May 20, 2021
👉 The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe is based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux. Its central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House. It is currently the longest running show in Broadway history, and on February 11, 2012, became the first Broadway production to celebrated 10,000 performances. Performance 13,371 will open on October 22 when the Majestic Theatre reopens.
In 1984, Lloyd Webber was aiming for a romantic piece, and considered Gaston Leroux’s book “The Phantom of the Opera” as a basis. He and Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of Cats, screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Rains – the only classic Universal horror film to win an Oscar, for Art Direction and Cinematography – motion picture versions, but neither saw any effective way to make the leap from film to stage. Later, in New York, Lloyd Webber found a second-hand copy of the original, long-out-of-print Leroux novel, which supplied the necessary inspiration to develop a musical.
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Lon Chaney did his own makeup. He stuffing wadding inside his cheeks, used a skullcap to raise his forehead, painted his eye sockets black for a skeletal effect. To transform his nose, Chaney applied putty to sharpen its angle and inserted two loops of wire into his nostrils. Guide-wires hidden under the putty pulled his nostrils upward. |
Christine, a chorus girl, becomes the object of obsession, passion and love for the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. He becomes her mentor, and with his help, she is chosen to replace the company’s prima donna. When she falls in love with her childhood sweetheart, Raoul, the Phantom kidnaps Christine in a jealous rage and drags her down to his lair. She is forced to choose between the Phantom and Raoul, but her compassion for the Phantom moves him to free them both and allow them to flee.
“The Phantom of the Opera,” the title song of the musical, takes place as the Phantom escorts Christine by boat to his lair beneath the Opera Garnier. Lloyd Webber decided that releasing the title track as a pop single would be a good way of promoting the upcoming musical and to “test the water” in terms of public reception.
“The Music of the Night” is sung after the Phantom lures Christine Daaé to his lair beneath the Opera House. He seduces Christine with “his music” of the night, his voice putting her into a trance.
The sequel to Phantom is called Love Never Dies. Set in 1907 (a decade after the conclusion of Phantom), Christine is invited to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction at Coney Island, by an anonymous impresario. With her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, she journeys to Brooklyn, unaware that it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance at the popular beach resort.
The Phantom sings “‘Til I Hear You Sing” about how he has done next to nothing in the ten years since the events of the first musical took place. He feels he will never be happy until he hears Christine sing again.
The sequel was delayed because Lloyd Webber’s six-month-old kitten climbed onto Lloyd Webber’s digital piano and managed to delete the entire score. Lloyd Webber was unable to recover any of it from the instrument, but was eventually able to reconstruct the score. The original production opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on March 9, 2010, and ran for over 17 months. A scheduled Broadway opening in November 2010 was postponed until Spring 2011 and later cancelled.
👉 Since this look at The Phantom of the Opera has run almost as long as the Broadway play itself, here is a spoiler of a new series beginning tomorrow.
👉 It’s hard to shake off a mother’s influence. John Newton’s earliest memories were of his godly mother, who devoted herself to nurturing his soul. At her knee he memorized Bible passages and hymns.
After her death, John alternated between boarding school and the high seas, wanting to live a good life but nonetheless falling deeper and deeper into sin. Pressed into service with the British Navy, he deserted, was captured, and was flogged. His subsequent thoughts vacillated between murder and suicide.
More voyages, dangers, toils, and snares followed. Then, on the night of March 9, 1748, John, 23, was jolted awake by a brutal storm that descended too suddenly for the crew to foresee. The next day, in great peril, he cried to the Lord. He later wrote, “That tenth of March is a day much remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748 – the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”
The next several years saw slow, halting spiritual growth in John, but in the end he became one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in British history, a powerful foe of slavery, and the author of hundreds of hymns. His most famous is, of course, “Amazing Grace.”
You’ve heard it and sung it many times, but don’t miss this incredible version by Il Divo.”
There is a nearly forgotten verse that Newton added near the end of “Amazing Grace:”
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, Who called me here below,
Shall be forever mine.
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