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[fitzrove]

The insane story of how Pia was cast as Elisabeth

"Still completely overwhelmed by the offer to play this role - not just any role, but the main role in a world premiere - I began to study not only the book of the play, but also the story of Elisabeth of Austria. [...] What is the historical truth, which real figures are behind the roles in the musical? All of these questions suddenly became relevant to me, and I found all of the answers to them in Hamann's books. [...] While studying the countless photos of Elisabeth in the picture section of the book, one particular image suddenly took my breath away. When I looked at the photo of the empress's death mask, I thought I recognized the delicate facial features of my colleague Pia Douwes.

What happened next is something Pia still likes to tell as an anecdote. After a performance of Les Misérables, I showed up in a coffee house with that book in my hand, put it on the table in front of Pia, turned to the page with the picture of the death mask and said: "Pia, look, that's definitely you!" She replied, somewhat piqued: "Hello, Uwe, that's a death mask and I'm sitting here and I'm still alive. Thank God!" Despite my uncharming comparison, she couldn't deny a certain resemblance. Apparently, that evening I spent a long time chatting to her about all the details I already knew - the musical and the historical details about the empress. A plan had been maturing in my mind for a long time: I wanted to stand on stage alongside Pia in the role of the empress, or at least I could imagine it very well. In Vienna, the castings for the title role had long been underway and were almost complete, but Pia nevertheless began to put out feelers through contacts in the scene. Names like Dagmar Hellberg and Daniela Ziegler had already been mentioned, and the division of the role within the play between a young and an old empress was also being considered. [...]

As chance or fate would have it, director Kupfer had to go to the Amsterdam Opera for work, and so he and his production team, including Viktor Gernot, who had flown in especially for the role of the already-cast Emperor Franz Joseph, took the opportunity to conduct a casting for the title role on site. After Pia had sung "Wie du" and "Ich gehör nur mir", everything was clear for Sylvester Levay, who was also present at this important decision. The subsequent duet with Gernot was just a formality."

From Uwe Kröger's autobiography "Ich bin, was ich bin. Mein Leben". Amalthea Verlag 2014.