MOULIN ROUGE!
NOTE: If you’re looking for the Tosca writeup that used to share space here, hang tight… I plan to pair it with a new writeup on Turandot soon!
MOULIN ROUGE!
Over the past two decades, skating fans have come to see those two words in much the “warhorse” way they see Carmen or Scheherazade-- in fact, music from the Moulin Rouge! Soundtrack was singled out in this Yahoo! article as the most-used at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Was that because it was the first time all four skating disciplines could use music with vocals at a Winter Olympics, as the article theorizes? It’s possible that gave it the nod over something composed by Vivaldi or Chopin. But it also didn’t hurt that Moulin Rouge! offers a little something for everyone in its soundtrack; five skaters could generate five different programs from it.
If most of them weren’t busy incorporating “El Tango de Roxanne,” that is. Back to that in a minute…
But for those who don’t really know what Moulin Rouge! is, here’s a tiny cheat sheet:
It’s an American “romantic musical drama” with an Australian writer/director/producer (Baz Luhrmann), and it was a smash hit back in 2000, winning two Academy Awards. It has since been adapted into a multiple Tony-winning Broadway musical as well.
Its “romantic musical drama” plot borrows from a number of classic sources, including Orpheus and Eurydice and Puccini’s La Boheme, to tell the tale of a young poet in turn-of-the-20th-century France and the beautiful songstress/”kept woman” he falls in love with, much to the chagrin of the man who is “keeping” her.
Here’s what I find so interesting about Moulin Rouge! as a vehicle for figure skaters… if skaters turn to “warhorses” because they want to put their own stamp on popular music choices, this musical is much the same way. It’s not just a bucket of popular music formatted for a singular production, nor is it a discography of one particular artist. Rather, it’s songs from bygone eras (“Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”, “Nature Boy”) co-mingling with recent ones, as well as classics (“Roxanne,” “Your Song,” “The Show Must Go On”) fully re-interpreted.
With the advent of vocals in all disciplines of elite figure skating, we almost hear more re-interpretations of pop music than originals. But Moulin Rouge! arguably got that ball rolling when “El Tango de Roxanne” got some high-profile usage in the mid-2000s… first by future Olympic Bronze Medalist Daisuke Takahashi, and then by future OGM Yuna Kim when both used an instrumental version for their short program.
A few years later, Canada’s Weaver/Poje made a free dance out of Moulin Rouge!’s “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” “Come What May,” and “El Tango…” But it was Virtue/Moir’s 2018 winning Olympic performance-- which led with “El Tango…” and finished with “Come What May”-- that is probably better remembered.
And in between those two was Ashley Wagner’s free skate-completely devoid of “El Tango…”, but brimming with “Hindi Sad Diamonds,” “One Day I’ll Fly Away,” and “The Show Must Go On.” It was a free skate she used for 2 ½ seasons, including the one that earned her a World silver medal.
So how did “El Tango…” get singled out as such a popular choice from the soundtrack? Maybe because it’s the only tango in the film, and skating has come to embrace tangos in the past 20 years? Maybe it’s the razor-sharp violin lines? Or the intense, gravelled vocals that start the piece?
Maybe because of its pivotal place in the film itself?
The piece itself, a mashup of “Tanquera,” “Roxanne” (by The Police), and “an original operatic melody line and lyrics for Christian (the Ewan MacGregor character),” according to a recent recap of the film on its 20th anniversary. “Merging together these three forms, it drives the film to its dramatic and musical climax.”
If you don’t know much about the “Roxanne” part of “El Tango…”, you might be surprised to hear the song is what put Sting and his band, The Police, on the map to rock superstardom when it became a hit in 1979. If you ARE familiar with the song, you might be surprised to hear of its roots-- as a tango!
This piece from Far Out magazine and this one from Auralcrave shed more light on “Roxanne’s” humble beginnings… in Paris, no less (where Moulin Rouge! takes place)!
OR, you can give the song a listen and try to hear the tango within it:
Two decades later, Moulin Rouge continues to appeal to skaters in any number of ways.
In the ‘24-’25 season, Japan’s Rino Matsuike made to the Grand Prix Final with an SP to “One Day I’ll Fly Away” (although this program is from Japan Nationals)...
.,.While fellow Japanese competitor Rinka Watanabe used “El Tango de Roxanne” for her short program in the ‘21-22 season, ‘22-’23 season, and again in the ‘25-’26 Olympic season!
For the men, South Korea’s veteran champion Jun-Hwan Cha is using a Moulin Rouge medley of “The Show Must Go On,” “Tango,” and “Come What May” for his third Olympic free skate.
And though the Finnish dance team of Orihara/Pirinen was unable to compete at the Milan Olympics due to Orihara’s lack of Finnish citizenship, the pair embraced the stage musical soundtrack to Moulin Rouge in ‘25-’26… and danced to “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge,” “Backstage Romance,” “So Exciting,” and “More More More.”
(They also had fans debating that “unhinged” character step that starts at the 3:49 mark.)
