Introduction
The phantom of the opera (2004) is one of the most successful artworks in the history of musical films. It is a British-American musical drama that was released in 2004, based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s earlier musical with the same name. The reason for the film’s success is the high quality of music and cinematic techniques, in addition to the engaging plot and the depth of problems addressed in the movie. In this essay, The phantom of the opera will be analyzed, representing its synopsis, its place in the history of musical films, and the study of its music and cinematic techniques.
Film Synopsis
The film represents a fiction story that has taken place in 1870 in Paris opera theatre. In the beginning, the theatre prepares for the performance of the opera Hannibal, with leading soprano Carlotta. However, Carlotta suddenly refuses to perform, and Giry, the ballet teacher, proposes young dancer Christine as the main opera character. Unexpectedly for everybody, Christine demonstrates outstanding singing skills and wins success at the opera’s premiere.
In the next scene, Christine reveals to Meg, Giry’s daughter, the secret about her unknown and invisible mentor who teaches her singing, referring to him as an “angel of music.” She feels a mysterious power while singing, “as if her vocal cords are no longer her own” (Rae 2018, p. 73). After that, she meets a new patron of the theater who appears to be her childhood friend Raoul. She tries to explain her secret to him; however, he dismisses her revelation.
Immediately after their meeting, her mysterious teacher appears before her, leading her to his underground lair. Christine realized that he is that ghost-like “Phantom of the opera,” which continuously scares the theatre’s members. The Phantom confesses his love to the young lady, but she removes the mask from his face, uncovering his damaged ugly face, and he reacts fiercely. Later, ballet instructor Giry remembers that, years ago, she saved the Phantom, a young boy with a deformed face considered by everybody the “devil’s child,” and him in the underground of the theatre’s building.
In the next episode, the Phantom messes up the performance of the opera’s leader Carlotta, making her lose her voice, thus, making Christine the only leading soprano. After some time, Christine and Raoul announce their engagement, causing the anger of the Phantom. He appears and forces the theatre’s members to conduct his own opera, Don Juan Triumphant. During the opera, he appears on the stage as the main character, and during the duet with Christine, disappears with her in his catacombs, forcing her to marry him. Raoul follows them; when he is about to be killed, Christine suddenly kisses the Phantom, and he lets them go. After the time gap, the film displays Raoul, who comes to Christine’s grave and sees the fresh black rose left by the Phantom.
The Film’s Place in the History of Film Musicals
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical film, as well as the theatre musical on which it is based, was exceptionally successful. However, as Biancorosso (2018, p. 154) argues, this success was “built on an already existing string of cinematic versions” of this story. The initial source of this story is the 1910 French novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by French writer Gaston Leroux (Jubin and Gordon, 2016). Several screen versions were introduced after its appearance, starting from an American silent horror movie released in 1925. Interpretations of the story appeared in different countries, including such peculiar versions as Mexican parody El Fantasma de la operetta (1959), and Chinese The phantom lover (1995). The story was also adapted by Universal Picture in 1943 (Jubin and Gordon, 2016). Thus, the film of 2004 was one of the numerous screen versions of the story that was continuously the matter of interest of film producers and the public. However, the excellent music of an outstanding composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as the perfect cinematic technique, made this musical film one of the most significant among all the adaptations of the story.
Literature Review
There are numerous sources that provide analysis and evaluation of The phantom of the opera. Biancorosso (2018), in his article ‘The Phantom of the Opera and the performance of cinema,’ provides information about multiple screen adaptations of Gaston Leroux’s novel. Hogle (2016) is a comprehensive study of all the versions with particular attention to the problems and concepts addressed in them. He analyzes matters of class, race, Freudian psychology, and especially boundaries between “high” and “low” culture and “how difficult it remains to construct this classification” (Hogle, 2016, p. 217). Jubin and Gordon (2016) include The phantom of the opera in the list of the most significant musicals since the very beginning of the genre in the eighteenth century. They provide valuable information about Webber’s musical.
