JennydeC

[operafantomet]

Emmi Christensson, alt. Christine in West End 2014-15

[silverfoxstole]

[glassprism]

What are the actors who chose to sing live the usually pre recorded tracks?

I mean the Phantom's one like "Seal my Fate" or "The Mirror".

Well, ‘The Mirror’ is, as far as I know, sung live. It’s the song after, the title song, that is pre-recorded in its entirety, at least for most replica productions. I’ll leave out the exceptions, such as the non-replica productions and the Las Vegas production, where the title song was live as soon as the boat emerged, to focus on situations where the song usually is pre-recorded.

In the case of the title song, most of the time actresses don’t so much choose to sing live instead of using the pre-recording, as they choose to sing live over the pre-recording. This means the pre-recording is still playing but the actresses are singing it live in addition to the recording. People who have done that include Rebecca Caine, Sarah Pfisterer, AJ Callaghan, and Rachel Barrell.

However, there have been cases where they did sing the whole thing live, with no pre-recording, though this is not necessarily by choice. When the show premiered, the title song was sung live (which means the cast was probably Michael Crawford and Claire Moore and/or Sarah Brightman, depending on how many performances this went on), and only after that did they realize that actually doing so was unfeasible due to the amount of movement and noise backstage. Pretty much after that the title song was pre-recorded, but there have been cases where the track broke down, forcing actors to sing it live. I’ve heard Marni Raab had to do so once, and Jeremy Secomb and Harriet Jones had to do it too. That one was recorded on audio, you can hear it here.

As for other instances, ‘Seal My Fate’ is the only other one I know of where one actor, Peter Karrie, preferred to sing it live, giving us such gems as the “warring ducks” flub. It may also have been sung live for the 9th anniversary performance of the Toronto production, which had five Phantoms each singing a line from the song. And finally, during his temporary run in London in 2015, Earl Carpenter sung that song live, as his different inflections in this audio compilation prove.

[tuetanos]

'stine

[phantomnostalgist]

"Confessions of a Phantom Addict" from the early 1990s. They're bigger & easier to read if you open the images in a new tab.

The first piece is by Rae "Caustic" Dunnill from 1993, who saw many of the early Phantoms, and went from a big Dave Willetts fan to a big Peter Karrie fan at the time she wrote this. It also includes her initial reaction to Ethan Freeman - by two years later, he'd become her favourite, so I've added a later letter from her too.

The second came from an anonymous Dave Willetts fan, who wanted to balance the record!

Reading these made me lol quite a bit, and also wonder if I should have edited any of the snark out. But where's the fun without snark? I'd kind of forgotten there was ~*tension*~ between Karrie and Willetts fans back then, lolol. Also Rae was one of the biggest early contributors to the fan club, as she'd seen the show 97 times when I was on my 3rd or 4th viewing (when I first met her). I dared not edit her snark!

Fun times.

[ethanhunt-deactivated20230911]

Christopher Reeve & Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time (1980) dir. Jeannot Szwarc

[sherlockology]

Highlights and hilarity from The Game is On: An Afternoon with Mark Gatiss and Friends

Out of all venues for an event dedicated to the discussion of an interpretation of Sherlock Holmes, there could be none better than the Criterion Theatre, located on one of London’s most famous junctions - Piccadilly Circus - and next to the Criterion Bar, famous as the place where Doctor John Watson first heard the name ‘Sherlock Holmes’ spoken aloud by Stamford in A Study in Scarlet. 

The Game is On: An Afternoon with Mark Gatiss and friends was held in support of London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard. Since the event was recorded by LLGS, this isn’t a full transcript of what occurred, but rather a collection of many of its highlights that relate most directly to Sherlock. All told, The Game is On was a raucous and hilarious time, with anecdotes coming thick and fast throughout its duration to an almost bewildering, and extremely face aching degree.

继续阅读

[operafantomet]

Hello! Do you happen to know who picked out the appliques for Phantom's cloak in mainly the Broadway production? I've done my own research and my own recreation, and it seems any of them are vintage appliques. Was it just all completely random?

