The German productions

ML6 wrote:Miles, can you tell me why so little photographs exist of Peter Hofmann as the Phantom? Or, can you tell us anything about Peter Hofmann's original run? This is all very exciting that someone who worked with the original Hamburg company has something to share with this group - and having to been around Peter - I am jumping at the opportunity to learn more!

I can only imagine that once the official pictures were out there was no further activity. Peter wasn't obliged to attend any rehearsals after the premiere so he just turned up in time for the shows, cutting it closer and closer the more he and his make-up team honed their skills, opportunities to take informal pictures of him were practically zero. He'd often sit in the canteen after the show, though, and would regale us with tales of Bayreuth, Karajan, the Met et al. Unfailingly generous, he would often treat everyone in the canteen to a round. His ex, Deborah, also popped in a few times. Considering he was still young in terms of his vocal Fach (he was 45 when he premiered in Phantom, which is practically a teenager in the world of jugendlich-dramatische Heldentenöre) his opting to sing Phantom surprised many. Still, I remember seeing how puffed-up his face was on many occasions - as if he was on cortisone - and wondered if he was already taking medication for the illness which later developed. I really don't know, I'm just guessing. Peter left in August 1991 but I conducted him a few times. His performances were rock solid and overwhelming; we always got goosepimples when his voice surged from behind the mirror in the dressing room scene; sometimes out of relief, knowing how close he'd cut it on occasions!

MilesCF wrote:

ML6 wrote:Miles, can you tell me why so little photographs exist of Peter Hofmann as the Phantom? Or, can you tell us anything about Peter Hofmann's original run? This is all very exciting that someone who worked with the original Hamburg company has something to share with this group - and having to been around Peter - I am jumping at the opportunity to learn more!

I can only imagine that once the official pictures were out there was no further activity. Peter wasn't obliged to attend any rehearsals after the premiere so he just turned up in time for the shows, cutting it closer and closer the more he and his make-up team honed their skills, opportunities to take informal pictures of him were practically zero.

Adding that there aren't too many of Anna Maria Kaufmann - or the other original cast members - either. There were 8 photos of him in the original Hamburg souvenir brochure, and a handful more has emerged. But the lack of backstage photos in costume makes sense, if he was a last minute guy.

I can only imagine the surprise of this super tenor of the opera world being signed to sing the Phantom. Even now biographies comment on how unexpected it was. But he was a very good choice. Thank you for the anecdotes!

This is a shot in the dark, but would there happen to be any photos of Renée Knapp in the blue dress from the second act? It came into my care some 10 years ago, and I love it dearly. The bead embroidery and the tailoring is surreal and something I've never seen in other productions. Costume wise hamburg rocks my socks. But I have never been able to find a photo of Renée Knapp wearing the dress, only of Anna Maria Kaufmann and Colby Thomas in very similar ones. Are there anyone in existence at all?

operafantomet wrote:This is a shot in the dark, but would there happen to be any photos of Renée Knapp in the blue dress from the second act? It came into my care some 10 years ago, and I love it dearly. The bead embroidery and the tailoring is surreal and something I've never seen in other productions. Costume wise hamburg rocks my socks. But I have never been able to find a photo of Renée Knapp wearing the dress, only of Anna Maria Kaufmann and Colby Thomas in very similar ones. Are there anyone in existence at all?

If my memory serves me right, Renée used a photo of herself in the 'Wishing' dress (this is the one you mean, isn't it?) as an autograph card, so if you were able to contact her directly you may be in luck. I've not seen her or had contact since she left the show.

By the way: the Hamburg costumes were all made on site. Incredible workshops.

Good luck with your search.

MilesCF wrote:

operafantomet wrote:This is a shot in the dark, but would there happen to be any photos of Renée Knapp in the blue dress from the second act? It came into my care some 10 years ago, and I love it dearly. The bead embroidery and the tailoring is surreal and something I've never seen in other productions. Costume wise hamburg rocks my socks. But I have never been able to find a photo of Renée Knapp wearing the dress, only of Anna Maria Kaufmann and Colby Thomas in very similar ones. Are there anyone in existence at all?

If my memory serves me right, Renée used a photo of herself in the 'Wishing' dress (this is the one you mean, isn't it?) as an autograph card, so if you were able to contact her directly you may be in luck. I've not seen her or had contact since she left the show.

