As a little girl, I was fortunate enough to be taken to the theater each time an Andrew Lloyd Webber production rolled into town. My favourite by far was The Phantom of the Opera, based on the gothic novel by Gaston Leroux. (Yes, even as a child, I couldn’t resist the mystery and romance of the genre!)
For those who weren’t as privileged, it is a macabre and tragic love story between the masked Phantom, a disturbed and disfigured man (thus the mask) who lives in the cavernous crypt beneath Paris’ Opera, and the young Christine, an up-and-coming singer. Here’s a snippet of the two from the recent, self-titled movie starring Gerard Butler as yours truly:
Complete with gothic candles, organ music, and dark, winding, castle-like corridors, you can see why I was a little obsessed. I’ve now seen the show in theaters around the world, and learned to play the score end-to-end on the piano.
So of course, when I discovered that Paris’ Palais Garnier was the very opera house that inspired the story, I had to visit the iconic building.