I think many costume supervisors and costume makers has kept Maria Bjørnson's vision of antique pieces alive, where possible. Some Phantom cloaks are still decorated with antique jet beading, often sourced from scattered or ruined Victorian mourning pieces. But finding good pieces has become increasingly rare, so modern substitutes seems just as common.

For a costume display in the World Tour they wrote that:

"The cape is fine wool with antique jet beading"

This was true for the elder Aussie style as well as the UK. Probably elsewhere too, depending on the availability. One way to identify vintage or antique jet beading is that they use fairly small beads and with lots of hand-embroidered details, often in an openwork-pattern. The thread and/or fundament will often also have faded to brown. Here's typical examples of jet beading, in the cloaks of John Owen-Jones and Scott Davies in West End:

And the back of Ben Forster's West End cloak:

Last, but not least, Tim Howar in West End Live:

But many Phantom cloaks has also been fitted with either vintage or more modern sequin and bead appliquées. I think it's harder to separate what's new and what's antique in these. Here's some examples from the US where I'm not sure whether we're talking old or new (or maybe it's a mix).

The sequins may give a clue, as newer ones are often bigger and synthetic, while older ones tends to be smaller and maybe made of an early metal-plated synthetic material - or even metal if they are really old. But I would have to study them up-close to tell for sure.

There are also versions with mostly black tube beads, where the direction of the beading is what makes them glitter and sparkle from all angles. Here's Jonathan Roxmouth's cloak in the World Tour:

A cloak used in the Restaged US Tour:

And the collar of a vintage Golden Angel cloak, worn by Davis Gaines on Broadway:

I don't know exactly where Sam Fleming and other US costume supervisors sourced their materials, other than hunting vintage stores, antique stores, flea markets, the fabric NYC district etc. Anything that would make goodies surface, basically. It is in sync with the preferences of designer Maria Bjørnson, as she did favour vintage pieces when possible. Hence vintage materials are still often seen as accents and decorations on the POTO costumes. But vintage pieces have become increasingly harder to come by, so layering modern materials to create a similar effect is also common.

I hope that answered your questions!

[janginzm]

Visit Original Link

SECOND EDITION I never knew how Jonathan sang in the past World Tour until I listened to some audios yesterday and found HOW HE HAS PROGRESSED!!! Here's the audio of his performance during the ongoing world tour, clearly he has a better control of his voice, which is thicker (I don't know the term to describe it properly) and less modern as many people may described. He's more tender or maybe I could say more seductive, and I would fall for that.

And our new Christine Grace Roberts , Ah How I adore her voice!!! You would regret it forever if you not listen 😝

AND PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS AUDIO OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

FIRST EDITION

I just wonna write something about Jonathan Roxmouth, especially about his wonderful performance in the ongoing tour in China. What’s most amazing about him is that he changes his way of performing every night! Yes! Every Night. I saw three performances so far, and none of them were totally the same.

I particularly want to share details on 11.3’s evening, when Jonathan was so possessive of Christine. He constantly showed intimate gesture towards her, whispering in her ear, touching her face with fingers during motn. The chemistry between them is perfect.

And I absolutely LOVE how he handle the ‘you try my patience’ line in the final lair that night, probably the best I’ve ever heard. He shouted out the words right after Christine’s ‘I gave my mind blindly’ and Here’s the audio. I’m all blown up.🔥🔥🔥

[fdelopera]

shoutout to the time a few summers ago when i went to Paris, basically lived in the Palais Garnier for a week, and snuck into Box 5.

i walked up to the door of Box 5 that day, and saw it was open! the staff must have forgotten to close the door after cleaning. back in the early 2000s, the Palais Garnier administration put a plaque on the inside and outside of La loge n°5 that reads "Loge du Fantôme de l'Opéra". it is officially Erik's Box.

here's what Erik's plaque on Box 5 looks like from the outside. note all the fingerprints from phans (some of which are mine).

here's where Box 5 sits in the auditorium. contrary to popular belief, Erik didn't choose the Emperor's Box (the large, ornate box close to the stage) or even the box next to it. Erik chose the plain box on the other side of the column. Erik is Emperor's Box-adjacent. he's gotta keep some semblance of humility!

