The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

This performance was directed by Nick Morris and Laurence Connor in 2011 and sold as a DVD for the 25th anniversary of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most famous musical: "The Phantom of the Opera". It tells the story of a disfigured musical genius hidden away in the Paris Opera House, who terrorises the opera company for the unwitting benefit of a young protegee whom he trains and loves. 

It stars Ramin Karimloo as Erik [the Phantom], Sierra Boggess as Christine Daae and Hadley Fraser in the role of Raoul the Chagny. 

Again this may be a little bit long - yet not nearly as long as the Love Never Dies review.

Well as some of you may know by now, the Phantom of the Opera is one of my favourite musicals. And movies. And books... and everything else too. So, the very moment I saw the DVD of the 25th Anniversary I had to buy it. I had seen the 2004 version directed by Joel Schumacher and I had also seen it live on Broadway. Yet my memories of those pale before the magnificence of this production. 

With the excuse of their 25th anniversary, the producers 'threw the house out of the window' as we say in Spain. 120 actors take part in this grand production, instead of the 50 actors who normally form the crew of the Phantom of the Opera on the West End and Broadway. Among them was Sergei Polunin - one of the best dancers in the British Royal Ballet. In order to show him off, the meddling of the Managers in the ballet scene at the beginning of the musical was cut short, replaced by a beautiful ballet led by Polunin.

As he title says, this was filmed live at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a concert hall and not a theatre. Other anniversary productions of musicals, like Les Miserables 10th and 25th anniversary concerts where also staged in the Royal Albert Hall. The difference between those and this production is that Les Miserables was staged as a concert, and the Phantom as the musical.

The main change there had to be made was the fall of the chandelier, which is a key point in any 'Phantom movie'. Normaly the chandelier would plunge down to the stage, nearly gracing the audience. Yet this couldn't be done for fear that the chandelier plunged actually ontop of some poor fellow of the audience. So they made a pretty shiny explosion instead. It's not really bad, but it's not the same as seeing the thing falling down. 

Another problem for the staging is the lack of the basic infrastructure as for example a decent backstage, orchestra pit and props. The second point forced the use of screens as backgrpund images. They make a  rather decent substitute except for a few moments. I don't really like how it looks in the short shots. But it's acceptable. The screens helped giving the audience that was watching the musical live close ups on the phantom - for example in the Masquerade scene, which is pretty cool and considerate for those sitting far away from the stage.


They also did a great job with the location of the orchestra. The background was divided in two section and between both sat the orchestra, so tath you can see the conductor in all general shots. Plus they put some beautiful shots of the muscicians. I really love those shots as they are proof that the music isn't just played on a CD but live. In the DVD of Love Never Dies, you can't see neither the orchestra nor the audience, and it sort of gives the sensatione that it's been faked.

Anyway, another great thing about this production is the cast.
The Phantom is played by Ramin Karimloo, Christine is Sierra Boggess and Raoul is Hadley Fraser.
As I've said before, this is my favourite phantom cast. And yes I've listened to the original cast with Michel Crawford, Sara Brightman and Steve Barton.

I think that Ramin's interpretation is just badass rock'n roll and his screaming-singing voice gives me shudders. Plus his acting in 'Point of no Return' and 'The Final Lair' are both so full of feeling, that one can only feel pitty for the poor fellow. Take notice of how his hands tremble, it's just cute.
The makeup of the phantom is the same used in Broadway and the West End and it's pretty impressive. It only covers half the face of the actor - instead of all the face as it is described in the book, but it looks nasty as hell and waaaay better than the 2004 version, which isn't worth the bother.

Moving on we get to Sierra Boggess. The actress has the hell of a strong voice and a believable scared face. She's very pretty too. I love her as Christine in both this movie and the sequel. The best song in the whole production  is sung by Boggess: 'Whishing you where somehow here again', which gets one whole minute ovation. The longest ovation during the   whole performance.

As I said Raoul de Chagny is played by Hadley Fraser, who played Tiernan in The Pirate Queen. He has a sweet air about himself that makes him automaticly likeable. I think he's interpretation is really close to the image that appears in the book. I like his voice alright. I like Steve Barton's voice better, but I think that  Fraser's pitch is more suitable to Bartons in this role.  [I'd like to remember everybody that my knowledge of music is close to null, so don't light your torches yet].

Carlotta Guidiclli is played by Wendy Ferguson, and she's very, very cool. Her acting is good, and at least in this version one understands the lyrics of Notes and Prima Donna', which is something that can't be said from the 2004 version in which it's all a strange cacophony of very loud and high notes. Ferguson's faces show plainly what she's thinking all the time. And her expression at the las "once more" at he end of 'Prima Donna'.

Other characters I really like are Monsieur Firmin (played by Barry James) and Monsieur André (by Gareth Snook).  The comic relieve is very accomplished, and I really liked in some of their scenes. And a very big plus is the lack of French accent in Madame Giry, played by Liz Robertson.

The camera work is very nice, it really shows off the great stage, the big effort put in all sets and costumes and acting, without neglecting showing some shots into the orchestra and the audience.
The costumes and make up alone are worth the whole two plus hours of this movie.

Finally I'd like to say a few words about the story and the songs. Altough I love the Phantom of the Opera, I have to admit that the book is not one of the best written ones and that the musical is most deffinitively not the best one. The plot has some nice holes in it. The music is rather repetitive - if you've listened to the first act, you pretty much know every song that comes in the second one. The whole thing relays heavily on the sentimantalism and shinny presentation rather than on a good script.

All in all I love this movie, this musical and this story. I really recomend it to you, you should deffinitively check it out. And if you have some doubts between wathching this or the 2004 version, I really, really encourage you in watching - if you really must - first the 2004 version. If you watch this one and then the 2004, you're up to a mayor disappointment.
You've been warned.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TRAILER