Notes on Gaston Leroux‘s “The Phantom of the Opera“ - The Reading Guide

Thanks everyone who has been following my „Notes“ on the Gaston Leroux novel, and I hope you‘ve enjoyed them!

For those who haven't read them yet - they are really for everyone, no matter if you already love the book as much as I do, or if you‘re confused or struggling with it, or just want a summary of what happens. They give a summary and analysis of each chapter in the novel, and were originally written as a companion for a read-along of Leroux.

The interpretation is of course my own - and yours can be different - but I try to base it on what is there in the text as much as possible. It is based on the translation by Lowell Bair, so those who have read the de Mattos version will come across some passages (some of them pretty crucial) that are not in that version since it has been heavily abbreviated.

Thanks again to everyone who liked and reblogged the notes - it means a lot!!

“The Phantom of the Opera“ by Gaston Leroux - List of chapters

Foreword

Chapter 1 “Was It the Ghost?“

Chapter 2 „The New Marguerite“

Chapter 3 „In which, for the first time, Debienne and Poligny secretly give the new managers of the Opera, Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard, the real and mysterious reason for their departure from the National Academy of Music“

Chapter 4 „Box Five“

Chapter 5 „Continuation of ‚Box Five‘“

Chapter 6 „The Enchanted Violin“

Chapter 7 „A Visit to Box Five“

Chapter 8 “In Which Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Dare to Have “Faust” Performed in a “Cursed” Opera House, and We See the Frightful Consequences”

Chapter 9 „The Mysterious Brougham“

Chapter 10 „At the Masked Ball“

Chapter 11 „You Must Forget the Name of ‚The Man‘s Voice‘“

Chapter 12 „Above the Trapdoors“

Chapter 13 „Apollo‘s Lyre“

Chapter 14 „A Masterstroke by the Lover of Trapdoors“

Chapter 15 „The Singular Behavior of a Safety Pin“

Chapter 16 „Christine! Christine!“

Chapter 17 „Astonishing Revelations by Madame Giry, Concerning Her Personal Relations with the Opera Ghost“

Chapter 18 „Continuation of ‚The Singular Behavior of a Safety Pin‘“

Chapter 19 „The Policeman, the Viscount, and the Persian“

Chapter 20 „The Viscount and the Persian“

Chapter 21 „In the Cellars of the Opera“

Chapter 22 „Interesting and Instructive Tribulations of a Persian in the Cellars of the Opera“

Chapter 23 „In the Torture Chamber“

Chapter 24 „The Tortures Begin“

Chapter 25 „Barrels! Barrels! Any Barrels to Sell?“

Chapter 26 „The Scorpion or the Grasshopper?“

Chapter 27 „End of the Ghost‘s Love Story“

Epilogue

Lost Chapter: The Magic Envelope

Hello and sorry for taking so long to answer! This is a very interesting ask. Let‘s have a look at the scene first where she says so. The dialogue takes place in chapter 2, where Raoul overhears it while eavesdropping outside Christine‘s dressing room:

The man‘s voice spoke again: „You must be tired.“ „Oh yes! Tonight I gave you my soul, and I am dead.“ „Your soul is very beautiful, my child,“ said the man‘s deep voice, „and I thank you. No emperor ever received such a gift! The angels wept tonight.“

After her gala performance, Christine was so weak that she had to be carried of the stage. She gave everything in that performance, and the „I‘m dead“ means that she is, literally, completely and utterly exhausted — both mentally and physically.

The „I gave you my soul“ expresses how much of her heart she put into the performance — and she did so for Erik, who is still the „Angel“ to her at this point. As the critic wrote, „he had to assume that she had just fallen in love for the first time“.

When Erik taught Christine to sing, it was not just about perfecting her technique. It was more about unlocking her soul, her passion that lay buried beneath all the grief over her father‘s death. During the gala night, Christine was able to channel all those emotions into her singing, and she did so for Erik. In the French text, she says „ce soir, je vous ai donné mon âme“, and what I find interesting is that this phrase is implicitely mirrored by Erik later. In „At the Masked Ball“, Erik sings „Nuit d‘Hyménée“, the wedding night song from „Roméo et Juliette“ when coming for Christine, and one of the lines is „Je t‘ai donné mon âme“…

(If you haven‘t listened to it yet, DO IT! It‘s a lovely song, and this one comes with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X8LsHwJXfA)

Thank you for the ask, @night-unfurls-its-splendour!

