#die unstillbare Gier

[platearmourpiglet]

Snippet of Simon Loughton performing Die unstillbare Gier in Hamburg 2024, filmed by a cast member from the side lines.

My god, Simon was so wonderful... I am SO GRATEFUL I was able to see him perform as von Krolock twice!

[faytalepsy]

Wunschtraum und Wirklichkeit

Still absolutely obsessed with Tanz der Vampire.

[ricoka]

The last years I was ass deep into my Christmas playlist listening by this point, this year I'm listening to the Tanz der Vampire Soundtrack again 😭😭

[cuntvonkrolock]

i find it soooooo funny that my two favourite musicals of all time are tanz der vampire and newsies. i literally could not have picked a more different pair if i tried.

[wizzard890]

A concerning number of people are replying to this post defending the honor of frankly terrible musical Tanz Der Vampire, one of the biggest disasters of tone I've ever seen on stage.

okay so picture this.

You're a man named Jim Steinman. You are one of the most prolific songwriters of the 80s. In your spirit, output and essence, you are eternally popping a wheelie on a motorcycle while a hot half-naked woman clings to you and bats wheel in the sky above.

You wrote a song in which Meatloaf plays a hideously disfigured hunk who steals a nubile lady back to his crumbling manor and introduces her to the pleasures of magic lesbian group sex.

You wrote a song in which Celine Dion sings as Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, dancing with Cathy's corpse on a beach in the moonlight; a scene which you, Jim Steinman, believe should have been in the book. (The moors of Wuthering Heights are landlocked, but you, Jim Steinman, are too fucking real to care about that.)

You wrote the song for the opening scene of the movie Streets of Fire, in which evil leatherdaddy Willem Dafoe leads his malefic motorcycle crew into a concert to abduct Diane Lane while she's wearing a skintight satin jumpsuit.

You wrote a song in which Bonnie Tyler wanders a haunted boarding school as literal demon twinks gyrate at her out of the fog.

There is no peak of goth camp that you, Jim Steinman, have not summited, no horny energy you have not tapped. They say that Alexander the Great wept when he saw there were no more worlds to conquer. But you, Jim Steinman, are not Alexander the Great. You, Jim Steinman, are better. You, Jim Steinman, have vision.

You take your most successful song, the song everyone knows, the most big-haired, white dress, gothic arches, doves flying, possessed choir boys chanting, bombastic song you have, and think: what if this, but with vampires.

And so you change the lyrics to be about death and infinity and a powerful bloodsucking lord seducing a girl who is ALL ABOUT IT, and then toss off a whole musical for this song to be the centerpiece to, and the musical is bad but it's also a weird hit that's been staged in fourteen countries and revived seven times, because nothing has ever whipped as campily, as ridiculously, as perfectly as this:

It never takes off in America. A prophet is without honor in his own land. But that doesn't matter. How could it matter? You are perhaps the most creatively self-actualized man who has ever lived. Look at that vampire. He's coming in hot and a hundred Venetian nuns gave their lives to make his ludicrously capacious lace sleeves. Look at that girl. She was born in a fog machine. She wore her best red velvet cape. She's down bad. She's singing Total Eclipse of the Heart the whole time.

You are Jim Steinman, and you have reached apotheosis.

[solasgf]

that two week lapse back in october when i was obsessed with tanz der vampire

[sam-reid]

Euch Sterblichen von morgen Prophezeih' ich heut' und hier Bevor noch das nächste Jahrtausend beginnt Ist der einzige Gott, dem jeder dient Die unstillbare Gier.

Graf von Krolock in TANZ DER VAMPIRE 🩸

[sunny-honeytears]

you get bitten by a vampire and he pulls up in a fit like this what do you do

I took it on myself to be a good little hungarian and do a research (three google searches) about what Krolock would have worn as a nobleman in Erdély in the 17th century (i think thats the canon century they were alive-alive in???) and drew it, i have no idea what is on his head, are those feathers? Is that fabric? I copied a watercolor drawing so I have no idea

But what I know is 5 notes on this thing and I'll draw a thirst trap of him in this fit

Also I (tried and kinda failed to) base his head on Egyházi Géza who is one of the two amazing actors playing Krolock in the hungarian production (other one is Bot Gábor who I saw back in June and was GREAT) I'm genuinely inlove with his voice and his stage presence 😭

