SOL6, The PhantomThe Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite Broadway shows, and it is currently the only music I own and consistently listen to. The emotion and darkness behind and in the story are portrayed perfectly with the haunting and dramatic soundtrack. There is something about the story that I find fascinating, and I do not know why I am so easily interested in the show and all of the variations of it. For example, the movie based directly on the book where you see Erik (The Phantom) sell his soul to Satan because he is nervous that people will not like his music, and he thinks that the Devil will convince people to like his music. Selling his soul to the devil has one negative, and that is that his face will be hideously deformed until he sews the skin of people he has killed to his face. Yes, I know, gory. For those that do not know, the story of the musical The Phantom of the Opera is that Christine Daae was orphaned in an opera house, and she grew up there to be in their chorus and be in their ballet. The Phantom is obsessed with her and her voice, and he will do anything to take her. He owns the theater, but never shows up but only to accept his salary. He starts to cause havoc in the theater, and it will not stop until Christine plays the lead, replacing the Prima Donna Carlotta (an Obnoxious lead soprano for nine seasons).
Anywho, the musical was written for Gaston Leroux's book, The Phantom of The Opera. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, a talented composer for his time. The music is very intensely written to suit each character, and features, in some cases, high and low vocal extremities. It is confusing to those who are not super familiar with the musical and story.
Anyways, It is something that I really enjoy and have an obsession with. I have memorized most of the music, and I would recommend watching the play, the movie is not the best, but still really good.
Yeah... I've seen the play, but haven't read the book. Maybe that's a good thing. The awkward frog thing you were just listening to is vaguely terrifying. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteI have started to read the book, but stopped after about a chapter. You saw the play in Denver, right? Do you think Chris Mann makes a good Phantom then? Davis makes an okay Christine, but in my opinion, neither of them can compare to the original Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman.
ReplyDelete"The Phantom of the Opera is there..."
"The Power of the Music of the Night..."
"Poor old fool, he makes me laugh..."
Phantom is one of my favorites too! I love how modern sounding the music is, and how that contrasts the plot line.
ReplyDeleteNever seen or read Phantom, but I might after reading this.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you really relate to the phantom... I haven't seen Phantom of the Opera, and have been avoiding it because I assumed it was a cheesy old play (Cough Cough Hello Dolly Cough Cough), but I might consider seeing it after reading this!
ReplyDeleteI've only heard of this in passing. Never read it, never seen it, never listened to the soundtrack. Nice slice.
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