Kopit really did his research and wove one nice, real detail into his version of the Phantom story - the character of Carlotta.
Kopit’s miniseries and musical (written with Yeston) are slightly different from Leroux’s novel. There are a few things that are historically inaccurate (for example, there was no chance of debuting as an opera singer after just a few lessons).
But! Let’s dig deeper into history and go back to the 1860s, to The Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.
21-years-old Christine Nilsson had just debuted there as Violetta in La Traviata. But she wasn’t the primadonna of this opera house. The first soprano was Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho, the wife of Léon Carvalho, who was the menager of The Théâtre Lyrique (sounds familiar, right?). She was the very first Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust and the only singer allowed to sing this part. Nilsson, of course, could have sung this role too, because she had the voice and technique for it, but it was impossible. The one and only Marguerite at The Théâtre Lyrique was Miolan-Carvalho.
Christine Nilsson finally debuted as Marguerite in 1867 in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre (yes, the same theatre, where ALW’s musical is still running, but in 1867 it was a different building). Miolan-Carvalho even travelled to London to watch this performance.
Things got complicated in 1869, when Nilsson was cast as Marguerite at the Paris Opera. Up until then, Faust could be performed only at the Théâtre Lyrique, and only with Miolan-Carvalho as Marguerite, so Nilsson’s casting was a scandal. The explanation was simple - the director of Paris Opera wanted Nilsson to sing Marguerite because he knew that the public would come to see her and compare her to Miolan-Carvalho. And that’s exactly what happened. After a few performances the role of Marguerite returned to Miolan-Carvalho, who then sang it on the stage of the Paris Opera (the Théâtre Lyrique had gone bankrupt by that time).
Sadly, unlike in any POTO adaptations, Christine Nilsson received mixed reviews for her performance. The Paris audience preferred Miolan-Carvalho in this role (but it was Nilsson who sang Marguerite at the opening of the Metropolitan Opera). I’m nearly sure that Leroux had this conflict in mind when he created the character of Carlotta. Kopit added an extra layer of historical accuracy by making Carlotta a wife of the opera house’s director.
Photos below: Miolan-Carvalho (left) and Nilsson (right) as Marguerite.
