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Taylor Swift is returning to her roots. Thursday night (October 30), the singer debuted “The Fate of Ophelia (Alone in My Tower Acoustic Version),” an acoustic guitar version of the opening track from her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Limited edition for fans
Swift also released the version as a limited edition single CD, containing the acoustic version and an instrumental acoustic version of the track. The CD is only available on October 31st.
Swift released her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” earlier this month. She didn’t release any singles before the LP, but after its release there was a music video for “The Fate of Ophelia.” The video was first shown as part of The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, Swift’s film, which was in theaters October 3-5.
Directed and written by Swift herself, the single’s video opens with Swift as the tragic Shakespearean heroine Ophelia from “Hamlet” in a painting on the wall of a hotel, before it is revealed to be a set. She then embodies various showgirls from different eras and in elaborate settings, where she is accompanied by dancers and the band from her “Eras Tour”. The climax is a hotel room in which Swift plays herself.
An unexpected museum boom in Wiesbaden
The success of the song and music video had an unusual side effect. Since the video’s release, fans have flocked to the Wiesbaden Museum in Germany to see Friedrich Heyser’s 1900 painting “Ophelia,” which apparently served as inspiration for Swift.
“We are currently experiencing a real Ophelia boom and are quite surprised and happy about it,” museum spokeswoman Susanne Hirschmann told the British Guardian a few weeks ago. She added: “To be honest, this was a shock. A colleague of ours has a friend who is a Swift fan and she noticed that the opening scene of the video had a similarity [mit dem Gemälde von Heyser] and we thought: Wow, what a coincidence – that’s exciting.”