The Phantom of the Opera, now recognizable as a stage show or movie, was originally a French novel by Gaston Leroux. Published as a serial from 1909 to 1910, Leroux’s tale of a disfigured musical genius stalking a young ingénue has haunted us for decades.
Lon Chaney shocked audiences as the Phantom in 1929. Using pieces of fish skin to signify a facial deformity, the sight caused many a feeble audience member at the movie’s premiere to pass out from shock. Many other interpretations have followed, but the one constant from Leroux’s novel is the infamous chandelier scene.
It is said that Leroux’s idea for a crashing chandelier was lifted from an actual event. In 1906 huge pieces of a chandelier hanging in a French opera house broke apart and crashed down into an audience.
In 1986, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber unveiled his Broadway version of The Phantom of the Opera. His twist on the chandelier scene was to incorporate the actual audience as part of the musical. At the end of the first act, a chandelier starts to fall towards the audience and then the lights go out. It is a chill inducing moment that leaves the audience gasping for air.
In 2004, a film version of Webber’s musical premiered. Casting the chandelier was a challenge to production designers and the ultimately settled on one that weighed nearly 2 tons. Decorated by hand with over 20,000 Swarovski crystals, it’s estimated cost is well over 1 million dollars. Luckily the famous crash was performed by a chandelier stunt double.
December 18th, 2006 by Webmaster
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.