Yes, that's the dress. I sent her an email some years ago, but she never replied. I just didn't want to push it. The autograph cards I've seen of her has been from "Think of Me", but it seems she had several. She might have had a Wishing dress one too. I'll have a look, thank you!

According to the German site ThatsMusicals.de and/or performers confirming rumours, this is the leads for the upcoming Hamburg production:

PHANTOM: Mathias Edenborn
CHRISTINE: Valerie Link
RAOUL: Nicky Wuchinger
CARLOTTA: Rachel Anne Moore
PIANGI: Raymond Sepe

FIRMIN: ?
ANDRÉ: ?
MADAME GIRY: ?
MEG GIRY: ?

When aaaaare weeee gooooing?

operafantomet wrote:According to the German site ThatsMusicals.de and/or performers confirming rumours, this is the leads for the upcoming Hamburg production:

PIANGI: Raymond Sepe

Raymond Sepe?? That's incredible! He was one of our Phantom/Raoul covers back in the '90's. I've got a great story, if anyone's interestd…

MilesCF wrote:

operafantomet wrote:According to the German site ThatsMusicals.de and/or performers confirming rumours, this is the leads for the upcoming Hamburg production:

PIANGI: Raymond Sepe

Raymond Sepe?? That's incredible! He was one of our Phantom/Raoul covers back in the '90's. I've got a great story, if anyone's interestd…

Story please!  

Scorp wrote:

MilesCF wrote:

operafantomet wrote:According to the German site ThatsMusicals.de and/or performers confirming rumours, this is the leads for the upcoming Hamburg production:

PIANGI: Raymond Sepe

Raymond Sepe?? That's incredible! He was one of our Phantom/Raoul covers back in the '90's. I've got a great story, if anyone's interestd…

Story please!  

I don't know whether any of you ever saw Raymond play the Phantom in the '90's, but we didn't have a lot of time to preapre his first performance. I can't remember the details but he only had a few days to learn the part and be thrown on stage. We rehearsed the hell out of the poor guy for hours every day but, come the day itself, he still wasn't 100% sure of his text. We hit upon the following solution: the phonetics and pronunciation coach, Claudia, sat on the understage with a microphone and a monitor of the stage with Raymond as well as one of me conducting and prompted the text to Raymond via a hearing aid-like device he had in his ear. He was brilliant: he never missed a cue, was never late on a pick-up and somehow managed to divide his attention sufficiently to deliver a strong acting performance. A real pro. When he came out for his bow the cast erupted with applause. A very touching moment. He went on to perform the role regularly, getting better each time. I understand he stayed in Germany after his Phantom time finished and I'm delighted he's back with the show.

That's a super trouper! Impressive. I think he's delighted to be back as well.

Browsing the web, I find a lot of German fans who's kinda angry at the upcoming production. Well, not at the upcoming production itself, but at the reduced orchestra. There is apparently a rumour circulating that there'll only be 8 in the pit. I have no idea where this comes from. An early German article writes that there'll be 14 in the pit instead of the original 27:

http://unitedmusicals.de/updates/newsdetails/article/auch-das-phantom-der-oper-mit-kleinem-orchester.html

They will for example not have an acoustic harp, they will not have 5 horns, and they will not have 8 violins. Thing is that not everyone will notice the difference. Yes, the harp sounds beautiful live. But the digital version is a good substitute. And will the audience really tell the difference between 8 violins, or 3 violins and digital additions? I'm not so sure.

The current World Tour of Phantom also have 14 in the pit, I assume the Hamburg production will use these orchestrations. If so, the instruments will be these:

Concert Master/Violin
Violin x 2 (3 with Concert Master)
Viola
Cello
Bass
Flute/Piccolo
Flute
Clarinet/Eb Clarinet/Bass Clarinet
Clarinet
Horn x 2
Percussion Keyboards x 2

