Episode #24: Leroux's Phantom

Welcome to Jennifer's latest obsession:  The Phantom of the Opera.  Her sister forced her to watch the 25th Anniversary stage production at Royal Albert Hall from 2011, and she fell hard for the show.   To learn more she read the original novel by Gaston Leroux, she watched a couple of classic film adaptations from 1925 and 1943, and basically immersed herself in all things Phantom.  Before she realized that Leroux's book was published in 1910 she lamented the fact that Phantom as a topic wasn't a fit for Circa Sunday Night--it was too Victorian, which is a little south of Circa 19xx Land.  But when she discovered that no!  the story had been serialized in 1909 and ultimately published as a stand-alone novel in 1910, she literally exclaimed aloud, "Bingo!"  This little book is right in our neighborhood...and now it's right on our show.  In tonight's episode, we go deep into Leroux's invented world and watch as Jennifer's heart breaks all over again upon revisiting the Phantom's sorrowful tale.  You just never know where we're going to end up on this show.  This time, we're in Paris, at the opulent Palais Garnier.  Is there a better place to be?

Cool Links
Palais Garnier Video Tour
Palais Garnier Website   
The Mystery of the Yellow Room, BBC4 The Saturday Play (1998)
Daily Telegraph Article on Gaston Leroux
Scenes from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom

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