Saturday afternoon in the Colosseum Theatre, the show is at an end: Jesper Tydén takes his last bow, and the applause for his portrayal of the Crown Prince Rudolf has not completely died off when the pleasant Swede is already in the hands of the make-up artist again: then in the evening performance he plays Death - the lead male role in the musical Elisabeth.
"I had auditioned for both parts," says the 25-year old. "That I was cast as Rudolf was really lucky. That I can also play Death pleases me very much."
After his appearance as Captain Phoebus in the musical Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin, Essen is a huge step forward for Jesper Tydén. And he fills the role of Death, who falls in love involuntarily with Elisabeth, with exactly the right mix of emotion and - not least of all - with a great voice. "I would like to work a lot," he explains, smiling. "I do not have one dream role. I look forward to many interesting roles and will take whatever comes."
Career-wise, then, everything is on the right path for him in Essen, but it also pleases the Stockholm native to be in the middle in the Ruhr district. "It's good," he says enthusiastically and sounds somewhat surprised - which he is. "All that I knew about the Ruhr district, I had learned in school: coal, steel, everything grey," he says. "That it is so beautiful here, in southern Essen where I live, I wouldn't have thought." And he notices a difference from Berlin as well: "People here are so open, it's much easier to get to know them. I like that, I feel good here."