The Phantom of the Opera - A Lifetime Obsession

It is possible that I was a 'Phantom of the Opera' fan ever since I was in the womb. As the daughter of an avid musical theater fan (my mother), my first curiosities of POTO was the cover to the CD soundtrack. I immediately took to drawing and copying the famous half-mask and rose on all my bookmarks and journals.

Since then, I have collected items to support this obsession of mine. Film as been a large influence in my life and it was no different when it came to my fandom. I remember being six years old and staying up late with my grandmother to watch Lon Chaney's silent film adaptation of the story, "The Phantom of the Opera" (1926). Even at a young age, I was sympathetic for "The Phantom" until it came to the end when the story took a weird turn and he turned out to be a lunatic from an asylum. (But it would be the start of a "love affair" for the "The Phantom" aka Erik.)

The Lon Chaney dvd was free during a dvd sale at Borders. My best friend contributed a copy of Charles Dances' 1990 NBC mini-series of the story - another adaptation I enjoyed. My favorite line, "I'll kill them both...I'm teasing the only one I'll really need to kill is her."





My favorite adaptation would have to be the 2004 film that took Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical to the big screen. In my first trip (out of six times) for the first fifteen minutes, I didn't care for it. However, by the time "Music of the Night" ended, I proclaimed it my favorite film of all time. hehe I ended up seeing it six times in the movie theaters and I have the ticket stubs to prove it in my ticket stub book! XD



(I lost two of the tickets. I'm a bad fangirl.)




(The rose was "given" to me by Erik on my eighteenth birthday. ;) )


I was a teenager when I read through both Gaston Leroux's novel and "Phantom: A Novel" By Susan Kay. The books might as well had been water because I read them in such a short amount of time. XD





I confess! I went against one of "The Phantom of the Opera" fandom commandments - Thou shall not lay claim to losing a library copy of "Phantom: A Novel" By Susan Kay (and then pay for it said "lost copy") because it is out-of-print. I had to. It was at the peak of my "POTO" craziness and it made me do crazy things. But does it really matter that I created such a sinful act? I have kept it and treasured it since the moment I committed this evil deed. Fandom forgive me.





Once I met my best friend, a union was made in "The Phantom of the Opera" fandom. She too had been a "The Phantom of the Opera" fan since she was a child. We're in our 4th/5th year of writing out a fanfiction story set in "The Phantom of the Opera" universe. It parallels the original book but with some plot changes. In our "verse," Erik has a sister named Angelina who falls in love with Raoul. I could only describe my character Monique as a psychotic prima ballerina who is perfect for Erik. :P We're currently writing our 106/107 chapter.

Yet, I still have one more thing to do in order complete my lifelong fandom worship - To see an actual theater production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical! hehe