Erik, the Phantom of the Opera
Encyclopedia
Erik is the titular character in Gaston Leroux
's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera
. He is also the antagonist
of many film adaptations of the novel, notably the 1925 film adaptation
starring Lon Chaney, Sr.
, and Andrew Lloyd Webber
's West End musical
.
, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not, in fact, his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says in the novel. In the novel, Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice"; Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", and attends a masquerade as the Red Death. Most of Erik's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian
or the Daroga, who had been a local police chief in Persia and who followed Erik to Paris
; some of the rest is discussed in the novel's epilogue. Erik was born in a small town outside of Rouen
, France
.
Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "le mort vivant" ("the living death"). During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician and ventriloquist
. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah
of Persia.
The Shah orders the Persian to fetch Erik and bring him to the palace.The Shah-in-Shah commissions Erik, who proves himself a gifted architect
, to construct an elaborate palace, Mazenderan. The edifice is designed with so many trap doors and secret rooms that not even the slightest whisper could be considered private. The design itself carries sound to myriad hidden locations, so that one never knew who might be listening. At some point under the Shah's employment, Erik is also a political assassin
, using a unique noose referred to as the Punjab Lasso
.The Persian dwells on the vague horrors that existed at Mazenderan rather than going in depth into the actual circumstances involved.
The Shah, pleased with Erik's work and determined that no one else should have such a palace, orders Erik blinded
. Thinking that Erik could still make another palace even without his eyesight, the Shah orders Erik's execution. It is only by the intervention of the daroga (the Persian) that Erik escapes. Erik then goes to Constantinople
and is employed by its ruler, helping build certain edifices in the Yildiz-Kiosk, among other things. However, he has to leave the city for the same reason he left Mazenderan: he knows too much. He also seems to have traveled to Southeast Asia, since he claims to have learned to breathe underwater using a hollow reed from the "Tonkin pirates". By this time Erik is tired of his nomadic life and wants to "live like everybody else". For a time he works as a contractor, building "ordinary houses with ordinary bricks". He eventually bids on a contract to help with the construction of the Palais Garnier
, commonly known as the Paris Opéra.
During the construction he is able to make a sort of playground for himself within the Opera House, creating trapdoors and secret passageways throughout every inch of the theatre. He even builds himself a house in the cellars of the Opera where he could live far from man's cruelty. Erik has spent twenty years composing a piece entitled Don Juan Triumphant
. In one chapter after he takes Christine to his lair, she asks him to play her a piece from his masterwork. He refuses and says, "I will play you Mozart, if you like, which will only make you weep; but my Don Juan, Christine, burns." Eventually, after she has wrenched off his mask and seen his deformed face, he begins to play it. Christine says that at first it seemed to be "one great awful sob," but then became alert to its nuances and power.
Upon its completion, he originally plans to go to his bed (which is a coffin) and "never wake up," but by the final chapters of the novel, (during which Erik kidnapps Christine right from the stage during a performance), Erik expresses his wish to marry Christine and live a comfortable bourgeois life after his work has been completed. He has stored a massive supply of gunpowder under the Opera, and, should she refuse his offer, plans to detonate it. When she acquiesces to his desires in order to save herself, her lover Raoul (who, aided by the Persian, went looking for Christine and fell into Erik's torture chamber), and the denizens of the Opera, we find out that his part of the bargain was to take the Persian and Raoul above ground.
He does so with the Persian, but Raoul was kept "a hostage" and was "locked up comfortably, properly chained" in the dungeon under the opera. When he returns, he finds Christine waiting for him, like "a real living fiancee" and he swore she tilted her forehead toward him, and he kissed it. Then he says he was so happy that he fell at her feet, crying, and she cries with him, calling him "poor, unhappy Erik" and taking his hand. At this point, he is "just a poor dog ready to die for her" and he returns to her the ring she had lost and said that she was free to go and marry Raoul.
Erik frees Raoul and he and Christine leave. But before they do, Erik makes Christine promise that when he dies she will come back and bury him. Then she kisses Erik's forehead. Erik dies three weeks later, but not before he goes to visit the Persian and tells him everything, and promises to send him Erik's dearest possessions: the papers that Christine wrote about everything that had happened with her "Angel of Music" and some things that had belonged to her. Christine keeps her promise and returns to the Opera to bury Erik and place the plain gold band he had given her on his finger. Leroux claims that a skeleton bearing such a ring was later unearthed in the Opera cellars.
novel Phantom
, the fictional in-depth story of Erik from the time of his birth to the end of his life at the Paris Opera House.
The novel begins on the night of Erik's birth. It is said that Erik's mother gives the task of naming her son to the priest, Father Mansart, who visits her shortly after the birth. For the most part, Kay's novel stays in context with Leroux's, but she places the highest priority on portraying the romantic aspects of Erik's life. He falls in love twice throughout the novel, but neither of these occasions truly end happily.
