by Sophie, guest blogger, more regular than the oficial bloggers atm tho!
Her Majesty’s Theatre
I saw this once ages ago and I thought it was so boring. Then I saw it again last week and I loved it. It’s probably always worth seeing something again if you can. Maybe it was my mood on the day, maybe it was the performers, maybe my taste has just changed. But I’m really glad I saw it again. I’d like to see it again one day but I wouldn’t want to see it every month like Grease, it’s really quite a disturbing musical. I wouldn’t want to see something disturbing like that every month but I also wouldn’t like it to lose its effect which it might do if I’m always watching it.
If you read my Joseph review you’ll know I’m not a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. He doesn’t really do it for me and one tune per musical if that isn’t enough for me. But Phantom of the Opera has at least five really good tunes. So what I’m thinking is, maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber is more interested in creating sell-out musicals than in creating the most beautiful music he possibly can. In some ways that’s a really sensible attitude to have. Ask Hairy. And if that’s Lloyd Webber’s aim he’s been more than successful.
Most of this musical as you might guess it set in an opera house and lots of the characters are opera singers including the main female character Christine Daae although if you’re going to get really technical she’s a ballet dancer who happens to have a voice but she does become an opera star. And the Phantom of the Opera writes an opera.
For the scenes where the characters are actually singing in operas Lloyd Webber has written some opera music. It is supposed to be a take-off of the opera of the time Phantom is set and okay it’s not the greatest opera music in the world but I think it’s really lovely and I’ve certainly heard a lot worse. Yes Richard Wagner I mean you. The only bit of opera music which doesn’t sound operatic is the ‘aria’ Think of Me which still sounds like something from a musical even when Carlotta (a real opera singer played by a real opera singer) is singing it. But I suppose I can see why he did it, at that point he needed a showstopper and it needed to be the sort of showstopper that a conventional musical audience would like so it couldn’t be too operatic.
But even though Think of Me doesn’t sound operatic to me I still think it’s a really lovely song and it’s still stuck in my head along with about 4 other songs. Phantom of the Opera has really beautiful music. And there are bits of it that remind me of opera. Occasionally you’ll get a phrase that sounds a bit like Puccini (to me). Then there’s these two comic characters called Monsieur Firmin and Monsieur Andre who are totally hilarious and they’re like something out of Gilbert & Sullivan. They’re played by Barry James and Gareth Snook and they both have really lovely voices. Some people seem to think if you’re doing comedy you can’t do it with a beautiful tone but that’s so not true.
A few members of the cast have been in operas before. Ramin Karimloo who plays the Phantom has been in The Pirates of Penzance (I seriously can’t imagine him in that) but his voice does sound slightly operatic, it’s quite a dark voice which suits the character really well. He was very very creepy and disturbing but there was something compelling about him and it makes sense that Christine would be so drawn to him even when she’s got a really gorgeous boyfriend.
The role of Christine is shared, I saw Robyn North. She’s got a lovely voice, it’s quite small and thin but very beautiful and it’s right for the character because she’s quite mysterious and slightly strange. Her voice does sound a bit strained on the top notes but not in a bad way and she would get them fine if her diction wasn’t so perfect all the time. I found her quite easy to identify with because she’s quite weird and spaced out half the time but I think other people would find her quite sweet and appealing. One thing about Robyn, she really LOVES the musical. She had the biggest smile when she came to take her curtain call. If anything I’d expect the singer playing Christine to be really exhausted mentally and physically too (it’s a big sing) after such an emotional performance but she looked so happy, maybe even exhilarated. I suppose it’s possible another cast member gave her a quick one while the ensemble were having their curtain call but it would have had to be at lightning speed. So I think she just gets off on singing Christine which isn’t totally mad because she gets gorgeous music and a really interesting character.
Christine’s boyfriend Raoul was played by Simon Bailey. He was really sexy but I didn’t like it when the Phantom made him hang himself although I think he would have been quite happy to die in that bit when Christine kisses the Phantom. He seems really nice and not too tough, it means Christine has to sort things out herself without this man coming in and doing everything for her, it’s not very realistic to have a competent man after all. Simon has a really nice voice too.
Kate Radmilovic who played Carlotta is a real opera singer, she’s sung Violetta, Queen of the Night, Mimi, Alcina, Lady Billows, all sorts of different roles. She isn’t the best opera singer I’ve ever heard, you can hear better at the ROH and ENO and places like that but if you think about it Kate’s got to sing Carlotta 8 times a week and it is quite a big role and not an easy one, you should hear what she sings when she first enters, it’s not exactly the easiest entrance in the world. Then she’s got to shriek and stuff and do speaking sections which is really hard on your voice (I’m not very convinced by her Italian accent but as she’s a Welsh-Croat I’ll let her off but I’m still not letting Katherine Jenkins off, she might be Welsh but she’s still a crap singer). Most opera singers only perform 2 or 3 times a week and if they did 8 times a week they probably wouldn’t sound at their best either. And besides Carlotta shouldn’t be as good as Christine or it’s a bit unfair really. But I still thought Kate was really good and very funny and realistic too, there are millions of sopranos who walk around with their heads up their arses, I’ve seen them.
Tori Johns plays Meg Giry, I’m not sure why she’s called Meg when she’s French as it’s a Welsh name, well it is when it’s short for Megan. Tori is a trained ballet dancer who (looking at her biography) doesn’t seem to have had any singing training but she has a really lovely voice, a very little voice but very beautiful and her music is well-sung and of course she can do all the dancing brilliantly although I don’t think dancers really stand around in fifth position like that because it hurts although so does dancing around in ballet slippers with chunks of wood in the toes. One thing about Meg though, even though I think the final image in the musical is really good I don’t know why it’s Meg who does it. First of all, what’s she doing poking around the Phantom’s lair anyway? Okay maybe she’s part of Christine’s rescue party but why are they letting her search on her own? The Phantom’s already abducted one girl. Maybe we’re supposed to think there’s something going on between him and Meg which might explain how she knows Christine can sing opera but it’s more likely she just heard her. So I don’t get that bit but it does look really good.
Heather Jackson plays Meg’s mum Madame Giry, she’s scary but you do end up feeling for her and she’s got a really good contralto voice. Then there’s loads of people in smaller roles and I don’t remember all of them but everyone was good. They even had scary smells, it might have been an accident but there was one bit where there was a really musty smell, like something was dead under my seat (I didn’t look), then there was a hospital smell like a disinfectant, it was horrible but if the smells were done on purpose it was really clever and original and if it was an accident they should do it every night.
It’s a really good evening out if you’re in the mood to be scared or if you just want to hear some beautiful music. But don’t go on your own and don’t go if you’ve got a heart condition because it’s just too terrifying.