The Phantom of the Opera

I think Andrew Lloyd Webber embarked on this project because most of his recent musicals were flops, so he needed to relive his past successes.

The quality of the singing isn't as good as that in the Original London Cast Recording of the Musical; the cast is quite airy in places, and I distinctly heard an error at one part - unforgivable, since this is a movie, not a musical, but otherwise it's acceptable, especially since only Minnie Driver had a singing voice, presumably because the annoying Italian diva singing voice is so hard to produce.

Though she doesn't sing as well as Sarah Brightman did, sounding a little flat in some places, Emmy Rossum sounds more like the innocent girl that Christine is supposed to be. Perhaps because she is only 18, whereas Sarah Brightman was 26 in 1986. Gerard Butler actually isn't bad as the Phantom, but after Michael Crawford, pretty much anyone is left behind. And Jennifer Ellison (Meg) has a very sweet voice.

The instrumental scoring is more evocative than that of the musical in some places but mostly, where changes were made, they were for the worse. At other times, the orchestra sounds hesitant - reluctant to play, shy even. I also take issue with some of the changes to the lyrics. Even one who detests poetry as I do knows that:

"Long ago, it seems so long ago, how young and innocent we were" (from Think of Me)

would sound much better like so:

"Long ago, it seems so long ago, how young and innocent were we"

There is quite a bit more speaking in the movie than in the musical, and usually this works out well - some lines are more evocative spoken than sung.


As for the acting - Emmy Rossum seems to have one look she puts on half the time: eyes glazed, gaze fixed, as if she's stoned. Meanwhile Gerard Butler doesn't have enough presence as the Phantom. But I like Raoul's hair!

I'm divided with regard to the accents - on the one hand they add atmosphere and authenticity to the story, but on the other they are unevenly applied (the 3 main characters all don't have French accents), and they make characters' speech harder to understand (eg Madame Giry).

Meanwhile, the cinematography is stunning - the Opera Populaire comes to life in all its glory, with the sights, sounds and smells of a 19th century Opera House, but as usual the film utilises too much CGI. I don't blame them too much, though. Not everyone has the budget to redo Cleopatra.


My sister seems obsessed with women who have had boob jobs - she commented at least 3 times to me within an hour of the movie's end that Jennifer Ellison had had a boob job. Bah. But anyway corsets distort the bosom so much that boob jobs become less obvious.

She also claims the Phantom of the Opera is an allegory about how an ugly musical genius seeks to seduce and marry a young woman through his music.

Right.

This is what doing too much literature (and being female) does to you.