Raoul and Christine got married with Erik's blessing.
's literary sequel to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of Manhattan
, Erik's history is given as being slightly different. He was born in Alsace
as Erik Muhlheim, to the son of a circus carpenter, around 1866. When Erik's mother ran away when he was nine, his alcoholic father sold him to the freak show
of the circus. At age sixteen, he was rescued by Antoinette Giry
, who took him to live in the Opera. After the events of the musical, Madame Giry is able to secure him passage to Manhattan
, where he eventually becomes rich by designing attractions for Coney Island
. It is revealed that he and Christine had sex, resulting in her having a son, Pierre, who is told that he is Raoul's. After Christine's death, Pierre decides to live with Erik rather than Raoul. It is mentioned that Erik eventually moves to a secluded mansion in Connecticut
where he is tended to by disfigured war veterans, so he can reveal his face without revulsion. It is mentioned that his son had four children and died in 1969, but Erik's fate is not told.
's novel The Canary Trainer
, Sherlock Holmes
develops several theories as to the Phantom's identity. His first idea is that he is an employee of the Opera; however, when the Phantom's knowledge of the Opera becomes evident, Holmes then believes that he is Charles Garnier
, having faked his own death. When Garnier's corpse is identified, Holmes then theorizes that the Phantom was Edouard LaFosse, the (fictional) assistant of Garnier who designed much of the Opera's interior and who allegedly died after a building collapse. Holmes theorizes that he did not die, but was deformed and therefore took to hiding in the Opera. However, when Holmes finally confronts the Phantom, he claims that he cannot speak without his mask, as his mother forced him to wear it whenever he wished to speak as a child. Holmes therefore admits that he is not sure how true any of the theories or claims of the Phantom's identity are. The Phantom never provides a given name in the novel; he only tells Christine that his name is "Nobody" (a reference to the name Odysseus
gave Polyphemus
in the Odyssey
).
Regardless of his identity, the Phantom in The Canary Trainer is much more unhinged and bloodthirsty than in the original novel or play. For example, when killing Madame Giry's replacement with the chandelier, he kills twenty-six others as well, just to ensure that he kills his main target.
and Meg Giry
smuggled the Phantom to Calais
where he boards a freighter to America. Whilst in America, he was hired by a side show while Madame Giry and Meg worked night and day to help him buy it and later to buy and finance Phantasma. Even though it has been ten years since the previous story The Phantom is still in love with Christine and so sends her a letter inviting her to make her American singing debut. Once in America Christine realises it was the Phantom who invited her and it is revealed that she and the Phantom spent a night of passion together the night before her wedding to Raoul. The Phantom then invites Gustave, Christine's son, to his "office" in the Phantasma in which he makes the shocking discovery that Gustave could be his son. He takes off his mask in hope that Gustave will accept him but instead Gustave screams in horror.
From Gustave's scream Christine comes rushing in and sends Gustave away, the Phantom presses on Christine for the truth about Gustave's real father, which results in her telling him that he is Gustave's real father, the Phantom declares that everything he creates will go to him. Madame Giry looks on as everything she has worked for will be gone. The Phantom and Raoul come face to face and make a bet that if Christine sings she is the Phantom's and if she does not she is Raoul's and all of Raoul's debts will be wiped away.
The two of them convince her to fulfill their parts of the bets but in the end Christine sings for the Phantom and vows to stay with him. After coming off stage Christine finds that Gustave is missing and Fleck reveals that she saw Meg pulling a small figure out one of the back doors. The Phantom announces that he knows where they have gone resulting in Christine, Madame Giry and himself heading for the pier. On the pier, Meg is about to drown Gustave when she is confronted by the others. Before they can come near Meg pulls out a gun and threatens them all. During this time it is revealed that Meg worked as a prostitute to help earn money for the Phantom and her mother.
In the confusion of the Phantom trying to get the gun off Meg, Meg accidentally shoots Christine (out of frustration) and leaves her fatally wounded. The Phantom rushes over and holds Christine in his arms. Christine reveals to Gustave that the Phantom is his father and Christine's last words to the Phantom are her love for him will never die and asks for him to kiss her "one last time". She then dies in his arms. The Phantom lays the body of Christine on the sand. Gustave attempts to remove the Phantom's mask, but the Phantom shields himself from the boy. Hesitating, he drops to one knee, and Gustave removes the Phantom's mask. The two look into each other's eyes, acknowledging and accepting each other as father & son.
Lon Chaney, Sr.
's characterization of Erik in the silent film (released in 1925)
remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. Chaney was a master make-up artist and was considered avant garde for creating and applying Erik's facial makeup design himself. It is said he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the ladies of the time, theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand for the women who fainted in shock.
