So, when your thinking of Halloween music, there's a lot of spooky pipe organs, right?
This is only marginally related to that topic.
First written as a novel by Gaston Leroux in 1909 France, Le Fantome de l'Opera was similar to Frankenstein in that it sold very poorly when first published. What the novel lacked in any literary signifigance though was more than made up for by its musical adaptations.
The first musical was Ken Hill's British Phantom of the Opera. During one performance Hill was aproached by Andrew Lloyd Webber to establish a Broadway version. In 1988 Webber's own version of Phantom opened.
Phantom is a macabre love story about a female actor named Christine who is bedeviled by a mysterious admirer named Erik that lives beneath the Opera House. It's not exactly a horror by any stretch, but it has dark elements that win it over many a horde of (often teenage female) fans. Michael Crawford made his name in America off of the role of Erik. 11 25 15
Today Webber's play is the longest running ticket on Broadway, by over 2500 shows, as well as the first to surpass 10,000 performances. It is considered (admittedly by its own writers' calculations) to be the single highest grossing entertainment venture ever conceived, making 5.1 billion dollars.
The connection to literature is that Phantom is a classic, at least by any theater teacher's terms, in the ranks of Shakespeare. Though Leroux's novel was a flop, its legacy will likely live forever.
I had always believed that The Phantom of the Opera was a scary play that was always well-known. I learned that it was actually not a best seller when first written. It is interesting to think about how many other works of art this relates to.
ReplyDeleteI remember I first saw Phantom of the Opera when I was on the plane. I thought it was pretty good, but I didn't see all the hype about it. The music definitely is one of the key factors that makes it a hit, though.
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