First off, there is unfortunately, no flawless translation of Phantom. I know that Coward is widely recommended as the most complete translation since it is based on the first edition of the novel (as is Ribière). Bair, on the other hand, is based on a later edition, which is missing some phrases from the first edition, but the differences are fairly minor - absolutely not comparable to the huge chunks of text missing from de Mattos. On the plus side, this later edition had some of the errors from the first edition corrected - such as the „fatal rocher“, which in Leroux says:

Il avait bien l‘air alors du fatal rocher, avec ses yeux d‘or en plus.

„Rocher“ here is a typo though, and is actually supposed to be „nocher“. Coward translates it as such:

He loomed with the menace of a wrecking rock, except that rocks don‘t have yellow eyes.

In Bair, it sounds like this:

Except for his golden eyes, he looked like the grim ferryman of the Styx.

It is a minor detail here, but in Leroux and Bair, Erik‘s eyes are „golden“, while Coward calls them „yellow“. There are many little instances where I find Coward‘s Erik to be a little less sympathetic that Leroux‘s and Bair‘s. When reminded of the „rosy hours“, Coward Erik is just „sobered“, while Leroux Erik is „triste“ and Bair Erik „sad“. Overall, my reason for recommending Bair is that I feel he is more faithful to Leroux‘s exact words, while Coward takes more liberties with the text (although less than Ribière). I also find Coward‘s style to be less pleasing to read, but that is a personal preference.

Another example from „Apollo‘s Lyre“:

Leroux:

Apprenez alors que chacun de mes voyages auprès d‘Érik a augmenté mon horreur pour lui, car chacun de ces voyages, au lieu de l‘apaiser comme je l‘espérais, l‘a rendu fou d‘amour!

Bair gives the following rendition of the phrase:

Let me tell you that each of my visits to Erik increased my horror of him, because each of them, instead of calming him as I hoped, made him even more madly in love with me.

While Coward writes:

Each time I go back to Erik I hate him more… Each visit, instead of calming him down as I hoped, makes him even more obsessed with me!

Christine doesn‘t say anywhere that she „hates him more“ in the original text. In fact, „hate“ is an especially bad choice here because a few pages before, Christine explicitely explains that Erik fills her with horror, and yet she does not hate him. She even asks „How could I hate him?“ This is again a detail, but it is quite an important one in how the relationship between them in conveyed to the reader.

I could list more examples, but I hope this has given you an idea of why I prefer Bair over Coward.

Phantom Trieste Review (July 6, 2023)

Ramin Karimloo, Amelia Milo, Bradley Jaden

We went to see Phantom in Trieste on July 6, 2023. My husband and I met up with three other phan friends to see the show, which started at 9 pm. I‘m trying my best to remember the details and all my impressions of the show to give you an idea of what the show was like, please pardon any inaccuracies though if my memory fails me.

The Rossetti theater is gorgeous both outside and inside. There were two merch stands, one on the ground floor and one next to the entrance to the auditorium on the first floor. They unfortunately did not have the magic mug even though it was only the third night. There was a free programme as well, but no souvenir brochure. We were seated in the stalls in Row 6 left of the center, which had a fairly good view except for some restrictions caused mostly by some unfortunate staging.

Ramin was the undisputed star of the show, with an absolutely dominating stage presence and great acting. It also doesn’t hurt that he is still an incredibly attractive Phantom - not just physically, but there’s something so very passionate about him that just gives him a special edge. Amelia Milo was a bit of a „little mouse“ Christine, with a good voice but not too much character. She was also one of those Christines who felt like they didn’t really want to be with either the Phantom or Raoul. Bradley Jaden was a fairly aggressive and dominant Raoul. Honourable mention for Earl Carpenter who was a great Monsieur André - in my view, this role fits him better than the Phantom, actually.

Overall, we had a phantastic time and very much enjoyed the show, it was definitely worth seeing. It was my first time seeing a non-replica live, so it was quite interesting to see all the differences. Not all were good, but there were definitely some great ideas, pretty cool immersive elements and interesting takes.

