References to Popular Works in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera is a novel written by Gaston Leroux and published as a serial in Le Gaulois, a Parisian newspaper, between September of 1909 and January of 1910 (Freeman, “Le Gaulois”). Originally published in French, the novel first reached English-speaking audiences when it was translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos in 1911. Due to time constraints, de Mattos’s translation has many errors, ranging from mistranslated phrases to his omission of nearly 100 pages of text from the novel (Freeman, “Phantom Translations”). It is from this abridged version that British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber worked to adapt the novel to the stage to create his now-famous musical in 1986. Part of his reason for using this translation instead of a more recent and more accurate translation is that de Mattos’s translation is in the public domain. In Webber’s adaptation, the fictional company Opera Populaire puts on three operas during the course of the show. These operas are Hannibal, Il Muto, and Don Juan Triumphant. Each of these operas shows a definitive parallel to the well-known real operas Aida, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. In addition, as the musical progresses, …show more content…
In the original novel, Leroux presents the story as entirely true. A journalist by trade, Leroux based his characters on real people, such as contemporary soprano Christina Nilson. He details actual productions that the opera company had been performing at the time, including Faust. The climactic chandelier crash in the novel was based on an actual event in which the counterweights of the chandelier in the Palais Garnier fell. The novel is considered “faction” by many. While the specific events of the story may not have taken place, the locations and fundamental details Leroux builds his story on are, in fact, real (Perry
The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera is a novel written by Gaston Leroux and published as a serial in Le Gaulois, a Parisian newspaper, between September of 1909 and January of 1910 (Freeman, “Le Gaulois”). Originally published in French, the novel first reached English-speaking audiences when it was translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos in 1911. Due to time constraints, de Mattos’s translation has many errors, ranging from mistranslated phrases to his omission of nearly 100 pages of text from the novel (Freeman, “Phantom Translations”). It is from this abridged version that British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber worked to adapt the novel to the stage to create his now-famous musical in 1986. Part of his reason for using this translation instead of a more recent and more accurate translation is that de Mattos’s translation is in the public domain. In Webber’s adaptation, the fictional company Opera Populaire puts on three operas during the course of the show. These operas are Hannibal, Il Muto, and Don Juan Triumphant. Each of these operas shows a definitive parallel to the well-known real operas Aida, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. In addition, as the musical progresses, …show more content…
In the original novel, Leroux presents the story as entirely true. A journalist by trade, Leroux based his characters on real people, such as contemporary soprano Christina Nilson. He details actual productions that the opera company had been performing at the time, including Faust. The climactic chandelier crash in the novel was based on an actual event in which the counterweights of the chandelier in the Palais Garnier fell. The novel is considered “faction” by many. While the specific events of the story may not have taken place, the locations and fundamental details Leroux builds his story on are, in fact, real (Perry