(I apologize for all of the issues with the video. The first line freezes up but hopefully the rest of it plays fine. The subtitles also don't show up without CC turned on, which doesn't seem to happen by default in the embedded view.)
I chose to subtitle a scene from the 2001 performance of the musical Elisabeth by a Japanese all female theater troupe, the Takarazuka Revue. Nearly all of the shows this company puts on have a strong element of melodrama, usually accentuated by the acting style, as you can see in some of the choreography here. The melodrama of this musical involves family, wealth, and power--the protagonist Elisabeth's son, Rudolf, is harshly rejected by his father upon attempting to explain his political views. Tormented by this emotional response and the prospect of losing his future power and esteem, Rudolf reunites with the physical manifestation of Death in the human world (who happens to be pursuing his mother). Their duet, "Darkness Encroaches," which follows hopefully speaks for itself.
This scene has some classically dramatic lines which I felt required some extra melodrama in their translation, even at the expense of fluidity. Seeing the piece as melodrama changed my choices from prioritizing natural language to attempting to retain that sort of excessively emotional spirit. I also focused on attempting to keep the aristocratic feeling from the setting without breaking the standards of modern English too badly. I chose words like "shall" and "O," which I would normally avoid, in an attempt to communicate both the dramatic nature and this older, high-class setting. Hopefully this sort of decision lends the translation a similar over-the-top flare to the original.
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