The chandelier was not hoisted up over the audience during the Overture, but just to the top of the revolving frame on stage. Once it was up, several characters such as the managers, Buquet, Meg and dome dancers moved across the stage separately to account for the shorter duration required for the ascension of the chandelier.

The auction scene was staged in front of a large backdrop picturing the decrepit ruins of the Opera House. Several rows of chairs were facing away from the audience, so it was not easy for me to make out where Raoul and Madame Giry were actually sitting at first. The monkey music box looked similar to the movie one but with a green hat. When the music played, the guy holding it stopped turning the handle, I don‘t think that was intended though. It looked a bit strange. When Raoul was handed the music box, he turned halfway round so the audience could see his face better. While the scene did look interesting, everyone’s positioning made it seem a little more awkward than in the original.

During Hannibal, the stage (which is fairly small) looked very crowded - I almost expected the ballerinas to step onto each others’ feet. Carlotta was super dramatic, both in her singing and acting, and she looked as if she was constantly pouting. Piangi looked a bit disheveled, and my impression was that he could not remember all of the lyrics and made them up as he went. There was no elephant, they had a palanquin instead, and Piangi tried (and failed) to climb into it.

During „Think of me“, Bradley‘s microphone failed, so we could barely hear Raoul‘s part. During the song, Christine didn’t move around much like she does in the original with her scarf, but stood in the center while the stage revolved. I‘m not sure if it was the acting or direction but she seemed very static in many scenes.

The mirror in the dressing room was mounted on one end of the revolving stage and was rather hard to see from our seats - we saw it almost from the side, which also made it difficult to see the Phantom appear in the mirror. We had good seats otherwise, so this restricted view was really unnecessary and caused by the staging. This is definitely something that would be good to fix further on because it makes you lose out unexpectedly on one of the crucial scenes. At first, I wondered how the mirror scene would even happen because Christine‘s desk and chair were standing right in front of the mirror so she couldn‘t simply walk in. Turns out that she did indeed have to climb onto the chair and desk to be able to step into the mirror, which seemed a bit risky.

The title song had doubles, and there was of course a gondola ride, but no candles or candelabras rising from the ground. The Phantom wore a cape with red lining, which gave him some vampire vibes, and no hat. Towards the end of the song, an organ rose from the front center stage and then moved backwards. It was shaking a bit while it moved which from up close gave it an air of papier-mâché, but is (probably) not as obvious from further away. The lair used a backdrop of a labyrinth of stairs, as the cellars of the opera are sometimes depicted (but which is quite far from reality).

For the first half of MOTN, Ramin sat on the bench in front of the organ, looking very sexy, but his positioning made the song feel like more of an exposition for Erik instead of Erik addressing Christine. Again, Christine just stood around for most of the song doing nothing in particular, and the Phantom was shyly trying to approach her as the song went on, but she shied away from his touch. And then, in what might be my least favourite part of this show, Erik grabbed one of the candles on the organ and blew it out towards Christine, who staggered and then fell into his arms for „floating, falling“. I hated it because he essentially drugged this girl who did not want to be touched and could only hold her when she was basically passed out. Taking away Christine‘s consent at that point felt like a bad choice to me, and it was even worse than playing a „hypnotized“ Christine. There was no mirror bride. The Phantom then put her to sleep in a simple, narrow four-poster bed and covered her with a bedsheet.

The design for „Il Muto“ was again reminiscent of the movie version with pretty pastel colours both for the costumes and the large backdrop. There was no bed, and the spray for Carlotta was brought onto the stage, like in the movie. Carlotta didn‘t really give a toad-like croak, it sounded more as if she had simply lost her voice. During the ballet, the Phantom swung across the stage on a rope twice in the background in what is apparently known as the „tarzan move“. It was pretty hilarious and Ramin looked as if he was having the time of his life, but it took away some of the Phantom’s menace in this scene.

When Christine and Raoul had reached the rooftop, Christine moved dangerously close to the edge in what seemed to imply that she was contemplating suicide. She didn’t even pay attention to Raoul, who sat down on the edge of the roof, moving away whenever he tried to touch her hand, and sang the first half of the song into the void without so much as looking at him once. Oddly, it seemed even as if she was singing this song for someone other than Raoul, someone she had just realized she could never reasonably be with… I honestly don‘t think they were going for that interpretation (or were they?), but I‘ve never perceived this scene like this before. Her silence after Raoul‘s „Christine, I love you“ has also never felt quite as deafening to me.

