Thoughts on “The Phantom of the Opera”

15th March 2012 By 5 Comments

Because this music is such an all-consuming joy for me to listen to, this blog post may well continue to be refined and updated for some time to come. Perhaps indefinitely. I hope you enjoy reading along with me as I explore this musical.

Three of my favourite pieces from The Phantom of the Opera (2004) film. Emmy Rossum sings the role of Christine Daae, and Gerard Butler sings the role of the Phantom/Erik.* Jennifer Ellison plays Meg Giry, the first voice we hear in “Angel of Music”.

Angel of Music

Angel of Music/The Mirror

I prefer the original London Cast’s Michael Crawford as the Phantom, but I do prefer Emmy Rossum as Christine in “Angel of Music” and“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”. At fifteen, her voice gives a sense of vulnerabilty that Sarah Brightman lacks. Brightman seems focused more on technique, less so on emotion, and the end result is a technically near-flawless performance that doesn’t explore much of the character’s feelings.

I do believe Crawford is better in some songs vocally than Gerard Butler (“The Mirror/Angel of Music”, “The Point of No Return”); the resonance and power of his voice is spellbinding, particularly when we hear him for the second time in the show, as he is calling to his protege:

“Insolent boy, this slave of fashion
Basking in your glory!
Ignorant fool, this brave young suitor
Sharing in my triumph!“

Then, in his next lines, the sheer intensity of his passion for Christine resonates, blows my mind and gives me goosebumps.

“Flattering child, you shall know me
See why in shadow I hide…
Look at your face in the mirror
I am there, inside…” 

Butler, however, I enjoy better visually in “The Point of No Return”, but at the same time I adore the stage PONR for Erik’s physical reactions to Christine during the song: his hands shaking when she entwines her fingers with his, as though he can barely keep a lid on the raw physical lust burning within him. Rossum I prefer for WYWSHA. It really is a mix of emotions for me between those 2 interpretations.**

I really enjoyed the 2004 movie “Final Lair” scene more than the OLC. Emmy Rossum conveys more emotion than perfect technique (she flubbed/wavered on a note during “Think of Me”), whilst Sarah Brightman is more technically exacting, but less emotive. Compared to Rossum, Brightman sounds like a robot. Michael Crawford is far superior to Gerry Butler in terms of vocal talent and presence.

The 2004 did make me cry right at the end when Christine returns the ring (so did the live show), but I really had gotten pulled into the story by then.

Comparison of Two Versions

Here are Crawford and Rossum spliced together, singing “The Point of No Return”. The only problem with this is that they were unable to completely get rid of Sarah Brightman’s voice and replace it with Emmy Rossum’s during the final duet, which is understandable given technological limitations. Other than that, a fine recording!

Butler’s Phantom is, at times, more visceral and sexier, but remember that Leroux’s Phantom is meant to be older, much older than Butler’s portrayal, and in that, the film erred mightily. The stage portrayal of “The Point of No Return” offers a much more understated impression of the emotions the Phantom and Christine are feeling: fear, revulsion, longing, lust, trepidation, fascination. You can see it in the way Christine touches the Phantom’s hands as she stands behind him, and he trembles. In the 2004 film, it seems to be about just a few simple, primitive things…

 

Unfulfilled lust and public groping of a minor!

And let’s not forget Butler’s very obvious erection, when Erik and Christine step up on to the catwalk onstage and Erik whips aside his cloak at 5:06.

Has Lloyd Webber forgotten that the Phantom’s voice is what he was all about, that physical attractiveness was never, ever necessary to draw Christine to him? His ugliness was the point of the story, for God’s sake!!!!! His voice is what drew her to him.

I haven’t studied vocal performance formally, but I’ve been playing the piano since I was five. Therefore, I have a modest knowledge of music. The one thing Andrew Lloyd Webber did correctly for this film was to insist that the actors except for Minnie Driver do their own singing. The rest, I have to complain about:

-the budget was way too small (not enough for two chandeliers, and we all know he has enough money to afford it!)

-he wrote a sequel, god help us, that I will not name. (Though, as of April 2012…I am becoming curious about the upcoming Australian DVD release).

* In the 2004 film, the title character is referred to only as “The Phantom”, never “Erik” (as he is in Leroux, Kay, and various other film versions: Lon Chaney, Sr., Charles Dance, Robert Englund, to name a few). The other film versions I’ve seen would be better served in their own blog post, which I may do at some point.

** I have seen the Las Vegas production twice now, and was greatly impressed by Anthony Crivello’s performance. However, there are aspects of the show that I didn’t like as much. That will likely be another installment in this series of posts, if I can remember what my thoughts were.

Phantom of the Opera Glossary

TOM: “Think of Me”

AOM: “Angel of Music”

WYWSHA: “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”

PONR: “The Point of No Return”

And now, for something completely…the same!

 

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Books into Film: “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “Atonement”

16th January 2012 By 5 Comments

Lights...camera...turn the page!

Watching The Other Boleyn Girl while tying product tags onto Shivanaut scarves. I have the book by Philippa Gregory, but couldn’t get into it. From what I have read of the book, it’s “supposed” to be good (but it rankles me that she rewrites history and takes far too long to say things that could be written much more succinctly when they require it).

