The Phantom of the Opera is a novel by Gaston Leroux, inspired by George du Maurier's Trilby. Published in 1910, and first translated into English in 1911, it has since been adapted many times into film and stage productions.

The story is about a mysterious figure who terrorizes the Paris Opera House for the unwitting benefit of a young singer he loves.

Plot

The Phantom of The Opera is a gothic novel - combining romance, horror, mystery and tragedy.

In Leroux's original 1910 novel, the setting is 19th century Paris at the Opera Garnier, a luxurious and monumental building which has been built over a huge underground lake. The employees claim that the opera house is haunted by a mysterious ghost who causes a variety of accidents. The "Opera Ghost" ("le fantôme de l'Opéra") blackmails the opera manager to pay him a monthly retainer of 20,000 francs and reserve for him a private concert booth.

Meanwhile, the young diva Christine Daaé (believed to be inspired and guided by an Angel of Music supposedly sent by her father) achieves sudden prominence on the opera stage when she replaces the current prima donna Carlotta, who has twice necessitated replacement due to a mysterious illness. Christine wins the hearts of the audience, including that of her childhood sweetheart, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny.

The Phantom then becomes envious of her relationship with Raoul and invites her to visit him down in his dungeon world beneath the edifice. Christine accepts, and down in the catacombs learns that her angel is in actuality a deformed musical genius who wears a mask to hide his abhorrent face. She screams in horror once she beholds his true visage, and the Phantom locks her in his dungeon, agreeing to free her only after she promises to return to him of her own free will.

Christine is torn between her love of young and charming vicomte Raoul and her fascination with the Phantom's darkly beautiful music. When she realizes that her angel is also the Opera Ghost responsible for the accidents and murders, she and Raoul decide to marry in secret and run away from Paris -- and the Phantom's reach.

The Phantom discovers their plan and during Christine's last show, as lead in an opera of his own conception, kidnaps her and takes her back to his dungeon. Down in the Phantom's dungeon, the last confrontation between the Phantom, Christine and Raoul takes place.

Who Is the Phantom?

The Phantom was born as Erik to an opera singer. He had grotesque facial deformities as a result of complications in his birth, which were also reponsible for the early death of his mother. Following his orphanhood, he was sold to a traveling circus freak show and traveled around Europe and Asia. There he acquired his acrobatic and musical skills and sharpened his twisted genius.

Eventually, he ended up as court jester and personal-engineer to the Persian Shah and built for him sophisticated traps and torture devices (such as the Punjab Lasso). After some time, the Shah feared that Erik knew too much and decided to dispose of him. The Phantom managed to escape to France and reach an agreement with the Shah: he would stay in Paris under watch of an agent of the Shah, and in return for his silence he would be paid monthly and not be disturbed.

Erik used his architectural genius skills and won a contract as one of the architects of Paris' La Garnier Opera House. Without anyone noticing, he pumped and drained the underground water into an underground lake and built a maze of tunnel and corridors. Past the underground lake he built a lair for himself, where he could live protected from the public.

Besides being a briliant inventor and engineer, Erik was also a musical genius, and he started to visit the Opera House in order to listen to operas and interfere with the manager's bad taste. Because he could not show his face in public, he took the guise of a ghost, using violence (arranging lethal "accidents") in order to blackmail the Opera managers and bind them to his will. He exploited the employees' superstitions and his knowledge about the building's secret passages, allowing him access to every part of the building without being noticed. He terrorized those who refused his demands and even killed people as warnings. However, he treated nicely those who were loyal to him and obeyed his command (such as Madam Giry).

The story of the novel begins when a young chorus girl named Christine Daaé joins the Opera's chorus and Erik, the Phantom, falls in love.

Adaptations

Stage

• The Phantom of the Opera (1984): Musical by Ken Hill, with lyrics set to music by Gounod, Offenbach, Verdi, and others
• The Phantom of the Opera (1986): Musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber
• The Phantom of the Opera: Musical by Helen Grigal(book and lyrics) and Eugene Anderson (music). Produced by the Oregon Ridge Dinner Theater in cooperation with the Baltimore Actor's Theater. Director/Chroeographer: Helen Grigal.
• Phantom (1991): Musical by Maury Yeston (music and lyrics) and Arthur Kopit (text)

Movies

• The Phantom of the Opera (1925): Featuring Lon Chaney, Sr.
• Phantom of the Opera (1943): Featuring Claude Rains
• Phantom of the Horse Opera (1961): A Woody Woodpecker cartoon
• The Phantom of the Opera (1962): Hammer Horror version featuring Herbert Lom
• The Phantom of the Paradise (1974): Also called The Phantom of the Fillmore; a rock musical directed by Brian De Palma
• The Phantom of the Opera (1989): Faustian horror movie re-working featuring Robert Englund
• Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998): Directed by Dario Argento
• The Phantom of the Opera (2004): Big screen version of the Lloyd Webber musical, with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum

Novels

• Phantom by Susan Kay, a retelling of the Phantom's life
• The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth, a sequel (to the Lloyd Webber musical rather than to the original novel)
• The Canary Trainer by Nicholas Meyer, a Sherlock Holmes novel which re-interprets Leroux's plot
• Maskerade by Terry Pratchett, a Discworld novel that parodies the story

Song

• A heavy metal song by the band Iron Maiden about the book was recorded for the Iron Maiden album, released in 1980.

• Heavy metal band Iced Earth wrote a song titled "The Phantom Opera Ghost," released in 2001.

• Metal band Nightwish recorded a cover version of the title track from Lloyd Webber's musical, and released it on the 2002 album Century Child.

External links

• Free eBook of The Phantom of the Opera (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/175) at Project Gutenberg

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