Finally, my chance has arrived! After a good five months of waiting, having purchased the tickets way back in end October, I think. My goodness, I can’t even remember when was the ticket purchased. It was way back in secondary when I read a novel Phantom. That was the thickest of novels back then. It was from that point on, that I got drawn into the musical world of the Phantom of the Opera. I missed the first production during the 80’s, but I got the 1986 Original London Cast audio CD instead. It sure was wonderful, one of the rare CDs which I am able to play on infinite repeat. Thankfully, when the motion picture version was released, I made myself catch it – alone.

This time, I had company, namely Plain Sunset, Aud, CDMania and her friends. This would also make it the second time watching a performance at the Esplanade Theaters, with the first being the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Only difference was that this time, it was at the theater rather than the concert hall. We went in, and waited. Soon, the lights went out and the auction begun. Just as I had imagined, having listened to the soundtrack for the past few days. Having watched the movie, I had an idea of what to expect, but then again, it was in the context of a feature film production, with the luxuries of budget, space and of course, retakes. This is different. There is only one stage, and it’s amazing the amount of effort which went into the designing of the sets, and the flawless changing of the stage props during the few seconds of darkness inbetween scenes. Add to that a waiting audience, and it would take a huge effort in order to ensure that everything moves smoothly.

When it came down to Lot 666 of the auction for the chanderlier at the defunk Paris Opera House, it was the moment which I was waiting. As if on cue, the hairs on my arms stood on end when they played the Phantom theme, with the Pipe Organ and all. It was one of the most amazing scenes too, when they raised the chanderlier to the ceiling of the theater. In fact, I’d say that this image is probably as close to what I saw in the theater. The likeliness is uncanny. It’s amazing too, that while at rest the chanderlier was sitting peacefully on the stage, as it was raised to the ceiling, they had extra cables to haul it out of the stage and actually have it perched above the audience. It was mighty fine, especially so when the chanderlier came falling down during the last scene before the intermission.

It would be unfair to compare this rendition to the Original London Cast and the motion picture soundtrack. Each of them have their own merits and is unique in it’s own way; which is good too. They improvised a little, deviating slightly from the two soundtracks which I have. Still, that deviation did not have any negative impact on the overall performance. As a matter of fact, it’s like a small breath of fresh air, a slight tweaking to set it apart from the rest, and at the same time, not scrimping on all that matters most.

At the end of it, we gave the actors and actresses a very resounding applause, making them re-appear from behind the curtains for a total of three times. It sure was a very good performance, one which I enjoyed tremendously. It was well worth the SG$162 which I paid for it, no doubt it’s still much lesser than what I paid for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, they are both of different performance in nature. I would very much love to view the performance again, this time at a different seating, but maybe I’ll save it for the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang musical when it opens this November.

Anyone interested?

Now that I’m back home and blogging, a part of me thinks that perhaps I should have purchased the Phantom of the Opera T-shirt, for posterity’s sake. Well, I have until end of this month to do so!