Several movies based on the novel also vary the deformities (or in the case of Dario Argento's film
, the lack thereof, where Erik was a normal, handsome man raised by rats). In Universal's 1943 adaptation
, a poor musician tries to publish his music, and then wrongly accuses the publisher of trying to steal his music. The Phantom character then murders the publisher by strangulation and tries to retrieve his music, only to have his face burned by having etching
acid
thrown in his face by the publisher's female assistant. The rock opera Phantom of the Paradise
has Winslow (the Erik character) get his head caught in a record-press and Robert Englund's horror-version has him selling his soul to Satan and having his face mutilated as a result (this version also has a gruesome variation on the mask, in which Erik is sewing flesh to his face)
In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation
(taking a tip from Universal's 1943 spin on the story), only half of Erik's face is deformed (thus the famous half-mask often associated with Erik's appearance.) His show was originally planned to have a full mask and full facial disfigurement, but when the director, Hal Prince
, realized that it would make expression onstage very difficult, they halved the mask. The logo featuring a full mask was publicized before the change. The deformity in the musical includes a gash on the right side of his partly balding head with exposed skull tissue, an elongated right nostril, a missing right eyebrow, swollen lips, different colored eyes, and an wrinkled, warped right cheek. The lyrics in the Phantom's final scene in his lair have sometimes been interpreted to mean that the deformities affect his ability to engage in intercourse since having been questioned by Christine if she had been taken to become "Prey for [his] lust of flesh?" he responds "That fate, which condemns me to wallow in blood/Has also denied me the joys of the flesh." However this has been clarified; the line instead refers to the Phantom's lack of sexual experience as a result of his face. His ability to engage in intercourse is further demonstrated in the sequel to Lloyd-Webber's show, Love Never Dies, in which it is revealed that the Phantom and Christine had sex the night before her wedding, resulting in her pregnancy. It originally took roughly four hours per performance to put the prosthetics on in the original London productions. On Broadway, it was cut to roughly three. More than one Phantom has described make-up disasters onstage. Michael Crawford recounts a story where he pulled away from the kiss at the end only to see that "[his] lower lip was now hanging off Sarah [Brightman]'s face!". To cover the flub, he pulled her back for another kiss and "took back the lips" and kept that side of his head turned away from the audience.
In the 2004 film adaptation
, Erik's makeup was made to look much less gruesome. Film Critic Roger Ebert
commented that he thought Gerard Butler
was made to be too good-looking for the film, and that his masks were more of a fashion accessory than an attempt to hide his deformities.
Gaston Leroux
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera , which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon...
's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
. He is also the antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of many film adaptations of the novel, notably the 1925 film adaptation
The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel of the same title directed by Rupert Julian. The film featured Lon Chaney in the title role as the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to force...
starring Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
, and Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's West End musical
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
.
Character history
In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past, although there is no shortage of hints and implications throughout the book. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his appearance and that his father, a master masonMasonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not, in fact, his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says in the novel. In the novel, Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice"; Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", and attends a masquerade as the Red Death. Most of Erik's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian
The Persian
The Persian is a major character from the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the book he is the one who tells most of the background of Erik's history...
or the Daroga, who had been a local police chief in Persia and who followed Erik to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
; some of the rest is discussed in the novel's epilogue. Erik was born in a small town outside of Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "le mort vivant" ("the living death"). During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician and ventriloquist
Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...
. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
of Persia.
The Shah orders the Persian to fetch Erik and bring him to the palace.The Shah-in-Shah commissions Erik, who proves himself a gifted architect
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, to construct an elaborate palace, Mazenderan. The edifice is designed with so many trap doors and secret rooms that not even the slightest whisper could be considered private. The design itself carries sound to myriad hidden locations, so that one never knew who might be listening. At some point under the Shah's employment, Erik is also a political assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, using a unique noose referred to as the Punjab Lasso
Punjab lasso
The Punjab lasso is a type of weapon referred to in Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. It is described as a noose but employed like a garotte to strangle victims...
.The Persian dwells on the vague horrors that existed at Mazenderan rather than going in depth into the actual circumstances involved.
The Shah, pleased with Erik's work and determined that no one else should have such a palace, orders Erik blinded
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
. Thinking that Erik could still make another palace even without his eyesight, the Shah orders Erik's execution. It is only by the intervention of the daroga (the Persian) that Erik escapes. Erik then goes to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and is employed by its ruler, helping build certain edifices in the Yildiz-Kiosk, among other things. However, he has to leave the city for the same reason he left Mazenderan: he knows too much. He also seems to have traveled to Southeast Asia, since he claims to have learned to breathe underwater using a hollow reed from the "Tonkin pirates". By this time Erik is tired of his nomadic life and wants to "live like everybody else". For a time he works as a contractor, building "ordinary houses with ordinary bricks". He eventually bids on a contract to help with the construction of the Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
, commonly known as the Paris Opéra.
