The Phantom of the Opera

The Man Behind the Phantom

The Phantom of the Opera is a story already familiar to many, as a result of its several screen incarnations. It is therefore surprising that the creator of the legend, Gaston Leroux, should have suffered such total neglect, along with the original novel. Indeed, until a short while ago, it was not easy to find a copy of the book, still less of any other of his works which, in their time, had earned for Leroux a considerable reputation.

M.Gaston Leroux
Gaston Leroux was born in Paris in 1868, and after an adventurous and flamboyant 17 yr stint as a judicial reporter, theatre critic and foreign correspondent for two leading Parisian journals, he devoted his attention to a full time occupation as a novelist.
After a truimphant debute in 1907, with The Mystery of the Yellow Room, he went on to produce a further 62 novels, of which The Phantom of the Opera, published in 1911, was in fact by no means the most successful. Following, by his own admission, in the footsteps of Conan Doyle, Leroux produced in his first novel, and in many subsequent "whodunnits", his answer to Sherlock Holmes: the gentleman sleuth, Rouletabille. The "detective" element pervaded much of Leroux's output, often combined with qualities doubtless fostered by his admiration for Poe - qualities of the exotic, romantic and grotesque.
Such characteristics, the stock-in-trade of the thriller, abound in the The Phantom of the Opera. Written in a mere three months, the book would surely, like its author's other works, have been consigned to oblivion, had not Universal Pictures alighted on it over a decade later, as a vehicle for the singular talents of Lon Chaney

However, by 1925, when the movie was released to resounding acclaim, Leroux was failing in his health. Sadly, he was never to reap the benefits of the film's success, as in 1927, at the age of 59, Leroux died, having just completed his 63rd novel, The Mohicans of Babel.
There were a number of cinematic sequels to Chaney's interpretation, the most celebrated, perhaps, being that depicting the Phantom, in the shape of Claude Rains as a famous composer, disfigured by acid and forced to hide in the theatre which had pirated his music -- all ingredients which, as in other reworkings, veer wildly from Leroux's original. Such elements play no part in this musical version of The Phantom of the Opera, which bases itself solely on the novel, and it is the spirit of Gaston Leroux that this telling of the tale most closely adheres.
Charles Hart


The Phantom Around the Globe
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's romantic/horror thriller has overcome cultural barriers to capture the imagination of audiences worldwide from the stages of Broadway and London's West End to Vienna and Tokyo. Lloyd Webber's sweeping melodies and dramatic score, director Harold Princes's biographer Foster Hirsch as a "baroque variation on the backstage musical" in which "the show must always go on, The Phantom of the Opera recreates the opulent world of the Paris Opera House including parodies of period operas such as the 1770's milieu of Il Muto.


At the heart of the phenomenal International appeal is the romantic love story between beauty and the beast and larger-than-life expressions of emotions which transcend and, according to Harold Prince, actually reflect other countries' threatrical traditions, "The minute I started to contemplate that we were doing Phantom in Japan," he said, "I realized it's very Japanese storytelling because it has a magical, metaphysical component. Their theatre also deals with huge themes like revenge so when we arrived there, we knew right away that we had taken it home. "The same could be said about taking Phantom to Hamburg, Germany. I's similiar to German Expressionist theatre. Whats interesting is Japanese and German theatre have cross-pollinated often in film. They'll take a subject that was originally German or originally Japanese and adapt it to the other culture."
In Vienna, before its current run in the Ralmund Theatre, Phantom orginally played in the Theatre An Der which, hundreds of years ago, housed the premiere of the Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. The theatre's baroque design complemented the Phantom's story perfectly which is no surprise since the opulent production perpetuates Vienna's vast classical music and operetta tradition. And during the last seven years with shows such as Cats, Les Miserables and 42nd Street Austrian audiences, known for their love of fantasy and romanticism in elaborate productions, have developed a love for musical spectaculars.

Phantom's romanticism is rooted in Prince's determination to reveal the Phantom's humanity, his normal romantic urges and sexual desires that become distorted by his physical deformity. Yet, the heart of Phantom's staging goes back further to Moscow's techniques derived from early 20th-century Soviet director Vsevolod Meyerhold.

If you keep in mind the staging techniques Prince has used in many of his Broadway and West End musicals since Cabaret actually had their roots in Soviet theeatre, is it any wonder that The Phantom of The Opera has had such universal international appeal? Also, add to that the moderen musical's antecedents are the European operetta styles of such composers as the Viennese writer Franze Lehar and the British comic opera writers Gilbert and Sullivan.
Add to that the combination of Prince's expertise in the American commercial musical theatre and opera for more than 40 years with Andrew Lloyd Webber's pioneering work in the British musical spectacular and the talents of thouusands of actors, singers, dancers, technicians and designers and you have a universal international theatrical experience which will be remembered for many years to come from the Nissei Theatre in Tokyo to the Neue Flora Theatre in Hamburg, Germany and the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.

Canada is no exception. This original Toronto production starring Colm Wilkinson, Rebecca Caine and Byron Nease opened at the gloriously-restored Pantages Theatre to an advance ticket sale of $23.8 million Canadian - at the time the largest pre-opening box office advance in live theatre history. Phantom made theatrical history again with its $10 million Canadian touring production. This was the first time in Canada's legitimate theatre history that a musical was performed on a national tour and run concurently with its original Toronto presentation.



"He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world;
and in the end he had to content himslef with a cellar.
Surely we may pity the Opera ghost!" Gaston Leroux