I'm pretty sure he is the one on the recording in the CD/Spotify version and guys istg i'm not into middle aged men BUT HIS VOICE grrrr THE WAY HE SINGS DIE UNSTILLBARE GIER OR THE WAY HE TALKS DURING THE ACT1 FINALE IM IN LOVE

so if anyone has 2 hours to listen to a version of Tanz der vampire GO FOR THE "Vámpírok bálja" HUNGARIAN RECORDING ITS SO GOOD

[loitcretaceous]

Graf's prophecy in Die Unstillbare Gier did not come true. In the next millennium, greed is not ruling humanity……depression is.

[vampiremediareview]

Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck

The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck is a 1967 comedy horror movie directed by Roman Polanski. I first came to know about it through its musical adaption Dance of the Vampires, released in 1997.

The movie follows two bumbling vampire hunters in their pursuit of both knowledge and a human woman, Sarah, who's recieved the attention of the local vampiric Count von Krolock.

This movie hits all of the typical cornerstones of a vampire movie, right down to a mysterious vampire noble seducing an innocent young girl. The girl, Sarah, is honestly not as involved with the premise of the movie as I'd have personally liked, but I found Sharon Tate's performance as Sarah to be quite nice.

Though it is quite typical as far as vampire movies go, I found it's cinematography to be very interesting. The bleak sights of the winter forest around them creates an amazing sense of isolation and desperation. It creates a sense that they are truly alone and that they need to accomplish their goal in slaying von Krolock.

The Standouts

Sharon Tate's performance as Sarah is very good. It portrays the innocence of youth really well and her curiosity is nice as well. Her costume choice is beautiful and her acting in the final scene is entrancing. Ferdy Mayne's performance as Count von Krolock is nice as well. I especially enjoyed the scene where our two main characters were introduced to him... He has the aura of someone intimidating and dangerous, yet subdued. It was a little more subtle, but he seemed to have a way of lulling people in in different ways, such as when he offers Abronsius his library to use,

The opening credits are stylized in a beautiful way that had me captivated to watch more. The effects with the mirrors and the vampires' lack of reflections was breathtaking and amazing.

My Personal Take

It wasn't nearly as comedic or scary as I would have preferred. In trying to be both I find that is sometimes failing to be either. Abronsius is a little too bumbling for my tastes, though that might be a generational divide. I spent a lot of the movie, looking for symbolism in the plot and not finding much. I also found myself wishing that Sarah had more agency within the story, which leads us to our next section.

Dance of the Vampires

The version of this that I watched was the Berlin 2011 version on youtube (linked here). I primarily chose this one because of its subtitles. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I did find myself enjoying it quite a bit.

One of the main positives for me to this version is the way that Sarah has more agency. Though she is invited by the Count to the ball, it is by her own decision that she joins him there. I also liked that Alfred and Sarah had a stronger relationship in this, perfectly exemplified in their duet with "Draußen ist Freiheit".

The effects in this musical are even more impressive to me given that it is live. It took me a moment to realize that Herbert did not have a reflection in "Wenn Liebe in dir Ist" and once I did, I couldn't help but gasp. The use of color symbolism also doesn't go unnoticed, especially in Sarah's red cape and shoes opposing her white dress.

It is by no means a perfect musical. The relationship between Magda and Chagal left me scratching my head... I wasn't sure what to make of it. "Die Unstillbare Gier" seemed to me strange. I wasn't sure if it was meant to humanize the Count or not. At some point, I decided to give up on reading too much into it and just enjoy the amazing singing, acting, and set design that they put on.

Overall

In conclusion, I do recommend both the movie and the musical to watch. I may have been a bit critical of them, but they were both genuinely enjoyable experiences. I'd say that they are better than the average vampire b-movie coming out today. If you are on the fence about watching it, I would say you should do so. Even if only for the amazing cinematography and atmosphere.