The chandelier did not drop over the audience, but there were very cool “fake fire” effects on it, and Ramin swung down on it, standing on it like on a giant swing. Before the chandelier could swing back, the lights went out for the intermission so it really did look like a very spectacular drop.

„Masquerade/Why so silent“ was one of the most interesting scenes to watch. The scene opened as usual with André and Firmin bumping into each other, but instead of his skeleton costume, Firmin revealed a frilly pink dress underneath his cloak. There was gold glitter falling down into the audience, and then the actors came onto the stage one by one in costumes, each dancing with a mannequin, which resulted in a fairly large crowd. Christine wore a dress that looked like a mixture between the wedding dress, the original masquerade costume and Belle‘s ball gown from „Beauty and the Beast“. She and Raoul danced on stage during Masquerade, but then moved down into the audience afterwards.

There was no staircase, and the Phantom‘s Red Death was a red cloak with a hood pulled over the head. I liked that his costume reminded me of the art often done for Edgar Allan Poe‘s original short story. Everyone started closing in around him, but then the double beneath the cloak vanished, and Ramin was standing right in front of the people in the first row and tore Christine‘s ring from her neck before vanishing again through a trapdoor. This was really cool!

When Raoul made Mme Giry tell him about the Phantom‘s story, he full-on screamed in her face. The scene had a backdrop of the starry outline of a carnival and reminded me a bit of the original London version of LND.

For Notes II, Christine wore one of her prettiest costumes, a lighter version of the Wishing gown. In this version, it is made somewhat clearer that Raoul gently but decisively coerces Christine into performing in “Don Juan”, and that she kind of resigns into following his orders. At the end of the Don Juan sitzprobe, the scene in the background had everyone in a kind of backlit slow-motion brawl with the chairs being „thrown“ around, while in the foreground, Christine just stood in the middle of the stage for the violin part.

There were snowflakes falling from the ceiling for „Wishing“, and a large backdrop picturing the graveyard, but no Daaé crypt. Vocally, Amelia‘s „Wishing“ was good, but again she was too static, she didn‘t move much, and she conveyed much less emotion than she could have. And then - enter the Phantom Angel! Christine kneels once again before him, echoing the mirror scene, and the Phantom is standing at the back of the stage, wearing a pair of raven-feather wings. It‘s a mixture of impressive and cheesy, but it gets fairly scary when instead of shooting fireballs, he throws (very loud) thunder and lightning like an actual angel while he is being suspended in mid-air!

The PONR costumes were probably my least favourite costumes. The Phantom wore a greenish-brown cloak with some embroidery, and Christine wore a reddish dress that was not very flattering on her figure. At the end of the song, it was not Christine removing the Phantom‘s hood this time, but instead it was Erik himself who slowly took off his hat and revealed his masked face to Christine. Everyone jumped but Christine held them back. This was a very poignant moment because it reflected Erik‘s desperation and at the same time, it felt like a plea to Christine to *see* him. Unlike other non-replicas, it was Christine who, as usual, unmasked him after he put the ring on her finger.

Amelia did not change into a wedding dress for the Final Lair, but Ramin held out what looked like a dress to her before he arranged the veil on her head and put the bouquet into her hands.

The Phantom’s deformity used prosthetics, and the skin is very reddish, giving one side of his face a skull-like appearance. His grey hair was a bit fuller and shorter than the wispy strands he had in the 25th anniversary.

One of the most noticeable elements of the Final Lair was Shirtless Raoul. It is not explained how he lost his shirt, but managed to keep his pants and suspenders on. In my view, it would have been much more logical for Raoul to lose his pants while swimming in the lake. I now want to see a Final Lair with Raoul in his shirt and his underpants. He also doesn‘t have shoes on (which makes more sense). With the lasso, the Phantom really hangs Raoul on the bedpost this time, and he really seems to be dangling in mid air and gasping for breath, which raised the stakes for the scene and made Christine’s need to actually save Raoul more pressing.

