Lloyd Webber The Phantom of the Opera
Sunday 17 December 2023 - 15 h
Tuesday 19 December 2023 - 20 h
Wednesday 20 December 2023 - 20 h
Thursday 21 December 2023 - 20 h
Friday 22 December 2023 - 15 h
Friday 22 December 2023 - 20 h
Saturday 23 December 2023 - 15 h
Saturday 23 December 2023 - 20 h
Monday 25 December 2023 - 20 h
Tuesday 26 December 2023 - 15 h
Tuesday 26 December 2023 - 20 h
Wednesday 27 December 2023 - 15 h
Wednesday 27 December 2023 - 20 h
Friday 29 December 2023 - 15 h
Friday 29 December 2023 - 20 h
Saturday 30 December 2023 - 15 h
Saturday 30 December 2023 - 20 h
Sunday 31 December 2023 - 15 h
Sunday 31 December 2023 - 20 h
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (born in 1948)
Libretto by Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Gaston Leroux's novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra
Lyrics by Richard Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
Orchestration by David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber
Premiere: Her Majesty's Theatre, London, September 27, 1986
New production, in coproduction with Temple Live Entertainment Ltd.
and Broadway Italia Srl, in agreement with The Really Useful Group
If we look at the worldwide success of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, we might well ask ourselves why this musical, almost an opera, has never been performed in France. After more than 35 triumphant years and 140 million spectators, the time has come to put this right. Whose blood has never run cold when reading when reading Gaston Leroux’s novel and his phantom, madly in love with Christine but who, when scorned, brings the chandelier crashing down on the audi-ence at the Palais Garnier? French readers were the first to develop a passion for this tale full of mystery and dramatic turns of events. Hollywood then undertook to popularise it with many film adaptations. In the early 1980s, Andrew Lloyd Webber began to reflect upon this myth and adapted it for the stage. He wrote the score and the unforgettable songs that demand an extensive vocal range and agility, reminding us of the musical language of opera. The Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the only theatre designed by Charles Garnier, apart from the famous one in Paris where the action takes place, is delighted to host this new pro-duction of Phantom for a run of performances during the holiday season.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Magically popular…
What is the secret of The Phantom’s undi-minished worldwide popularity? Whereas on Broadway a successful run of 13’981 perfor-mances came to an end after 35 years, a whole new generation has begun to discover this famous work. Supposedly, it was a even a hit on TikTok last Halloween...
Magic certainly plays a role. Today, the produc-tion’s creators marvel at how easily everything seems to have fallen into place back in 1986. The discovery of Leroux’s book, finding out how to make it a good show, and creating the storyline, words, music, designs, choreography – each step followed the other so smoothly as happens rarely in a lifetime, and can certainly not be planned.
Passion, obsession and high romance
Librettist Richard Stilgoe explains that “if you have to pick a subject for a musical, there are certain rules… to make them work. Basically, what you have to get over with an audience is that moment when people start singing. So there has to be passion. And obsession. So that just words are not enough, and the song has to start. And The Phantom of the Opera is about one of the great obsessives in history.“
For Andrew Lloyd Webber, who sees himself as part of a team that collaborated wonderfully from the beginning, the key to its success are the element of romance together with the profound passion displayed by the main character: “At its heart, The Phantom of the Opera is a high romance. It was the depth of the love story which struck me when I came across the book while browsing in a little shop in New York. The score is intended to convey the reality of profound and deeply-held love.”
Well, opera, actually…
To opera buffs, and among them those fre-quenting Monaco’s Opera designed by Charles Garnier, this is no surprise: far more than the traditional traits of a musical, The Phantom of the Opera contains defining features of 19th century grand opera: a splendid setting, a powerful gothic story with impressive coups de théâtre, a practically symphonic score, melodramatic arias and passionate duets for charismatic soloists, even coloratura.
This new production opens a fresh chapter in The Phantom’s history: it is the first at a suc-cessful opera house, and moreover in one of the only two ever designed by Charles Garnier. Surely the haughty phantom will be appeased when he sees that in Monte Carlo’s mild end-of-the-year climate the legend lives on.