During the construction he is able to make a sort of playground for himself within the Opera House, creating trapdoors and secret passageways throughout every inch of the theatre. He even builds himself a house in the cellars of the Opera where he could live far from man's cruelty. Erik has spent twenty years composing a piece entitled Don Juan Triumphant
Don Juan Triumphant
Don Juan Triumphant is the name of a fictional piece of music written by the title character in the novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the musical adaptation, the concept is expanded as an opera within a musical.-The novel:...
. In one chapter after he takes Christine to his lair, she asks him to play her a piece from his masterwork. He refuses and says, "I will play you Mozart, if you like, which will only make you weep; but my Don Juan, Christine, burns." Eventually, after she has wrenched off his mask and seen his deformed face, he begins to play it. Christine says that at first it seemed to be "one great awful sob," but then became alert to its nuances and power.
Upon its completion, he originally plans to go to his bed (which is a coffin) and "never wake up," but by the final chapters of the novel, (during which Erik kidnapps Christine right from the stage during a performance), Erik expresses his wish to marry Christine and live a comfortable bourgeois life after his work has been completed. He has stored a massive supply of gunpowder under the Opera, and, should she refuse his offer, plans to detonate it. When she acquiesces to his desires in order to save herself, her lover Raoul (who, aided by the Persian, went looking for Christine and fell into Erik's torture chamber), and the denizens of the Opera, we find out that his part of the bargain was to take the Persian and Raoul above ground.
He does so with the Persian, but Raoul was kept "a hostage" and was "locked up comfortably, properly chained" in the dungeon under the opera. When he returns, he finds Christine waiting for him, like "a real living fiancee" and he swore she tilted her forehead toward him, and he kissed it. Then he says he was so happy that he fell at her feet, crying, and she cries with him, calling him "poor, unhappy Erik" and taking his hand. At this point, he is "just a poor dog ready to die for her" and he returns to her the ring she had lost and said that she was free to go and marry Raoul.
Erik frees Raoul and he and Christine leave. But before they do, Erik makes Christine promise that when he dies she will come back and bury him. Then she kisses Erik's forehead. Erik dies three weeks later, but not before he goes to visit the Persian and tells him everything, and promises to send him Erik's dearest possessions: the papers that Christine wrote about everything that had happened with her "Angel of Music" and some things that had belonged to her. Christine keeps her promise and returns to the Opera to bury Erik and place the plain gold band he had given her on his finger. Leroux claims that a skeleton bearing such a ring was later unearthed in the Opera cellars.
Phantom
Many different versions of Erik's life are told through other adaptations such as films, television shows, books, and musicals. The most popular of the adapted books is the Susan KaySusan Kay
Susan Kay is a writer.She is most known for her book, Phantom, which expands upon the history of Erik, the hideous, brilliant character from Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, in an episodic format of seven chapters from different characters' points of view - first Erik's mother,...
novel Phantom
Phantom (novel)
Phantom is a 1990 novel by Susan Kay, based on the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera.-Plot summary:The Phantom is born as Erik in Boscherville, a small town not far from Rouen, in the summer of 1831. His father is a well-known stonemason and dies in a construction accident a few months...
, the fictional in-depth story of Erik from the time of his birth to the end of his life at the Paris Opera House.
The novel begins on the night of Erik's birth. It is said that Erik's mother gives the task of naming her son to the priest, Father Mansart, who visits her shortly after the birth. For the most part, Kay's novel stays in context with Leroux's, but she places the highest priority on portraying the romantic aspects of Erik's life. He falls in love twice throughout the novel, but neither of these occasions truly end happily.
Raoul and Christine got married with Erik's blessing.
The Phantom of Manhattan
In Frederick ForsythFrederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
's literary sequel to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of Manhattan
The Phantom of Manhattan
The Phantom of Manhattan, a 1999 novel by Frederick Forsyth, is a sequel to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera, itself based on the original book by Gaston Leroux....
, Erik's history is given as being slightly different. He was born in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
as Erik Muhlheim, to the son of a circus carpenter, around 1866. When Erik's mother ran away when he was nine, his alcoholic father sold him to the freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
of the circus. At age sixteen, he was rescued by Antoinette Giry
Madame Giry
Madame Giry is a character in the Gaston Leroux novel, The Phantom of the Opera. She is a fairly intermediate character in the novel, although her role is much increased in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical...
, who took him to live in the Opera. After the events of the musical, Madame Giry is able to secure him passage to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, where he eventually becomes rich by designing attractions for Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
. It is revealed that he and Christine had sex, resulting in her having a son, Pierre, who is told that he is Raoul's. After Christine's death, Pierre decides to live with Erik rather than Raoul. It is mentioned that Erik eventually moves to a secluded mansion in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
where he is tended to by disfigured war veterans, so he can reveal his face without revulsion. It is mentioned that his son had four children and died in 1969, but Erik's fate is not told.