The kiss was good but not spectacular. Afterwards, Christine immediately looked at Raoul, who was hanging quite limply from the bedpost by then - which was understandable given the more acute danger he was in, but also makes the kiss seem less genuine because that moment where both of them are overwhelmed by what they just experienced was missing. It really felt more like something she did to save Raoul, which is a valid interpretation, but certainly not my favourite.

Christine also doesn‘t return the ring to the Phantom - she enters and it semed as if she wanted to approach him, but then she changed her mind and just left it for him, as if unable to face him.

There is no throne, so when the mob approached, the Phantom hid underneath the bedsheets of the little four-poster bed. That was unexpectedly moving to see, because it made him seem like a little child hiding from the world. One of the pursuers pointed a gun on where he was supposedly lying, but when he pulled away the sheet, the Phantom had disappeared. All that remained was his mask, which was then picked up by Meg and passed on to Madame Giry, who held it up. Then the curtain fell.

Ramin was awarded with standing ovations, and it was nice to see the chandelier in the curtain call on stage as well. There was a huge crowd at the stage door, and I was lucky to get a programme signed by Ramin (actually, my husband got it signed for me because I was too short to see much 😅...).

Overall, I’m so very happy that I was able to see this production, and would have loved to see it again because you inevitably miss things in a single viewing. Maybe I’ll see it again in Madrid….😇

If there‘s anything else you want to know, ask away 😊!

The Musée Grévin, which Christine mentions in Leroux‘s novel, is home to the "Palais des Mirages", the inspiration for Erik's torture chamber. It was constructed in 1908 as a copy of the same room that was first exhibited at the World Exposition in 1900. This giant kaleidoscope was invented by the engineer Eugène Hénard and is built almost exactly the same as the Persian describes the torture chamber in the novel:

"We were in the middle of a small hexagonal room. All six of its walls were covered with mirrors from top to bottom. Clearly visible in the corners were segments of mirrors attached to drums that could be rotated."

Just like the description suggests, the room consists of 6 large mirrors and 6 smaller, rotating segments in the corners. The light show that creates the kaleidoscope effects lasts for about 2 minutes.

Contrary to what the ALW musical suggests, it‘s not a „maze of mirrors“, it‘s really just one small room that is made to look bigger by the effects of the mirrors.

The Palais des Mirages has been recently redesigned with a new show, which also includes a "jungle" theme by artist Eriko Nagata. That was really cool to see because it gives a much clearer idea about how Erik's own "African jungle/desert" could have looked like.

Roméo et Juliette

The Opéra de la Bastille in Paris (the Garnier's sister venue) is currently putting on a production of Gounod's opera "Roméo et Juliette" that has some serious Phantom vibes going on!

"Roméo et Juliette" is one of the major operas that are referenced in Gaston Leroux's novel. It is cited in two scenes: In Chapter 2 "The New Marguerite", Christine sings some pieces from the opera, including the final death scene ("Seigneur! Seigneur! Pardonnez-nous!", which are the last words of the opera). But the most memorable scene is probably when in Chapter 10, Erik comes for Christine singing the wedding-night song, "Nuit d'hyménée", from which the line "La destinée t'enchaîne a moi sans retour" (originally "m'enchaîne a toi") is quoted three times as Christine follows Erik through the mirror and leaves a baffled Raoul behind in her dressing-room.

For the staging in this new production, the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier has been recreated and serves as the central setpiece for the entire action. The opera also opens with a masked-ball scene, and even the costumes are reminiscent of the "white, black, red" colour scheme of the masked ball scene in Leroux.

Other design elements of the Palais Garnier - even the balcony scene takes place on a balcony that looks just like the ones in the Garnier's entrance hall!

I am super happy to see one of the "Leroux operas" being staged in such a Phantom-y fashion! Too bad I will not be able to see it :((...

A Visit to Box Five

Thanks to my lovely friend, I finally had the chance to experience a performance from Box Five! It was a fantastic experience to share with another phan - and we were lucky that there were no other people in the box with us, because we went crazy during every intermission :)... Even though we did not bring the cane recommended by Leroux, we still tried our best to knock on the marble pillar. And if you knock on the metal base, it does indeed sound hollow!

Next to the marble pillar, you can also clearly see the ledge where Erik left items for Madame Giry. The wallpaper in this box has been restored to its original look, which you can also see in detail below.