her husband has passed on a venereal disease to her. But again, Elisabeth resists his temptation, regarding this incident as her final liberation from all obligations.
United at last – with Death
Travelling restlessly around Europe, Elisabeth hardly ever visits her residence in Vienna. In her absence, Death incites the now adult Rudolf to politically oppose his father and a dispute ensues. The pressure exerted upon Rudolf becomes unbearable. Isolated and desperate he turns to his mother for help, but she refuses to support him. Bereft of his last hope, he sees no other choice but to commit suicide.
Devastated, Elisabeth realizes that her quest for independence and selffulfillment has taken her too far. Now, she is finally ready to meet Death. But in a chivalrous move, Death refuses to triumph over the weakened Empress: he wants her to be strong when he takes her. In a last attempt to save his failed marriage, Franz Joseph tries to persuade the aimlessly wandering Elisabeth to return back to Vienna. But she refuses, arguing that some wounds even love cannot heal.
A decade later, Death finally takes pity on Elisabeth and the final dance begins. In a nightmarish vision, Franz Joseph sees the fall of the House of Habsburg. He now meets his invincible rival for the first time and tries to save Elisabeth, but Death throws the murder weapon, a file, to Lucheni. Lucheni ends his tale by describing how he attacked the Empress on the shore of Lake Geneva. Elisabeth finally submits to her yearning and enters a passionate embrace with Death.