i immediately went and sat in Erik's seat (the second seat on the left side of Box 5). i also knocked on the column, like Gaston Leroux instructed us to do. the marble column itself appears to be solid, but the metal base is hollow. (Leroux claimed this was where Erik hid when he performed his ventriloquist tricks, like making poor Carlotta croak like a toad)

this is the view of the stage from Box 5 (what Erik would have seen when he watched Christine perform)...

aaand here's Erik's view of the chandelier, as he dreamed of dropping it on the audience... ("Erik no! don't do it!" –the Daroga, probably)

aaaaaand then shortly after this, security came and chased us out... au revoir, Erik!

[soprano-sfogato]

Let’s talk about Christine’s singing technique

Opera in the 19th century was different from today, mostly because the singing technique was different. If you wanted to be an opera singer back then, you would be trained in the bel canto technique, which means no placement or in-the-mask singing. This technique is on the opposite side of the spectrum from the technique used by opera singers nowadays. You have to develop not only your head voice but also your chest voice - the combination of the two is crucial, not just for your low notes but throughout your whole range.

In Gaston Leroux’s novel, Christine told Raoul on the rooftop what exactly had changed in her voice:

I’m not very strong physically and that to begin with my voice had very little character. My low notes were naturally under-developed, the high notes were frankly quite harsh and my middle register cloudy. It was these deficiencies that papa had striven to correct and he had succeeded up to a point. But it was the Voice which finally overcame them. Gradually, I was able to increase the volume of my whole range to an extent I could never have hoped to achieve given that it was never strong to start with. I learned to deepen my breathing but crucially the Voice taught me the secret of developing the chest notes of the soprano voice.

It means that Christine had a problem with an undeveloped chest voice. Because of that, she had weak low notes (which are naturally more chesty), a cloudy middle register (you must have a well-developed chest voice to sing in your middle with ease), and harsh high notes (it’s hard to sing high without having a core in your voice). Once Christine finally developed her chest voice, her voice became more mature and more colourful, which helped her make the transition to singing Marguerite - a part that requires a more dramatic sound than Siebel (which at that time was a role for a soprano who still hadn’t fully developed her voice).

(By the way this quote shows that Leroux knew something about singing technique. Wow!)

Also, as we all know, the character of Christine was based on a real opera singer, Christine Nilsson (1843 - 1921). Unfortunately, there is no recording of Nilsson’s voice, but we can be sure that she sang with a bel canto technique. It was the one and only proper technique in the 19th century, and you couldn’t be an opera star without learning it.

So yeah, Christine’s voice wasn’t a miracle - it was a well-developed chest voice and a proper bel canto technique. It doesn’t mean her singing wasn’t splendid, because undoubtedly it was! Otherwise, she wouldn’t have knocked the Paris audience’s socks off! I just wanted to say that proper technique is the most important thing, and if you learn it, you can be a brilliant opera singer.

[lilykerhoas]

floating, falling, sweet intoxication...

@shakeatradefeather's master. august 2023.

[pignk]

𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬

[justbecause05]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1992 National Theatre) 2, 3 - http://www.mandanajones.net/index.html 6-8  - http://www.michaellevinestudio.com/

[shazadlatifgf-deactivated202301]

*does a gay lil 80s single earring and bandana look*

[gravesdiggers]

That’s so funny! I was just looking at this previous set literally yesterday (after being reminded of it by someone reblogging the wonderful “Rupert in a band” photo from 1981) and then here’s this lovely new set today!

Fandom hive mind is always amusing!

(This is from 1982 ITV schools drama “Starting Out” - as linked above)

[crousdepp]

Rupert Graves and  Hugh Grant, photographed in London on 15th September, 1987. (Photo by John Stoddart/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

[gravesdiggers]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful find! Thank you!!

(First pic is from 15th June, 1987 - so taken a few months earlier than the ones with Hugh, hence the left-over Scudder perm!)

[gravesdiggers]

New (to me) photo of Rupert Graves posted recently on Twitter, cropped and edited

"London, '94 or '95." [glowlight1970 on Twitter]