The greatest consolation (and the highlight of this month) for me from all the stress I have been having is watching Andrew Lloyd Webber's broadway musical, The Phantom of the Opera at the Singapore Esplanade Theatre. Me and my friends have long been waiting for this day to arrive. We have bought our tickets five months in advance.
My fascination with The Phantom of the Opera started in High School. I had some classmates who were so into broadway musicals and particularly, my classmate, Jimmy, was a fanatic and as I was his pseudo slave during Grade 7(1st yr highschool), I had no choice but hear him sing this musical's songs over and over again (peace, Jimmy!).I did not know the story actually, I have not read the novel it was based from (Le Fantôme de l’Opéra , a French novel by Gaston Leroux) but I fell in love with its music and I remember I tried playing two of the songs on the piano while I sing (oh yeah, step back Alicia Keys, hehehe). So"Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" have become my favorites as they were the songs from the musical I got familiar with. In Grade 9 (3rd year high school), each class was to perform an excerpt of a broadway musical. Our class performed (the very sad) Les Miserables, but I was much in awe to the section who performed The Phantom of the Opera, I became more fascinated with this musical as I got to know the synopsis of the story. They did the scene at the boat where the Phantom was taking Christine to his underground hideaway.
A few months ago, I saw a DVD of The Phantom of the Opera movie at the gym I go to so I rented it out, watched it and that was it! After seeing the whole story and hearing all the songs, I have declared to myself that I have indeed fallen in love with this musical. It has this magical feeling of elegance and beauty that lingers on. I rented out the same DVD at the same gym at another time, I was just hooked. Thanks also to Chuvanescense for giving me his VCD copy, I can now watch the movie over and over again. I just had a little reservation though, because knowing that I will be watching the broadway play soon, I was not sure if watching the movie would do me good since I would now have a point of comparison. We know that movies are different from plays in that movies can have take twos, threes or more to make the movie perfect plus the locations can be chosen and special effects of computer graphics can be utilized, but in live plays they are only allowed take ones, notwithstanding the challenge of changing backdrops and props along the different scenes.
So yes, I did have expectations before watching the play because I have seen the movie and I was wondering if the play would have the same magical feeling that the movie could give since I was not sure how the play would create the effects that was done in the movie. After watching the play though, I was gladly surprised that not only did it meet my expectations, it exceeded it! The set and props of the play was perfect! It was amazing how they did the effects almost the same as in the movie. I have to give special mention to the scene in this play where the Phantom takes Christine on a boat going to his hideaway, as it was truly incredible, and way better than in the movie!
I only have praises for Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera broadway musical. Indeed, it's a musical so enchanting that its music you will keep on singing by heart.
~o~
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera is playing at the Singapore Esplanade until May 13th. Tickets are still available at Sistic.
Photocredits: The Phantom of the Opera Official Show site and Sistic website.
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