The clip of The Fate of Opheliafirst piece of 12e album of the American singer, inspired by the painting Ophelia by Friedrich Heyser, himself based on a character in Hamlet. This work is currently on display at the Wiesbaden Art Museum.
Taylor Swift fans sang and danced on Sunday November 2 in Germany to her hit The Fate of Ophelia, track present in his latest album The Life of a Showgirlin front of a painting exhibited at the museum in Wiesbaden (Hesse), supposed to have inspired the American star. There were around 200 people participating in the event organized by the museum around the painting, created around 1900, by the German painter Friedrich Heyser.
It represents Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, dressed in a white dress, floating half in the water, half on the bank, surrounded by flowers and leaves, shortly before her drowning. In the clip of The Fate of Ophelia (the destiny of Ophelia), viewed more than 97 million times on YouTube, Taylor Swift embodies the tragic heroine from the first seconds, directly evoking this painting, before the image comes to life.
Some fans present in Wiesbaden were dressed as Ophelia, with a crown of flowers in their hair, others wore sparkling outfits inspired by those of the singer. Corinna Greiner, 47, an office worker, came with her daughter. “ It’s amazing that this painting, which inspired Taylor Swift, hangs here in Wiesbaden “, she told AFP.
Tickets sold like hotcakes
Tickets for the event were snapped up within a few hours. After a presentation of the work by a museum expert, fans wiggled to the sound of the song broadcast on loudspeakers, before a long selfie session in front of the painting. “ I really like art and I always wanted to see in real life the link between the painting of Ophélie and Taylor Swift », Tells AFP Isabelle Bastian, 26, from Darmstadt. “ The atmosphere is incredible, it’s like a mini-concert! », she laughs.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP
The day after its release at the beginning of October, the highly anticipated twelfth album from the “Show Girl”, entitled The Life of a Showgirl, had already broken streaming records, according to dedicated platforms. The museum, located near Frankfurt, had not imagined that this painting, exhibited since 2019, would inspire a music video by the star until its social networks came alive after the release of the song. “ We were very surprised “, declared to AFP the director of the museum, Andreas Henning, who cannot believe the “massive influx of visitors” which resulted.
These visitors come in their hundreds from all over Germany, France and England, but also from the United States and South America. The museum has not had contact with Taylor Swift or her team about the connection between her hit, the album’s lead single The Life of a Showgirland Heyser’s painting. The fans, for their part, chanted in unison on Sunday: “ Taylor, come to Wiesbaden! ».
200 Taylor Swift fans in a German museum to admire a Shakespearean painting