Phantoms of the Opera

Book excerpt: Revised and Updated, this Third Edition of Phantoms of the Opera: The Face Behind the Mask includes lots of new material from the Gerard Butler-Emmy Rossum Phantom as well as dozens of other productions that have come out in the 15 years since the book was last printed. Mention The Phantom of the Opera at a dinner party, and each guest will have his or her own vivid, almost visceral, recollection of the tale of a disfigured musical genius and his unrequited love for a beautiful, young singer. Someone will undoubtedly pantomime the famous scene from the silent era film in which Mary Philbin (as Christine Daae) sneaks up behind the Phantom, while he is playing the organ in his subterranean lair, and unmasks the great Lon Chaney, revealing his horribly disfigured face to the audience and her. Another guest is likely to burst into song, recalling The Music of the Night from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Still another guest may describe the scene in which the Phantom cuts the cables free and sends the magnificent chandelier crashing down upon the patrons of the Paris Opera House. The original story contains so many richly textured scenes that each of us, at one time or another, has been seduced by the Phantom, and embraced the dark, labyrinthine world of author Gaston Leroux. Most of the productions have been as equally rich with great scenes and great performances. This book is a tribute to Leroux, his most famous novel, and those adaptations inspired by it.