Ordinarily, I really enjoy big, meaty historical novels of subjects I like (for example, The Bronze Horseman* trilogy by Paullina Simons). But they watered down The Other Boleyn Girl so much from the book that I can’t keep track of everything in the book.

On the flip side, I’m really enjoying reading Atonement after having watched the film, and I’m not disappointed in the least by comparing McEwan’s book to film. A big part of me thinks that, had it been the case that the movie had come before the book, I could have done a much better job of writing the novel for The Other Boleyn Girl myself, and not just a dime-store movie novelization, either!

*There is currently a movie of  The Bronze Horseman in pre-production as of 2012. Given the huge scope of the novel, tither it will be fantastic, or it will be terrible. 

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Rosen and Schierhorn’s “The Phantom of the Opera”

15th January 2012 By Leave a Comment

Rosen and Schierhorn’s The Phantom of the Opera

Vacillating on watching David Staller in a different musical version of “Phantom of the Opera” (or exposing DH to it and possibly harming him!).

From what I remember seeing it years ago, it was quite good in certain parts, but at times, the saccharine quality and extreme kitsch was difficult to tolerate and makes me wrinkle my nose at the thought.

Music:  good, even excellent in certain places, but not all.

Lyrics: at best a 5/10 for most of the pieces (not as bad as LND).

Elizabeth Walsh as Christine gives a warmer performance than Sarah Brightman ever did, but the recitative portions seem to be over-acted.

(Did this production have the Persian in it?)

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Gravol is making me stutter (NSFW)

8th January 2012 By 3 Comments

I take Gravol, an anti-emetic, for pain relief. I have hydrocephalus, and the headaches I get are caused (probably partially) by low intracranial pressure (ICP) and slit ventricles. When my pain is very high (above a 7 on the pain scale), the only words that come out of my mouth are obscenities. Furthermore, one of the side effects of Gravol is extreme drowsiness and difficulty talking, including stuttering and holding my breath (particularly when I’m most sleepy).

Consequently, I have great empathy for this man.

The King’s F****** Speech

I have also had speech therapy, but it was not for stuttering. My voice is normally very high and soft to begin with, and this makes it more so. Having spastic cerebral palsy (CP) means my entire body is tense a lot of the time, and it follows from this that my shoulders, neck and throat are also tense; so go the muscles of the diaphragm.

People who don’t know me well sometimes tell me they have difficulty hearing me.  More than once, when speaking on the phone with a stranger, they ask if I have a cold or if I am crying. To them, my voice has a sniffly or nasal quality; to me, it sounds normal. I don’t really like talking on the phone because it makes me nervous, so odds are that makes it harder to speak.

There have also been times when patronizing condescending twats people think I’m much younger than I am, simply because of the sound quality of my speech and the spasticity of my limbs. I am over 25, and have more than once been mistaken for being, at best, younger than a teenager. and, at worst, a developmentally delayed 8-year-old. I am not the only person to have experienced this treatment. Wikipedia’s article on cerebral palsy has an entire separate section regarding misconceptions:

Spastic cerebral palsy, the most common form of CP, causes the muscles to be tense, rigid and movements are slow and difficult. This can be misinterpreted as cognitive delay due to difficulty of communication. Individuals with cerebral palsy can have learning difficulties, but sometimes it is the sheer magnitude of problems caused by the underlying brain injury that prevents the individual from expressing what cognitive abilities they do possess.

Disturbingly, this section’s source was taken from a website (which you can find in the reference section to the Wiki article) that lumps cerebral palsy (which is a constellation of symptoms) under the much larger general rubric of “developmental disabilities”. I don’t think that’s a good idea, or at all an accurate way to go about it. Having cerebral palsy does not guarantee the patient will have developmental disabilities, and hearkening back to what I said a few paragraphs back, the source of the Wikipedia reference needs to re-examine their findings. Assuming that patients with CP have a learning disability does a great disservice to those of us who do not. (Again, that’s another “first question” I’m asked – another example of a symptom linked in the public’s mind with cerebral palsy that is inaccurate.)

I’m not crying constantly.

I don’t have a cold.

I’m well over the age of eight.

I can wipe my own ass, and I cook my own food.

I’m married, and highly sexual. (Yep, disabled people HAVE SEX! And we love it!) 

I don’t have a developmental disability. My GPA was 3.89 in university before I had to start taking all of these fucking painkillers.

And for all these reasons, I’m not here to inspire you.

Should I assume that just because you live in Texas, you enjoy wearing large white cowboy hats and stomping around in giant leather boots? Of course not.

I eventually got so annoyed by having to explain these things (to people I didn’t know and would probably never meet more than once) that I started speech therapy in 2008.

Many of the exercises that Logue has Bertie (King George VI) practice in The King’s Speech were exercises that I did:

  • -Timing how long I could say vowels for while using a stopwatch (“Anyone who can shout vowels at an open window can learn to deliver a speech.”)
  • -Deep breathing with the diaphragm (“Up comes Her Royal Highness…and down c0mes Her Royal Highness…”)
  • -Loosening the jaws by making silly noises with them
  • -Stretching the shoulders and neck by rolling them forwards, around and backwards
  • -Practicing vowels (“Mmmmmmmother…fffornication!”)

Oh, come on!!!!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this bugger fuck shit post.

 

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