[platearmourpiglet]

Snippet of Simon Loughton performing Die unstillbare Gier as Graf von Krolock from Tanz der Vampire. 😍🖤🦇

[lunatic-fandom-space]

My first time experiencing tanz der vampire was me watching the incredibly crunchy 1997 proshot late in the evening when I had school the next day and I was getting so tired my eyes were watering and also the version of the proshot I found inexplicably had sections out of order. like the first act was normal I think but then the second act had all the songs all jumbled up and it was really confusing. so because of that I didnt know until now that during die unstillbare gier Alfred and the professor were apparently just standing there listening to von krolocks dramatic solo. what do you think was going through their heads during that last verse

[chthonic-cassandra]

@elwing wanted to know more about my vampire brides backstories. I'm putting this behind a cut for Compromise spoilers; also I'm still taking celebratory questions about the series.

So! Not going to share everything I have in my head about this, because some of it might go in stories in the future and I need to sit with it more before I talk about it. I have been writing about Dracula's wives since 2006, and some aspects of their characterization (including names, appearance, and general personality) have stayed consistent since that time, but the backstories I have for them have gradually evolved.

[There is truly a whole arc in the evolution of my own thinking about certain things in my own life reflected in those changes, but that's a conversation for another time.]

I don't have exact dates in my head for each of their turnings (insert "Die unstillbare Gier" joke here?), but I generally place roughly a century between each of them, so that Ecaterina has been with him since roughly the 16th century, Ileana since the 17th, and Adriana the 18th. There's an irony there because Adriana is so medieval in her sensibilities, and would have been more at home in the Eastern Europe of the 15th/16th centuries, while Ecaterina was rather ahead of her time in sensibility and really belongs in the court of Catherine the Great. This does interesting things in both of their relationships with immortality and time.

There's also a class divide between them; Ecaterina and especially Adriana come from upper-class backgrounds, while Ileana was a peasant as a human. I imagine Ecaterina coming from a noble but not royal family in Muscovite Russia; Adriana was born into an actual royal line in soon-to-be Romania but during the period when it was firmly under Ottoman rule (and they had put a Greek regent in place, I think? 18th century Balkan history is messy). Since all the way back in 2006 I've had it in my head that Adriana is herself very, very distantly related to Dracula, hence the familial resemblance Jonathan notes in the novel.

Ileana and Adriana especially really didn't fit into the social contexts in which they were born, Ileana because all she wanted to do was spend all her time in the woods and not deal with people, and Adriana because she was religious and inward-focused and constitutionally incapable of political strategy. Ecaterina did a little better, but ultimately I think all three of them were socially isolated (as, to some extent, Jonathan and Mina both as are before the events of the novel as orphans in a precarious financial position). I don't think Dracula was their first exposure to violence.

None of them came into the transformation entirely voluntarily, though the path looked different for each of them. Ileana somewhat consented to the vampirism, but did not expect the kind of submission and captivity Dracula requires; Ecaterina was into Dracula and, in a somewhat delimited way, into the power dynamic, but she didn't expect to be completely cut off from humanity and isolated. Adriana didn't consent to any of it, but once Dracula took her actually got what he was going for more quickly than the others on a weird intuitive level.

Ecaterina always expected and in fact preferred to be one of multiple fledglings/consorts, partly because of her relationship with unnamed mysterious man-before-Jonathan alluded to in the stories, whose death rather devastated her, so she was eager and relieved when Ileana showed up. Ileana's adjustment to the intra-castle dynamics was rather rougher. Because of who Adriana is it's a little harder to tell how she feels about it; she clearly cares about her vampire sisters, but there are parts of her internal experience that no one but Dracula gets.

[cuntvonkrolock]

für sarah is such a lovely song actually

[after-perfect]

So I was listening to Die unstillbare Gier, as one does, and it occurred to me that Herbert is missing from Krolock's regrets. Which makes me wonder - could it have been Herbert who turned Krolock in the first place?

Assuming Krolock is being at least somewhat sincere here, he mourns over having killed Miss 1617, the pastor's daughter, and the pageboy, but doesn't mention Herbert (unless Herbert is the vampire identity of one of those three, but I kinda doubt it). If Krolock really does hate being a vampire, and he was responsible for turning Herbert, you'd think that condemning his son to undeath would be near the top of his regrets, but he doesn't mention it.

On the other hand, Herbert doesn't appear to mind his own vampirism too much (yes, he complains about being bored, but he's pretty gleeful about the prospect of Alfred joining him, whereas Krolock almost seems to wrestle with his conscience a bit during Totale Finsternis - unless he's just wrestling with delayed gratification). So what if Herbert somehow got turned as a young man, found himself enjoying vampirism, and, having one of the best parental relationships in all of German musical theatre, decided to share the fun with his dad?