The Canary Trainer
In Nicholas MeyerNicholas Meyer
Nicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, producer, director and novelist, known best for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature film series, and the 1983 television movie The Day After.Meyer graduated from...
's novel The Canary Trainer
The Canary Trainer
The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson is a 1993 Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. Like The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror, The Canary Trainer was published as a "lost manuscript" of the late Dr. John H. Watson...
, Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
develops several theories as to the Phantom's identity. His first idea is that he is an employee of the Opera; however, when the Phantom's knowledge of the Opera becomes evident, Holmes then believes that he is Charles Garnier
Charles Garnier (architect)
Charles Garnier was a French architect, perhaps best known as the architect of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.-Early life:...
, having faked his own death. When Garnier's corpse is identified, Holmes then theorizes that the Phantom was Edouard LaFosse, the (fictional) assistant of Garnier who designed much of the Opera's interior and who allegedly died after a building collapse. Holmes theorizes that he did not die, but was deformed and therefore took to hiding in the Opera. However, when Holmes finally confronts the Phantom, he claims that he cannot speak without his mask, as his mother forced him to wear it whenever he wished to speak as a child. Holmes therefore admits that he is not sure how true any of the theories or claims of the Phantom's identity are. The Phantom never provides a given name in the novel; he only tells Christine that his name is "Nobody" (a reference to the name Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
gave Polyphemus
Polyphemus
Polyphemus is the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes. His name means "much spoken of" or "famous". Polyphemus plays a pivotal role in Homer's Odyssey.-In Homer's Odyssey:...
in the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
).
Regardless of his identity, the Phantom in The Canary Trainer is much more unhinged and bloodthirsty than in the original novel or play. For example, when killing Madame Giry's replacement with the chandelier, he kills twenty-six others as well, just to ensure that he kills his main target.
The Angel of the Opera
In Sam Siciliano's novel The Angel of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes is brought in to solve the case of the Opera Ghost, and both Erik's and Holmes's stories unfold through the eyes of Holmes's assistant, Henri Vernier. Siciliano places Holmes and Vernier at several of the crucial scenes in Erik and Christine's relationship, and draws parallels between Erik and Holmes, identifying both as men who have sociopathic tendencies, but inside whom emotions run deep. Holmes identifies/sympathizes with Erik so much that after Christine leaves him, Holmes brings him back to England. One of the first people that Erik meets on his arrival is a blind girl with a fondness for music.Love Never Dies
In Love Never Dies, the musical sequel to Webber's version, Madame GiryMadame Giry
Madame Giry is a character in the Gaston Leroux novel, The Phantom of the Opera. She is a fairly intermediate character in the novel, although her role is much increased in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical...
and Meg Giry
Meg Giry
Meg Giry is one of the fictional characters from Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the story she is Madame Giry's oldest daughter....
smuggled the Phantom to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
where he boards a freighter to America. Whilst in America, he was hired by a side show while Madame Giry and Meg worked night and day to help him buy it and later to buy and finance Phantasma. Even though it has been ten years since the previous story The Phantom is still in love with Christine and so sends her a letter inviting her to make her American singing debut. Once in America Christine realises it was the Phantom who invited her and it is revealed that she and the Phantom spent a night of passion together the night before her wedding to Raoul. The Phantom then invites Gustave, Christine's son, to his "office" in the Phantasma in which he makes the shocking discovery that Gustave could be his son. He takes off his mask in hope that Gustave will accept him but instead Gustave screams in horror.
From Gustave's scream Christine comes rushing in and sends Gustave away, the Phantom presses on Christine for the truth about Gustave's real father, which results in her telling him that he is Gustave's real father, the Phantom declares that everything he creates will go to him. Madame Giry looks on as everything she has worked for will be gone. The Phantom and Raoul come face to face and make a bet that if Christine sings she is the Phantom's and if she does not she is Raoul's and all of Raoul's debts will be wiped away.
The two of them convince her to fulfill their parts of the bets but in the end Christine sings for the Phantom and vows to stay with him. After coming off stage Christine finds that Gustave is missing and Fleck reveals that she saw Meg pulling a small figure out one of the back doors. The Phantom announces that he knows where they have gone resulting in Christine, Madame Giry and himself heading for the pier. On the pier, Meg is about to drown Gustave when she is confronted by the others. Before they can come near Meg pulls out a gun and threatens them all. During this time it is revealed that Meg worked as a prostitute to help earn money for the Phantom and her mother.
In the confusion of the Phantom trying to get the gun off Meg, Meg accidentally shoots Christine (out of frustration) and leaves her fatally wounded. The Phantom rushes over and holds Christine in his arms. Christine reveals to Gustave that the Phantom is his father and Christine's last words to the Phantom are her love for him will never die and asks for him to kiss her "one last time". She then dies in his arms. The Phantom lays the body of Christine on the sand. Gustave attempts to remove the Phantom's mask, but the Phantom shields himself from the boy. Hesitating, he drops to one knee, and Gustave removes the Phantom's mask. The two look into each other's eyes, acknowledging and accepting each other as father & son.
