#phaq

most of the changes happened in between the show opening in london and opening on Broadway, which included a lot (lyrics, choreography, new costumes for Christine and Carlotta, taking out the trio in the graveyard, taking out the catch in MOTN). But they were changing things as late as 2006 for the opening of the Vegas production, and the restaged UK/US tour changed several lines and lyrics (or returned to old ones). 

The songs that seem to have changed the most are Wishing and Think of Me. The songs on the OLC cast recording are not the same as you’ll hear on Broadway or London today.

Hi Anon, thanks for your question, and for your kind words. I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog! My understanding is that at least until recently the Leroux family held the copyright to Le Fantôme de l’Opéra in France, however based on my understanding of French copyright laws, the copyright on Leroux’s novel may have expired in France. That said, I have heard from reputable sources that the family still does hold the French copyright to Le Fantôme, so I am not entirely sure what to think.

Hi @phangirllnd! Sorry it’s taken a little while to get back to you. Life has gotten too busy lately.

You will have a wonderful time in France, I just know it. In my experience, the French people are very kind and courteous and generally want to help foreigners find their way around. You will be okay even with a limited knowledge of French, however I would recommend some basics. If you need to ask someone a question in English, you should start out saying hello to the person in French. For instance, you can say, “Bonjour madame/monsieur. Parlez-vous anglais?” If the person says yes, go ahead and ask your question. It is always best to introduce yourself in French, since it is often considered rude to just rush ahead and ask a question in English (or any foreign language).

If you are traveling by yourself and feel that the language barrier is an issue (i.e. maybe you don’t feel like you would be able to understand the announcer voice on a subway), I would encourage you plan out what you will be doing on a given day at least one day in advance, if not earlier. This includes downloading a google map of the area you will be in, researching any bus or subway routes you will be taking (you can download the Paris metro map here), and if you are staying at a hotel, asking the person at the front desk for detailed directions to the place you are going (hotel concierges in Paris generally have excellent English). This is even true for walking routes. Before I went to Paris, I mapped out the walking routes I would take from my hotel to the locations I wanted to visit so that I could get from point A to B with greater confidence and less stress.

In general, I found Paris as easy to get around as any major US city. It is comparable with New York in terms of ease of public transportation, perhaps even easier. And don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially of officials, your hotel concierge, shop owners, and people on the street if they look friendly and it is daylight.

The Leroux family has owned (and may still own) the rights to Le Fantôme de l’Opéra in France, and so they have been able to control which productions based on Leroux’s novel get made in their country. Further, any production that was put on in France had to pay the Leroux family royalties for the use of Leroux’s story. (I am not quite able to figure out whether they presently own the rights to Leroux’s novel, based on France’s copyright laws.)

My understanding is that in the past, the Leroux family would not let ALW produce his PotO musical in France because he had not paid the family any royalties for using Gaston Leroux’s novel. Technically, ALW didn’t need to pay the family royalties for any production outside of France, since Phantom of the Opera is out of copyright everywhere else. However, it was in really bad form for him not to do so, since PotO has grossed over 6 BILLION dollars worldwide, and even a small percentage royalty would have made a big difference to the Leroux family.

Thank you, Anon! I had a lot of fun translating that passage. The lyrics you’ve described are from the De Mattos translation. It’s hard to translate poetry, since you ideally want to maintain the rhyme scheme. It’s even harder when the lyrics also have to match up to existing music!

Hope you’re having a nice December so far! So do you know what kind of present you’d like to receive yet? It doesn’t have to be anything specific, I just want to start getting some ideas for ya :) I can do some sort of art thing if you like, or something, I’m not sure! What kinds of presents have you received in the past, if you don’t mind my asking?

Hello, dear Secret Santa! Sorry it’s taken a little while to reply to your asks. This last week has been a bit busy.

I’m truly thrilled I’m going to see Hamilton this spring! I’ve bought tickets for days that both Lin and Javier should be there, so if all goes well, I’ll get to see them both. I’m really looking forward to seeing both of their takes on the character, since I’ve read that Javier has his own unique interpretation that’s different than Lin’s, and that’s also really powerful.

As for my favorite setting for Phantom, I’d honestly have to say that the original newspaper publication is my favorite. It was a fictional(ized) pseudorealistic journalistic reportage presented in a real newspaper as if it were authentic, and yet placed in the fiction section of that paper. This structure was rather avant-garde at the time, and on a meta level this format created yet another mask – the fictional narrative that hides under a mask of fact. While Le Fantôme de l’Opéra would have been read as fiction by its original readership due to its location in the newspaper, it appears that once it was published as a novel, and its original context was lost, Leroux capitalized on this ambiguity to lay claim to the veracity of his story. In 1925, only fifteen years after his novel’s publication, Leroux wrote a press release for the Lon Chaney movie in which he asserted the truth of his novel. This press release was unpublished, but it suggests that Leroux, ever the good showman, may have perceived some belief in his novel’s veracity and was willing to promote this. Certainly, in the following decades, as the true events that inspired Leroux receded into the past and became indistinguishable from fiction, many readers held that Leroux’s novel was based more on fact than it actually was. Indeed, it is only with modern online access to newspapers and other publications that we can easily see the ways in which Leroux used his technique of fictionalizing factual events, and understand which elements of his story were real and which were imagined.

The edition you’re referring to uses the 1911 abridged de Mattos translation. Any English translation that doesn’t list the translator’s name is by default de Mattos, because his translation is the only one that is in the public domain, and therefore can be used royalty-free without crediting the translator.