Assuming again that Krolock is not super happy about being a vampire, you'd think he'd resent whoever turned him. Maybe it's been a few centuries now and he's done the same to enough other people that it's not something he thinks about much; maybe he just doesn't get around to discussing it onstage. Or maybe he can't bring himself to hold onto resentment against his son.

[fitzrove]

TdV plot summary but with the symbolism being made painfully apparent (Kunze said once that vampire bites = sex) (contains mentions of sexual assault, though very brief and vague. All discussion of Magda and Chagal is omitted because that storyline is a Mess. Not explicit but also not for under 18's)

Alfred and Sarah are innocent youths. The conservative world around them desperately doesn't want them to have sex (of any kind) - the village Sarah lives in works obsessively to keep the local Sex Maniac away, and Professor Abronsius has made his life's mission to eradicate People Having Sex. But one day the Sex Maniac (also known as Count von Krolock) shows up and tells Sarah that sex condemns you to eternal life and a cynical existence (Gott ist Tot) but also that it's thrilling and cool (Einladung zum Ball). Sarah is intrigued but Alfred is terrified and thwarts the invitation by alerting the professor. Sarah's parents punish her for disobeying them. Later, however, she sneaks out again, with the intention of running away; Alfred is outside too, and together they dream of freedom somewhere far away (Draussen ist Freiheit). Alfred still thinks going to the castle (to have sex) is scary and dangerous, but in the end, Sarah resolves to go anyway, distracts him and runs away (Die Roten Stiefel).

Instead of staking Chagal, the professor and Alfred task him with leading them to the castle. In front of it (Vor dem Schloss), Krolock tells Alfred that they should have sex (look, "sink with me into the sea of time" kinda implies that Krolock's offering to bite him, and also, "fühl die Wohllust, dich aufzugeben" helppp??), that Alfred shouldn't think too hard about conservative, stifling morals and that freeing himself is the way to the Enlightenment that Alfred thinks he's pursuing with the professor's cold, logical approach. Alfred gets spooked and runs away.

Sarah and Krolock have a duet (Totale Finsternis) about how thirsty they are - for either new experiences (Sarah) or just plain thirsty/looking for environmental enrichment to his cynical boredom (Krolock), but resolve to wait until the ball. Meanwhile, Alfred has an erotically charged nightmare (Carpe Noctem) where he bangs Krolock first, after which he, emboldened (?), delivers Sarah into Krolock's arms and is therefore guilty for her "loss of innocence" - but also can't resist partaking in "taking it" from her. He wakes up, relieved that his anxieties weren't real (Ein Perfekter Tag), and resolves to destroy Krolock (non-sexual) before Krolock destroys him and Sarah. But in the end, he hesitates and can't do it (In der Grüft) - even though the professor attempts to convince him to do it, for Sarah's sake.

Later, Alfred finds Sarah, attempting to persuade her to flee once again. Sarah is resolved not to go until after the ball. Alfred still doesn't understand why she doesn't want to flee, but swears to stay by her no matter what (Für Sarah).

Herbert comes close to assaulting Alfred until the professor intervenes (Wenn Liebe in dir Ist). Afterwards, Krolock shows up to gloat; he says that the professor, given his academic interest in sex, should have some ("you have to become what you study!"), and taunts Alfred, telling him that the enlightenment (and, therefore, sex) he subconsciously seeks can only be found at the castle, and that if he flees, he won't reach it.

Krolock laments that, through his cynicism and greed, he ends up destroying or "ruining" every romantic/intimate relationship he has (Die Unstillbare Gier).

At the ball, Krolock and Sarah finally Have The Sex, and he implies that the professor and Alfred are free real estate for everyone else (ouch). However, the humans manage to escape before anything happens. But, as the professor sits down to scribble down notes, Sarah takes initiative and her and Alfred Have The Sex. Alfred, to quote him, finds it "not bad at all" despite his fears. They escape into the wide world hand in hand, impliedly with the intention to have sex with lots more people agfghagfhjs, and the finale number is about how YOU (the audience) are NEXT