Rae (2018) provides a detailed analysis of the film’s performance related to its content. Hong (2019) focuses on musical elements of the film, analyzing the balance of classical and modern elements in the music language. Finally, Penner’s article ‘Rethinking the diegetic/nondiegetic distinction in the film musical’ contributes to the film’s investigation, providing the direction for its musical analysis.
Musical Analysis
The film’s musical language combines classical opera and modern elements. Such a combination, as Hong (2019, p. 50) suggests, “makes film powerful and visually striking.” In the case of musical films, the analysis might be conducted with reference to the concepts of diegetic and nondiegetic music elements (fragments, songs, instrumental numbers). The former describes the sounds (singing, dancing) that are part of a fiction world on the screen, while the latter refers to the numbers that do not relate to the realistic performance contexts (Penner, 2017). However, instead of the diegetic/nondiegetic classification, Penner proposes two different directions for analysis. The first scale evaluates whether the number is realistic or fantastical, i.e., represents a “real or ideal” world of the characters (Penner, 2017, p. 13). The second scale demonstrates whether the number represents formal performative action for the intended audience or singing and dancing appear as spontaneous self-expression. In the graph (Fig. 1), all the songs that appear in The Phantom of the opera are ranged within these two scales.
Cinematic Analysis
The movie genre is proven to be effective for its combination of visual, audial, and verbal elements. Altogether, it provides a strong effect on the audience, a significant part of which is unverbalizable, being pure “sensual or psychological impact” (Biancorosso, 2018, p. 157). In The Phantom of the opera, the epic atmosphere is created by the mass scenes, such as crowded opera performances, demonstrating on the screen large items such as a chandelier, which also plays a symbolic role in the story. The mysterious, “gothic” mood is created by some scenes such as Christine’s visit to her father’s gravestone, and later, Raoul’s appearance on her own grave. These details would be difficult to express in a theatrical performance; in this regard, the movie has extended possibilities.
Other Important Issues
In addition, it is worth discussing the social issue addressed in the film, as it is one of the reasons for considering it meaningful and outstanding. Critics argue that the musical is not merely a horror or love story, but “a truly tragic tale of obsessive but unrequited love between a desperately disfigured self-exile from the human race and a beautiful young opera singer” (Jubin and Gordon, 2016, p. 571). The latter chooses to give her love to a handsome, socially established aristocratic man. A mysterious, talented, and powerful, but socially disregarded person is not rejected, thus, demonstrating the current approach in real life.
Conclusion
In this paper, the musical film The Phantom of the opera was analyzed. A summary of the plot was provided, and its historical significance of it was demonstrated. In the musical analysis, the method of Penner was applied, evaluating the film’s songs within two scales, describing them as realistic or fantastical, and as formal or spontaneous. A brief analysis of cinematographic techniques, as well as social issues addressed in the musical, was provided. In summary, the conducted analysis helps to understand the reason for the movie’s extraordinary success in musical films’ history.
Reference List
Biancorosso, G. (2018) ‘The Phantom of the Opera and the performance of cinema’, The Opera Quarterly, 34(2-3), pp. 153–167. doi: 10.1093/oq/kby009
Hogle, J. (2016) The undergrounds of the Phantom of the Opera: sublimation and the gothic in Leroux’s novel and its progeny. New York: Springer.
Hong, Y. (2019) ‘Fusion analysis of modern music and classical opera considering Fourier algorithm analysis’, 12th international conference on intelligent computation technology and automation. Xiangtan, China.
Jubin, O., and Gordon. R. (eds.) (2016) The Oxford handbook of the British musical. New York: Oxford University Press.
Penner, N. (2017) ‘Rethinking the diegetic/nondiegetic distinction in the film musical’, Music and Moving Image, 10(3), pp. 3-20.
Rae, P. (2018) Real theatre: essays in experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.