The Phantom of the Opera

Never Judge A Book By Its Musical

- Me :)

Geston Leroux's The Phantom Of The Opera is not an exceptionally gripping novel, nor is it widely acclaimed for literary brilliance. It is but a unique, compelling combination of horror, mystique and romance. That probably is the reason why the "legend of the Opera Ghost" has for a century caught the imagination of some of the most illustrious directors of stage and screen.

The horror-mystery-romance set in the Paris Opera in 1881 is the fantastic story of a disfigured musical genius, desperate in love of his beautiful protege, who holds the opera house in terror through a series of mysterious events.

Leroux's imagination is compelling, brilliant. His writing dissappoints. The book reads like a piece of investigative journalism, which indeed was Leroux's occupation before he took to writing. The Paris Opera House does exists exactly as he describes it, with a lake-area and the cellars underneath it. The fall of the chandelier and other events are also believed to be based on real events.

The author himself claims in the opening of the novel -

"The Opera Ghost really existed. He was not, as was longed believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade"

Leroux keeps asserting the authenticity of his narrative, providing references to evidence of existence of people, places and events which he strung together into a story. I can imagine a terror spellbinding, unfolding into a powerful romantic tragedy that the book would have created, had it been written for an audience less incredulous of dramatism, written with lavish strokes of grandeur and magnificence.

IMDB lists six feature films based on the story. Somehow, neither do these have seem to have done justice to the idea (only two - 1925 and 1943 - versions make it to respectable ratings).

The musical rendition by Andrew Lloyd Webber, however, is known to be amongst the most powerful theatre presentations of our times, and "The Thespian" by H2-H7 ( :)) ) amongst the most powerful that I have seen. And the music, which "The Thespian" borrowed from the former, is awesome. A movie adaptation by Webber and Joel Schumacher is just 'round the corner, the wait is torturous.