Sydney Life

To dispel the myth that people doing “intense” courses like pharmacy have no life other than their studies, I went to see Phantom of the Opera at Lyric Theatre, Star City on Saturday night. Well, maybe not to dispel that myth specifically. But it was a good opportunity to take some time out from pharmacy, pharmacy and more pharmacy. So how was it?

In a word—great, and go see it if you haven’t already—the final performance is Saturday afternoon, September 13th, and there’s performances I believe every day so there’s plenty of choice. I’m not a very good writer, and when you don’t use these skills, it gets even worse. So to all you English academics out there, I apologise for the standard of the review I’m about to write.

For those of you who don’t know the plot, it depicts the struggle that occurs between the Phantom, a physically deformed man who, spurned by society, lives under the Opera Garnier in Paris, and the lead singer, management and patron of the Opera. How’s that for summarising?! Anyway, onto the merits of the performance—the staging, costumes, acting and dancing were great! I appreciate how hard it was to be singing and dancing (especially ballet!) at the same time.

Excellent staging—I shivered when they showed the underground lake for the first time—the little lights rising up from the depths of the lake and shimmering in a rather eerie way. I’ve read the book, and if I remember correctly the Phantom actually lived in a mansion on a rock in the middle of the lake, but depicting it as a dungeon—now that’s really something! I was slightly disappointed they didn’t manage to bring in something that more resembled an organ (that is, for the Phantom), but I suppose they did the best they could. The transition between scenes was also very smooth indeed.

The props and special effects were amazing—the shadow of the Phantom killing one of the Opera workers during a ballet scene, the Phantom reappearing at the top of the stairs at the masquerade with a bang, and shooting fire at Raoul and Christine just before the final confrontation…I could go on forever. Special mention must also be made of the Phantom’s disappearance at the end—pure brilliance! The acting was superb, with the actors really bringing out the best in each other. I just love Messrs Monchamin and Richard—they were great comic relief and their actors sang really well too.

As for the music…the orchestra did a marvellous job—very interesting tone colours indeed. As a classical musician, I’m not really one for electrical instruments (even though I know the musical was scored as such), so that goes to show how well the orchestra played indeed. It wasn’t too overbearing, neither was it too underwhelming—it supported and complemented the stage action well.

The singing, however, I had a couple of issues. John Bowles as Raoul was alright, but Simon Pryce as the Phantom I think could’ve been a bit more rousing. I know he’s not Anthony Warlow, and who could ever define the role the way Warlow did, but at some points (especially the beginning) I couldn’t tell, just from their voices, who was Raoul and who was the Phantom. Though I was impressed by his delivery of The Music of the Night, very hard to sing and really exploits the full vocal range.

At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if Ana Marina (Christine) was trying to show that Christine was yet to fully exploit her vocal capabilities, or was trying to save her voice for the rest of the show, but I wasn’t impressed at all with Think Of Me. The beginning was fine, because Christine is meant to have a few false starts and end up starting in a whisper/croak/non-voice of sorts, but when the scene melted to her performing on opera night, she’s supposed to really project and carry her voice up, which she didn’t really. She did project her voice enough that it could be heard clearly over the orchestra, but it was as though she was just bumbling along on the top rather than carrying over and out far away above. Fortunately that was only the beginning—Christine’s singing only kept going up from there.

Final verdict—I recommend you go see it because it is a one-of-a-kind experience…who knows when Phantom will next return to Australia if at all? You won’t be disappointed, especially not with the non-musical aspects (unless you’re a drama nerd in which case I’m sure you’ve got a lot of things to say just as I have about the music). A final tip—I reckon if you’re going to spend money on this kind of thing, you might as well get the best seat(s). I got dress circle (A reserve), which was the most expensive at around $100 (does not include handling fee either), and it was a good seat—you weren’t up against the front bars of the balcony, but you weren’t so far back you couldn’t clearly see the stage action or the orchestral pit. B reserve apparently is the minimal limit of a good balance between reasonable seating and price, and that’s slightly cheaper at around $90.

Happy Phantoming!