"Alexander Hamilton" in German

July 12, 2022 1:58 PM

German cast of HAMILTON Performs 'Alexander Hamilton' ahead of the German premier.

And a mashup with video from the Broadway show

posted by Gorgik (22 comments total)

The translation and rhythmic rendering is outstanding, which really helps this feel unexpectedly natural; interesting they went 99% for Black and Brown German voices (some with just a hint of an accent, which makes it richer). Good stuff!
posted by progosk at 2:09 PM on July 12, 2022 [5 favorites]

(Having seen the mashup - and never having seen anything of the original show - I now understand: it’s about casting fidelity with respect to the original. Makes perfect sense.)
posted by progosk at 2:14 PM on July 12, 2022

What is the translation of "just you wait?" It sounds like "fahrt es ab" to me, which makes no sense.
posted by praemunire at 2:33 PM on July 12, 2022

Pretty sure it’s “wartet’s ab,” or “wait for it, y’all.”
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 2:39 PM on July 12, 2022 [7 favorites]

GÄNSEHAUT!
(Goosebumps).
posted by evilmomlady at 2:48 PM on July 12, 2022 [4 favorites]

The translation and rhythmic rendering is outstanding, which really helps this feel unexpectedly natural;

English is in the family of Germanic languages; a lot of the rhythms are the same.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:52 PM on July 12, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm always fascinated with what's translated and what's not in the muisical translations. Like all the English in the Korean version of Beetlejuice.
posted by jmauro at 2:55 PM on July 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I would love to see What’d I Miss performed in German.
posted by fuse theorem at 5:13 PM on July 12, 2022

I got chills the same - in fact more since it has not been so played - as the original. Between this and the galaxy photos there might be a little hope for us all.
posted by abulafa at 5:33 PM on July 12, 2022 [10 favorites]

That looks amazing.
posted by suelac at 8:06 PM on July 12, 2022

wow, this is pretty good! Thank you for the link!
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:14 PM on July 12, 2022

I always loved the harmonies in these songs.
posted by bleep at 8:44 PM on July 12, 2022

Aweeesome. Thank you for posting.
posted by kdar at 10:16 PM on July 12, 2022

English is in the family of Germanic languages; a lot of the rhythms are the same.

I mean, I see your theoretical point, but most of the rhythms and rhymes here are actually pretty different, so it’s still specifically very well done…. I don’t know how many other language versions there are - this Spanish one seems intense, but I can’t judge its translation
posted by progosk at 10:55 PM on July 12, 2022 [7 favorites]

Interesting that "24/7" and "In New York you can be a new man" were in English.
posted by Happy Monkey at 8:30 AM on July 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Peter Gabriel's "Spiel Ohne Grenzen" fits the rhythms of the Englisch version pretty well.
posted by bendybendy at 8:30 AM on July 13, 2022

My German-native wife: "Nicht schlecht."
posted by saturday_morning at 10:35 AM on July 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Interesting that "24/7" and "In New York you can be a new man" were in English.

Also "hurricane". I'm guessing it's like "tsunami" in English--they didn't need a word for that historically in Germany, so they just use the English one.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:51 AM on July 13, 2022

Went googling to see if I could find anything else. Here is a demo by the actor playing Angelica doing Satisfied in English.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:52 AM on July 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

There was also The Story of Tonight and Schuyler Sisters released a few weeks ago.

The cast feels perfect. I'm just hoping Stage Entertainment doesn't squeeze out the last ounce of originality and life out of the show - they're basically It for producing big commercial musicals in Germany and the Netherlands since 2005 or so, and they've managed to turn some of my favourites into recitation-by-rote where the actors aren't allowed any creative freedom. Like, doing Tanz der Vampire - Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers plus Jim Steinman music - as a Twilight-esque romance is just Wrong.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:43 PM on July 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

I mean, I see your theoretical point, but most of the rhythms and rhymes here are actually pretty different, so it’s still specifically very well done

I didn't mean to imply that it writes himself, and I'm sorry for giving the impression that I'm not impressed at the quality of the librettist's work, because I have mad respect for it. I've done the same job professionally myself a few times, after years of writing singable translations for myself, so I know the work that goes into it. The translator-librettist's job is not only to translate the substance and emotional nuance of the original, but to make something that speakers of the target language will find interesting enough to listen to. It's more than just putting Tab A into Slot B, and whoever did this shows skill and talent.

To be more specific, what I'm saying is that if you're translating from one Germanic language to another, you're going to have a lot more options to choose from when looking for phrases that both convey the same thing and have the same pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables than if you're translating from a Germanic language into, say, a Turkic one. That's all.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:38 PM on July 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh, heck yes. This song would give me chills in any language TBH but German sounds especially A+. I really like that the actor playing Hamilton seems so young. He's supposed to be a punk ass kid at the beginning of the story and while I love Lin, he hasn't seemed young for some time.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 2:00 AM on July 15, 2022 [1 favorite]