The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
| The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall | |
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| Directed by |
Nick Morris Laurence Connor (stage direction) |
| Produced by |
Cameron Mackintosh Dione Orrom Brett Sullivan |
| Story by | Gaston Leroux |
| Based on |
The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber Charles Hart Richard Stilgoe |
| Starring |
Ramin Karimloo Sierra Boggess Hadley Fraser |
| Music by | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Edited by |
Lawrence Huck Nick Morris |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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160 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall is a 2011 British film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera, which in turn was based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera, three special performances were filmed at the Royal Albert Hall, the third of which was screened live worldwide on 2 October 2011. For further releases, footage from all three performances was edited together.
To mark the extraordinary milestone of 25 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh planned a special 3-day production to take place at London's Royal Albert Hall in October 2011. Designer Matt Kinley initially planned to hold a concert-style production not unlike the Les Misérables 25th Anniversary concert at the O2 Arena, but Mackintosh made it clear the show would be fully staged, as both he and Lloyd Webber felt it would not work unless it was the whole show. As a result, the event was planned as a full show.
Designing the staged show at the Royal Albert Hall was a daunting task, as the space (or lack of) was not an easy one to translate a proscenium show into. As a concert hall rather than a theatre, many of the show's elements (such as the chandelier, which instead of falling, exploded) had to be toned down and simplified: the Royal Albert Hall was simply not capable of accepting a show the size of The Phantom of the Opera, or at least not the full original. The balconies of the hall were used to build uprights to form an opera house proscenium with boxes on each side. The orchestra was elevated on a platform and backed by a gauze which projected the opera sets via LEDs.
Tickets for the three performances sold out within five hours of going on sale. In order to enable more people to see the production, the final performance was relayed live to cinemas around the world via Fathom Events.
At the fictional Opera Populaire (based on the Paris Opéra House) in 1905, an auction of old theatre props is underway. Lot 665, purchased by the elderly Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, is a music box in the shape of a monkey; it is familiar to him, and he speaks of a mysterious "she" - that the details of the strange little music box appear "exactly as she said." Lot 666 is a shattered chandelier that is claimed by the auctioneer to have been related to "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained", having appeared in some great disaster in years past. As the chandelier - which has been replaced, in part, with new electric wiring - is uncovered, it illuminates as the years roll back and the Opéra returns to its 1880s' grandeur ("Overture").
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