Erik's deformity
In the Leroux novel, Erik is described as corpse-like with no nose; sunken eyes and cheeks; yellow, parchment-like skin; and only a few wisps of ink-black hair covering his head. He is often described as "a walking skeleton", and Christine graphically describes his cold hands.Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
's characterization of Erik in the silent film (released in 1925)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel of the same title directed by Rupert Julian. The film featured Lon Chaney in the title role as the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to force...
remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. Chaney was a master make-up artist and was considered avant garde for creating and applying Erik's facial makeup design himself. It is said he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the ladies of the time, theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand for the women who fainted in shock.
Several movies based on the novel also vary the deformities (or in the case of Dario Argento's film
The Phantom of the Opera (1998 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1998 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento, adapted from the novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. However, there are many differences between the book and the movie.- Plot :In Paris 1877, rats save an abandoned baby in a basket and raise him in the...
, the lack thereof, where Erik was a normal, handsome man raised by rats). In Universal's 1943 adaptation
Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
, a poor musician tries to publish his music, and then wrongly accuses the publisher of trying to steal his music. The Phantom character then murders the publisher by strangulation and tries to retrieve his music, only to have his face burned by having etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
acid
Acid
An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
thrown in his face by the publisher's female assistant. The rock opera Phantom of the Paradise
Phantom of the Paradise
Phantom of the Paradise is a 1974 musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust and also briefly references Frankenstein and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...
has Winslow (the Erik character) get his head caught in a record-press and Robert Englund's horror-version has him selling his soul to Satan and having his face mutilated as a result (this version also has a gruesome variation on the mask, in which Erik is sewing flesh to his face)
In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
(taking a tip from Universal's 1943 spin on the story), only half of Erik's face is deformed (thus the famous half-mask often associated with Erik's appearance.) His show was originally planned to have a full mask and full facial disfigurement, but when the director, Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
, realized that it would make expression onstage very difficult, they halved the mask. The logo featuring a full mask was publicized before the change. The deformity in the musical includes a gash on the right side of his partly balding head with exposed skull tissue, an elongated right nostril, a missing right eyebrow, swollen lips, different colored eyes, and an wrinkled, warped right cheek. The lyrics in the Phantom's final scene in his lair have sometimes been interpreted to mean that the deformities affect his ability to engage in intercourse since having been questioned by Christine if she had been taken to become "Prey for [his] lust of flesh?" he responds "That fate, which condemns me to wallow in blood/Has also denied me the joys of the flesh." However this has been clarified; the line instead refers to the Phantom's lack of sexual experience as a result of his face. His ability to engage in intercourse is further demonstrated in the sequel to Lloyd-Webber's show, Love Never Dies, in which it is revealed that the Phantom and Christine had sex the night before her wedding, resulting in her pregnancy. It originally took roughly four hours per performance to put the prosthetics on in the original London productions. On Broadway, it was cut to roughly three. More than one Phantom has described make-up disasters onstage. Michael Crawford recounts a story where he pulled away from the kiss at the end only to see that "[his] lower lip was now hanging off Sarah [Brightman]'s face!". To cover the flub, he pulled her back for another kiss and "took back the lips" and kept that side of his head turned away from the audience.
In the 2004 film adaptation
The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux....
, Erik's makeup was made to look much less gruesome. Film Critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
commented that he thought Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in...
was made to be too good-looking for the film, and that his masks were more of a fashion accessory than an attempt to hide his deformities.
Performers
Film
- Nils Olaf ChrisanderNils Olaf ChrisanderNils Olaf Chrisander was a Swedish actor and film director in the early part of the twentieth-century.Born Waldemar Olaf Chrisander in Stockholm, Sweden, Chrisander's first screen appearances as an actor were in German and Swedish silent films in the mid-1910s...
in the 1916 GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
silent version by Ernst Matray, Das Gespenst im OpernhausThe Phantom of the Opera (adaptations)There have been many literary and dramatic works based on Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, ranging from light operas to films to children's books...
or Das Phantom der OperThe Phantom of the Opera (adaptations)There have been many literary and dramatic works based on Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, ranging from light operas to films to children's books...
, starring Aud Egede-NissenAud Egede-NissenAud Richter was a Norwegian actress, appearing in many early 20th century German films.- Biography :...
as Christine DaaéChristine DaaéChristine Daaé is the main female character in Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera , the young singer with whom the main character Erik, the Phantom of the Opera falls in love.- Character history :...
. - Lon Chaney, Sr.Lon Chaney, Sr.Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
in the 1925 AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
silent version by Rupert JulianRupert JulianRupert Julian was the first New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer.Born Thomas Percival Hayes in Whangaroa, New Zealand, Son of John Daly Hayes and Eliza Harriet Hayes...
