Text/Ah Bin【Original】
Video loading...
The Phantom of the Opera, also known as The Phantom of the Opera/Phantom of the Opera," is one of the outstanding masterpieces of musical theatre master Andrew Lloyd Weber, who interprets a classic love thriller story with wonderful music, romantic plot, and perfect dance, and also makes Phantom of the Opera an eternal classic in musicals.
Phantom of the Opera is based on the Gothic romance novel of the same name by French writer Gaston Louis Alfred LeRoux. Shot into a movie several times. One of my favorites is the 2004 edition. The 2004 edition was co-written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joe Schumacher, directed by Joe Schumacher and starring Gerald Butler, Amy Rossam, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson and others. This edition is the most exciting.
1. Synopsis
The story tells a love story that took place in the 19th century at the Opera House in Paris, France. In 1882, legend has it that deep in the cellar of the opera house lived an ugly, masked, but learned musical genius. Abandoned by his parents as a child, he wears a mask and lives in the underground vault of the theater. For years, he was haunted, hiding from the scornful eyes of the world, and was called the "Phantom" (Jared Butler). He ghosted and caused all kinds of trouble, drove out the singers he hated, and even interfered in the arrangement of the main role of the opera house.
Inadvertently, Phantom discovers the unnamed singer Christine (Amy Rosam), who has an extraordinary musical talent. At any cost, The Phantom wants to train the young and beautiful Christine to be the principal opera soprano.
Initially, the Phantom was only a musical love on a spiritual level, but then gradually transformed into a strong possessiveness. The Phantom eliminated all the people who stood in the way of Christine's singing career.
Under the guidance of the Phantom, Christine really became popular. The theater's investor, Raul (Patrick Wilson), recognizes Christine as his childhood playmate, and the two quickly fall in love. When the Phantom discovers this, believing that Christine has betrayed him, he angrily cuts off the chains of the chandeliers on the stage of the theater, letting the ornate crystal lamps smash into the audience.
As the Phantom's destruction grew more frantic, Christine's feelings for him gradually shifted from reverence to fear. Six months later, Raul and Christine were secretly engaged, and Phantom suddenly appeared at the opera house's masquerade ball, forcing the opera house to perform his own composed opera "Don Juan", and named Christine as the heroine.
Distraught, Christine runs to her father's grave in the middle of the night to cry, and Raul vows to protect Christine from succumbing to the Phantom and fighting with her to the end.
On the day of the premiere of "Don Juan", the opera house was surrounded by policemen, and how did the phantom himself change his costume and play against Christine. At the climax of the play, Christine tore off the mask that the Phantom was wearing on her face in public. Embarrassed, the Phantom set out to abduct Christine to his underground chamber. Raul tracks him underground and confronts the Phantom, but is strangled by the Phantom with a rope, who asks Christine to agree to his marriage proposal.
In order to protect her lover Raul, Christine resolutely kissed the phantom and said goodbye to it. The desperate phantom sent away the two lovers, who were hugging each other tightly, and quietly disappeared before the police and the crowd broke into the underground chamber, leaving only a desolate mask.
Stills from the 2004 film
Second, artistic characteristics
First, the story is cleverly woven.
The novel is written in the first person, the author as a reporter to investigate and understand the phantom of the theater incident, as the interview deepened, finally learned the truth of the matter, and told the story of the haunted paris opera.
The film follows this form of the novel, but adapts it. The film begins when Count Shaney, the former manager of the theater, attends an auction at the theater's location. Two objects from that year were auctioned at auction, one was a music box in the form of an organ, and on it was a monkey doll wearing a Persian robe and beating cymbals. Count Shani photographed it. The second lot was the ornate chandelier of the opera house that year. As the drapery on the chandelier was pulled down, the film changed from black and white to a brilliant color film. The story begins.
The Phantom of the Opera is a play-within-a-play story, the Phantom has a troubled childhood, he has lived for many years in the underground of the theater crisscrossed by dark passages, he is haunted. He has a crush on the small character Christine, and the story of his own life makes the whole movie even more mysterious.
The ingenious play-within-a-play allows the audience to hover between reality and illusion, between beauty and ugliness, between wealth and poverty, between art and life, and between light and darkness. However, this "darkness" is not the ugliness of human nature, but rather arouses people's sympathy.
Especially in the scene of chasing the phantom, the whole theater, the stage and offstage, the ghost's affectionate singing sounded in all directions, so that the audience could see the ghost's inner emotions and be in it.
