Elisabeth (musical)
Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien (VBW), with a book and lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as "Sisi", wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, from her engagement and marriage in 1854 to her murder in 1898 at the hands of the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni, through the lens of her growing obsession with death, as her marriage and her empire crumble around her at the turn of the century.
| Elisabeth | |
|---|---|
| Music | Sylvester Levay |
| Lyrics | Michael Kunze |
| Book | Michael Kunze |
| Basis | The life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria |
| Productions | 1992 Vienna 1996 Takarazuka Revue 1996 Budapest 1999 The Hague 1999 Karlstad 2000 Japan 2001 Essen 2003 Vienna revival 2004 Japan revival 2005 Turku 2005 Stuttgart 2007 Japanese tour 2006 Thun 2008 Berlin 2008 European tour 2012 Seoul 2012 South Korean tour 2012 Japan 2012 Vienna revival 2013 Seoul 2013 South Korean tour 2014 Shanghai 2015 Seoul 2015 Korean tour 2015 Japan revival 2015–16 European tour 2017–18 Netherlands 2018–19 Seoul 2019 Plzeň 2022 Seoul 2022 Kaunas 2022 Brussels |
It has been translated into seven languages and seen by over ten million spectators worldwide, making it the most successful German-language musical of all time. As of 2023, it has not been staged in English-speaking countries.