I'm not sure about watching the Phantom of the Opera on the big screen. For one, it seems too distant, particularly for a stage musical, where you see the cast live at hand, with an orchestra piping live music for you. Here, I'm about to see people on a flat surface, coupled with pre-recorded music blasting from speakers.
A lot of people have given the movie three stars. One is that it's not really exciting, because it's just a direct adaptation of the stage musical. Let's just say you can't get much out of this movie, except be blown away by the music and the singing and the effects. Come on, it's Joel Schumacher. We all know about his corny Batman movies. He brought Batman on the decline in his hands. He shouldn't have succeeded Tim Burton in the first place. Yes, Burton was strong on the effects as well, but he doesn't lose the values in his story. The Riddler, Two-Face and Poison Ivy are just fakes, smaller than cardboard figurines. Mr Freeze is worth sympathising: only at the end, where we see his wife who is given the cryptogenic treatment. And Robin: when he loses his parents. The others are just a bunch of goofs made to bring the comic black-and-white to life.
So I thought: Schumacher's going to corn the Phantom and Christine and Raoul. I'm proven quite wrong . . .
Emmy Rossum, who plays Christine, CAN SING. Eighteen years of age, and on the way to becoming the next Sarah Brightman . . . in fact she looks like a youthful version of Brightman herself. Patrick Wilson (Raoul) has a wonderful tenor voice: strong and bright and carries well with the music. Sometimes I cannot tolerate Gerard Butler's (the Phantom) singing. He lacks the power; in the sustained notes he gets overwhelmed by the orchestra. He sings as if he's performing a pop song . . . you know the way pop singers sing . . . especially at the bits where the emotion runs high and the orchestra leads the climax. This is operatic stuff, even in the treatment of the orchestrations . . . his singing style is pretty unsuitable. Alas, he can't his high notes! He falls flat at those areas.
The orchestra is splendid! It's conducted by Simon Lee, so I have no qualms about that. Simon was the guy who conducted the orchestra in the video recording of CATS. You can expect the kind of power and lavishness associated with Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and orchestrations. When the orchestra reaches those high points (such as in Prima Donna and many of the ballades especially) my goose pimples just prick up. The only complaint that I have is that near the middle of the show, one of the right side speakers (around Row M I think) was heard emitting some irritating noise that sounded like metal vibrating finely, especially during the climatic portions.
Back to the staging: there are some scenes where the staging is absolutely absurd. You could say exaggerated. When the Phantom, on his boat with Christine, enters the underground lair, candle holders rise up from underneath the water and light up automatically. Thinking about electricity? Since when there was electricity in the late nineteenth century in France? Perhaps my facts could be wrong, but the floor lights on the stage are lit by flames. People carry candles around. Where can there be electricity? And what mechanism is there in reality in those days to automatically send the candle holders up and cause them to light up by themselves? Surely it must be exaggeration!
At the cemetery, the doors chapel of Daae open automatically (automation again!) when Christine faces it, towards the conclusion of her song "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". The interior lights up, and we see a cross hanging on the wall inside. However, a few minutes later, during the fight scene between the Phantom and Raoul, the doors are closed and there is no light. Think of the time: there can be no such thing as motion sensors to shut the doors when no one is detected to be there.
The score of "Don Juan Triumphant", which the conductor uses, is really a piano reduction with the vocal line above it. Shouldn't there be a full score somewhere? If not, how would the musicians play? The Phantom could have written the piano score, then orchestrated by writing the individual parts. This method of working would have been as tough as hell because you can't see what the other instruments are doing. But it was quite sad to see the score burn after the disaster . . . to think that's the one and only copy of Don Juan Triumphant in the world. I don't think I'd even dare to burn my scores . . . I keep all those copies even which I think are inferior, in the event that I may come back to them again in future.
The Straits Times mentions about bringing back Phantom next year, as part of its 160th anniversary. The Sound of Music is coming in April. I'm definitely going to watch. I'm not missing Phantom either.
Time to save money.