Second, the emotions are delicate and tangled.
Although "Phantom of the Opera" has a little horror and thrilling atmosphere, the whole musical adopts the musical language of an almost serious grand opera, fully displaying the beautiful, sincere and slightly sad love story between the two men and a woman, The Phantom, Christine and Raoul, blending the emotions of love and fantasy, poignant and moving.
Phantom's life deserves sympathy, and Christine and Raoul are childhood playmates, on the one hand, the artistic mentors she worships who helped her succeed, the boyfriend she admired since childhood, the noble art on the other hand, and the real life on the other, all three of them are caught in the vortex of contradictions.
In particular, the portrayal of Christine's emotional turn is delicate and subtle, and reasonable. Some people understand this story as the story of the rich and the ugly man competing for beauty, if it is understood in this way, it is plunged into a narrow secular situation, and it is impossible to see the nobility of art and the greatness of dedication to art, and it is also a misinterpretation of this excellent classic repertoire.
Third, the musical image is plump.
Adapted from a novel into a musical, filmed as a movie, and even a performance by the American Broadway Club, the art form has changed without changing its artistic quality. The music of the whole play is gorgeous, with both female arias and tenor soloists, both two people singing in duets and choruses of many people. Many of these are musical forms that sing and dance.
In particular, several classic singing segments in the play show the extraordinary artistic creativity of composers and music performers. The most prominent are "Thinking of Me", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Music of the Night", "I Want Nothing else" and so on.
In these singing segments, it is a good process from affectionate narration, emotional progression, death for love to a variety of emotions, reflecting the importance of character emotional expression in musical performances, and also allowing viewers to feel the soft and poignant Christine's kind character and selfless emotions.
Fourth, color is used properly.
The color changes at the beginning and end of the film. The film opens with an auction scene, which the director presents in black and white. The old man who was in the dark came to the dilapidated opera house to participate in the auction, and all the people and things were black and white, and everything seemed so cold.
When the auction reached the headlight, the gray overlay was lifted, and a gust of wind blew along with the music, the candles were lit one by one, the color of the picture changed to color, and what was shown to the audience was the prosperity of the theater.
At the end of the film, it is also shown in black and white, which forms a contrast between black and white and color. The director cleverly uses color contrast to create different time and space, narrating the present time and space and the past time and space respectively, conveying the theme of love tragedy.
Third, artistic influence
In the United States, "Phantom of the Opera" is an enduring Broadway classic musical, and eight generations of musical theater superstars have starred in the male and female protagonists of the play, including Fei Xiang, who is familiar to Chinese audiences.
Phantom of the Opera has also been made into a film several times. Such as the 1925 edition, the 1943 edition, the 2004 classic edition and the latest edition in 2019.
As early as 1990, the film "Phantom of the Opera" was included in the plan and ready to enter the filming stage. At that time, the production company hoped that the two main actors of the original stage play, Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, would continue to star in the film. But just before filming began, the film's writer and producer, Andrew Lloyd Webb, and the film's original heroine, Sarah Brightman, fell into an emotional crisis and eventually divorced, which forced the filming of the film to be postponed indefinitely.
In 2002, the shooting schedule was put on the agenda again, and the production company preferred the director to Shega Keppel. But as early as the planning period of the 90s, Joe Schumacher had become the most suitable director in The mind of Andrew Lloyd Weber, and at his insistence Joe Schumacher eventually took over the directorial work.
Due to everyone's love for "Phantom of the Opera", in June 2018, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group and the British Real Good Group joined hands to hold the "Phantom China Plan" strategic conference at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. The "Phantom China Project" includes the production and tour of the Chinese version of "Phantom of the Theatre", and the English version of "Phantom of the Theatre" is also touring China.
"Phantom of the Theatre" is also a clip of major music groups competing to sing. In the 2019 Hunan Satellite TV's "Sound into People's Hearts" program, Ayunga and Zheng Yunlong jointly sang the singing section "Phantom of the Theater" in "Phantom of the Theater"; and then Zhou Shen sang the singing section "Thinking of Me" in "Phantom of the Theatre" in the "Phantom of the Theatre" program again. It can be seen how much everyone loves it.
Classics are classics, and classics always radiate its light. Its powerful artistic appeal makes it popular and radiant forever.
(Original is not easy, please contact the author for reprinting)