, The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel of the same title directed by Rupert Julian. The film featured Lon Chaney in the title role as the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to force...
, starring Mary PhilbinMary PhilbinMary Philbin was a notable film actress of the silent film era. Philbin is probably best remembered for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera opposite screen legend Lon Chaney and Dea in The Man Who Laughs...
as Christine DaaéChristine DaaéChristine Daaé is the main female character in Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera , the young singer with whom the main character Erik, the Phantom of the Opera falls in love.- Character history :...
. - Claude RainsClaude RainsClaude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
in the 1943 TechnicolorTechnicolorTechnicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
version of Phantom of the OperaPhantom of the Opera (1943 film)Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
. - Herbert LomHerbert LomHerbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...
in the 1962 version of The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (1962 film)The Phantom of the Opera is a 1962 British film based on the novel by Gaston Leroux. The film was made by Hammer Film Productions.-Plot:The film opens in Victorian London on a December night in 1900....
. - Robert EnglundRobert EnglundRobert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
in the 1989 horror film version of The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (1989 film)The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture is a 1989 horror film directed by Dwight H. Little and based on Gaston Leroux's novel of the same name....
. - Julian SandsJulian SandsJulian M. Sands is an English actor, known for his roles in the Best Picture nominee The Killing Fields, the cult film Warlock, A Room with a View, Arachnophobia, Vatel, the television series 24 and as Jor-El in the television series Smallville.-Career:Sands began his film career appearing in...
in Dario ArgentoDario ArgentoDario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
's adaptation in 1998. - Gerard ButlerGerard ButlerGerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in...
in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's stage version The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux....
(2004)
Television
- Maximilian SchellMaximilian SchellMaximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
in the 1983 television series. - Charles DanceCharles DanceWalter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
in the 1990 NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
two-part television miniseriesThe Phantom of the Opera (1990 miniseries)The Phantom of the Opera is a 1990 NBC two-part drama television miniseries directed by Tony Richardson and stars Charles Dance in the title role...
.
Theatre
- William FinleyWilliam Finley (actor)William Finley is an American actor who has appeared in the films Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, Obsession and The Wedding Party. Finley has had a long film relationship with director Brian De Palma, beginning with the student films "Woton's Wake", and "Murder a la Mod"...
in the 1974 rockRock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-musicalMusical theatreMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
version of The Phantom of the Opera, Brian De PalmaBrian De PalmaBrian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's Phantom of the ParadisePhantom of the ParadisePhantom of the Paradise is a 1974 musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust and also briefly references Frankenstein and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...
. - Edward PetherbridgeEdward PetherbridgeEdward Petherbridge is a British actor. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in several screen adaptations of Dorothy L...
, of the 1976 English play version. - Peter Straker in Ken Hill's musical version in 1984.
- David Staller in his own camp-musical stage version.
- Richard WhiteRichard White (actor)Richard White is an American actor, opera singer and voice actor. He is best known for voicing the character of Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and in the TV series House of Mouse....
in Yeston/Kopit's stage version.
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
See main list: The Phantom of the Opera- Michael CrawfordMichael CrawfordMichael Crawford OBE is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City...
in the original cast of the 1986 Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
musicalThe Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
. - Robert GuillaumeRobert GuillaumeRobert "Bob" Guillaume is an American stage and television actor, best known for his role as Benson Du Bois on the TV-series Soap and the spin-off Benson, voicing the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night...
- Colm WilkinsonColm WilkinsonColm Wilkinson is an Irish tenor, best known for originating the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera .Due to his association with these musicals, he reprised the role of...
(1989) - Anthony WarlowAnthony WarlowAnthony Warlow is an Australian opera and musical theatre performer, noted for his character acting and considerable vocal range ....
in Australian performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical (1990, 2007) - Rob GuestRob GuestRobert John Guest, OBE was a British born New Zealand-Australian actor and singer, best known for his work in Australian musical theatre, particularly in various productions of The Phantom of the Opera...
, who subsequent to Anthony Warlow, played the role a record 2,289 times in the Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2380411.htm - David Shannon, Stephen John DaviesStephen John DaviesStephen John Davies is an Australian hockey player.-References:*...
and David ShannonDavid ShannonDavid Shannon is an American author and illustrator. He was born in Washington, D.C but grew up in Spokane, Washington. He graduated from the Art Center College of Design and now lives in Los Angeles. Arguably his greatest achievement in life is the 1998 winning of the Caldecott Honor for his No,...
the current London Phantoms musicalThe Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
. - Hugh PanaroHugh Panaro-Life and career:Panaro was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and resided in the East Oak Lane section of the city with his family. As a schoolchild, he attended St. Helena’s parochial school in the adjoining Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney. He played organ for the parish church from age twelve...
the current Broadway Phantom musicalThe Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
. - Ramin KarimlooRamin KarimlooRamin Karimloo is an Iranian-born Canadian musical theatre actor, recognized chiefly for his work in London's West End. He has played the leading male roles in both of the West End’s longest running musicals; the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, as of 29th...
in the West EndWest End theatreWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production of the musical and the sequel (musical), which opened in 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre in London. - Tam Mutu in the Phantom sequel Love Never DiesLove Never DiesLove Never Dies may refer to:*Love Never Dies , an American silent drama directed by King Vidor*Love Never Dies , an Argentine romantic drama directed and written by Luis César Amadori...
