#SEE ALSO: FLOWERS SONGBIRD AND DOUBT COMES IN BEING MISSING FROM THE WEST END ALBUM FOR SOME REASON?

[sunshades]

listening to NYTW i am once again a little sad about lyric changes, even if i've warmed up to the new ones nowadays, but i think it's really a pity how much they... "softened" the romance and cut back on the eroticism in later versions. come home with me is the simpler example and still one of the worst offenders to me LOL

i do find the west end version cute since orpheus being backed up by his. kind of mom (gender neutral) comes out differently than being backed up by another man, and it checks out more with finn's characterization of orpheus, but him proposing and openly hitting on her because hes just so sure of himself had an energy that really gets lost when there's a proxy like this (we also lose out on "when i look at you i am"! oh my god!).

but during the second half i think it's when it gets more relevant because it makes the parallels between the two couples a lot weaker... i've seen some people somehow miss the implication of the interactions between hades and eurydice, which. well idk flowers is pretty obvious about it, but i do think eurydice's line in NYTW made it 100% clear that was an "older married rich man coercing younger woman that works for him into sex" scene. without it and moving the focus on the working conditions, the fates' description of it sounds much more metaphorical.

then all this to lead up to the exclusion of persephone's verse from chant II, which is also imo some of the best lyricism in the album, and one of the many changes that weakens the parallels between the two couples-

persephone recalling of her encounter with hades mirrored orpheus and eurydice's own love scene anticipated in wedding song and then outright seen during all i've ever known- and served as stark contrast with "what happens behind closed doors".

in general i think further versions after NYTW cut down on eurydice's relevance to the story a lot by shifting the focus on the themes of work and class, but she and the theme of love ended up suffering from it, losing a lot of depth by smoothing over the details of what happened to her and why, making her more of a victim of general Circumstances, as opposed to someone who fell prey to a very specific type of person, out of fear and a desire to have a better life. the theme of "shelter" that used to be the focus of the two couples (and their errors towards each other!) already was a greater metaphor for the condition of the working souls, but now it feels kind of the other way around, that the story is about the workers, and orpheus and eurydice & hades and persephone just kind of happen to be involved in it.