Phantom of the Opera

In April our choir is going down to Omaha to see a production of the show Phantom of the Opera. So I thought I'd read the book before we went. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't what I was expecting from the novel that inspired my favorite Broadway show, but in most ways it exceeded my expectations. The story is told almost completely from Raoul's point of view (yes, he has a personality in the book). There are some great characters who didn't make it into the musical, and some other characters were changes somewhat, but the musical gets the basic plot right. One of the fascinating things was all the details in the book about the Paris Opera House, how it has five underground cellars and a lake at the bottom, the infamous Box 5, and all the rest. And it's all real! The Opera House, the five cellars, the lake, box 5, it all exists and you can go visit it in Paris. (Which is now on my bucket list.) I thought that Gaston Leroux had made up a lot of it for the book, but it seems the only things he made up were the various trap doors and fake walls the Opera Ghost used to scare people.

the Paris Opera House

cross-section of the opera house

the underground lake!
(All photos from Google Images)

The story does a good job of explaining the backstory of the Opera Ghost (which both the musical and the old movie I've seen get wrong) and it's compelling and almost creepy at times. The book I borrowed from the library included at the end some speculative writing about Sherlock Holmes investigating the case of the Opera Ghost, which was entertaining.

All in all, a good read! Especially if you really like the musical but feel like it doesn't have the whole story. It doesn't. There are a lot of additional juicy details the book includes. I'm glad I read it before seeing the show on stage!