, which opened in 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre in London. - Howard McGillinHoward McGillinHoward McGillin is a Tony-nominated stage, screen and television actor, perhaps best-known for being the world's longest running Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera....
the longest running Phantom The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the OperaLe Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910... - John Owen-JonesJohn Owen-JonesJohn Owen-Jones is a British musical theatre actor, best known for his portrayals of Jean Valjean in Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables and of The Phantom in Andrew Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. He most recently appeared as Valjean on the 25th Anniversary Tour of...
- Ted Keegan
- Steve BartonSteve BartonSteve Barton was an American actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, stage director and teacher.- Biography :Steven Neal Barton was born on June 26, 1954, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States, the youngest of three children of Tom and Mary Barton...
played the role as well as the original Raoul in London - Brad Little
- Gary MauerGary MauerGary Mauer is an actor who most recently starred in the third national tour of The Phantom of the Opera playing the role of the Phantom. On Broadway, Gary starred as Raoul, Vicomte de Chagney in Phantom and played the role of Enjolras in Les Misérables. He has also appeared in numerous regional...
- Davis Gaines
- Mark JacobyMark JacobyMark Jacoby is a Broadway performer. He has achieved fame from his leading roles in Show Boat, The Phantom of the Opera and Ragtime...
- Paul StanleyPaul StanleyStanley Harvey Eisen , better known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American hard rock guitarist, singer, musician, painter and songwriter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and primary lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's...
on stage in Toronto. (1999) - Kevin GrayKevin GrayKevin John Gray is an English footballer, playing as a defender for Workington.-Football career:He started his career at Mansfield Town signing as a trainee in July 1990 and had a successful four year period at Mansfiled...
- David Gaschen
- Robert Finalyson
- Peter KarriePeter KarriePeter Karrie , is a Welsh singer, best known for his portrayal of the lead role in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera. He played the part in London, Toronto, Vancouver, Singapore, Hong Kong and on the UK Tour in Bradford, and Manchester...
- Ethan Freeman
- Ciaran Sheehah
- John CudiaJohn CudiaJohn Cudia is a musical theatre actor who has played many of the biggest roles in musical theatre on Broadway. He was born on September 21, 1970 in North Carolina, but he graduated from Monsignor Donovan High School in Toms River, New Jersey....
- Thomas BorchertThomas BorchertThomas Borchert is a German actor, singer, and songwriter. He has performed especially in musical theatre.- Biography :...
- Zoltan Miller
- Earl Carpenter played the role in the London West End.
- Matthew Cammelle
Album
- Marco HietalaMarco HietalaMarko Tapani "Marco" Hietala is a heavy metal vocalist and bassist. Internationally, he is most known as the current bassist, male vocalist and composer, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish...
in NightwishNightwishNightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
's Century ChildCentury ChildCentury Child is the fourth studio album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released in 2002 by Spinefarm Records. It is the first album with current bassist and male vocalist Marco Hietala....
album (2002) - Tilo WolffTilo WolffTilo Wolff is a German musician currently living in Switzerland.His longest-running project is the band Lacrimosa, which since its debut in 1990 has produced 9 albums, which embrace a diverse range of gothic, darkwave and orchestral musical styles...
in Dreams of SanityDreams of SanityDreams of Sanity was a gothic metal band from Austria. Founded in 1991, they released three full-length albums, before disbanding in 2002. Many of their songs are about Buddha...
's album Masquerade
Popular culture
- In The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
, the Phantom appearance is the member of Les Hommes Mystérieux, an analogue of the League led by FantômasFantômasFantômas is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre .One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11...
. - In the SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
episode "Something Smells", SpongeBob plays dramatic music on an organ while wearing a cape, only to turn around and reveal his mask to be Groucho glasses. - In the Monster HighMonster HighMonster High is an American line of fashion dolls created by Garrett Sander with the illustrations done by Kellee Riley. They were officially released in July 2010 but made in 2007....
franchise, it is known that the Phantom himself teaches a music class. His fictitious daughter, Operetta, is also in attendance at the school. - The heavy metalHeavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Iron MaidenIron MaidenIron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
has a song called "The Phantom of the Opera" - The symphonic metalSymphonic metalSymphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g...
group NightwishNightwishNightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
preforms a cover of 'The Phantom of the Opera', the title song in Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's hit musical.