New Cast Phantom Hamburg:
Phantom: Mathias Edenborn / Christine Daeé: Valerie Link / Raoul Vicomte de Chagny: Nicky Wuchinger / Mon. Firmin: Anton Rattinger / Mon. Andre: Guido Gottenbos / Carlotta Guidicelle: Rachel Anne Moore / Ubaldo Piangi: Raymond Sepe / Mme. Giry: Michaela Christl / Meg Giry: Theano Makariou / Phantom alternierend: to be announced / Christine alternierend: Lauri Brons
Ensemble:
Kurosch Abbasi: Cover Raoul, Cover Phantom / Daniela Braun:Ensemble / Christopher Carduck: Ensemble / Gabrielle Cerlotti: Ensemble / Amy Docktor: Ensemble / John Ellis: Cover Piangi / Marco Fahrland-Jadue: Cover Mon. Reyer, temp. Cover Raoul / Debra Fernandes: Cover Carlotta / Mona Graw: Confidante, Cover Mme. Giry / Holly Hylton: Ensemble / Mami Iwai: Ensemble / Marcel Jonker: Buquet, Cover Don Attilio / Norbert Kohler: Mr. Reyer, Cover Andre / John Kuether: Don Attilio, Cover Firmin / Kate Kuether: Cover Meg Giry / Oedo Kuipers: Cover Raoul, Cover Mon. Reyer / Miki Nakamura: Ensemble / Justin Peck: Dancecaptain / Tanja Petrasek: Cover Confidante / Rob Pitcher: Cover Phantom / Antonio Rivera: Cover Piangi / Martin Rönnebecker: Lefevre, Cover Firmin / Hinako Sakuraoka: Cover Meg Giry / Corinne Schaefer: Mme. Firmin, Cover Carlotta / Svetlana Schenk: Ensemble / Reinhard Schulze: Ensemble / Christian Theodoridis: Cover Buquet, Cover Don Attilio, Cover Lefevre / Kelly Turner: Ensemble / Michelle van de Ven: Mirror Bride, Cover Christine / Linda Veenhuizen: Cover Mme. Giry

http://www.stage-entertainment.de/musicals-shows/das-phantom-der-oper-hamburg.html

http://www.musicalinsider.io/2013/09/13/besetzung-fuer-phantom-der-oper-bekannt-gegeben/?fb_source=pubv1

Reinhard Schulze! That's amazing, he was in the cast back in the early 1990's. Lovely man, a real professional.

Actually, John Kuether sounds familiar, too…

MilesCF wrote:Actually, John Kuether sounds familiar, too…

He's been the Auctioneer on Broadway in recent years.

And of course that's Kate Wray's name beside him, as you've been married a great number of Year's now. She was Meg about 8 years ago on the US Tour. They both appeared in the Basel production together.
And there's Rob Pitcher, Rebecca Pitcher's brother..
Kurosch Abbasi is currently Lucheni in the Vienna production of ELISABETH. This explains why he is missing so many shows there in October and November. Good for him getting to cover two of his dream roles.
Can't help bug be envious of this group of actfs appearing

MajesticPhantom wrote:And of course that's Kate Wray's name beside him, as you've been married a great number of Year's now. She was Meg about 8 years ago on the US Tour. They both appeared in the Basel production together.

THAT'S where I remember them from, thanks! Lovely man, lovely girl. She's English, isn't she?

She is, indeed! She also appeared in the show at Her Majesty's! I assume before Basel.

Video interview with the principal trio here, where they go and visit the good Lord of Sydmonton so he can tell them that they're starring in a load of hokum: http://www.ndr.de/unterhaltung/events/phantomderoper121.html

According to the article, ALW's written a new cadenza for the end of 'Think of Me' specially for Valerie Link. I wonder if that turns out to be true...

Scorp wrote:According to the article, ALW's written a new cadenza for the end of 'Think of Me' specially for Valerie Link. I wonder if that turns out to be true...

Could well be. David Caddick wrote one for Anna Maria Kaufmann in 1991…

Valerie Link (Christine) and Mathias Edenborn (Phantom) on TV - from yesterday ( I am disappointed, but will see it live next year, my ticket is already booked)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVYak_S-XaA&sns=fb

SweetChristine wrote:Valerie Link (Christine) and Mathias Edenborn (Phantom) on TV - from yesterday ( I am disappointed, but will see it live next year, my ticket is already booked)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVYak_S-XaA&sns=fb

The problem with that electric guitar is that it drowns out so many Christines, even the popular ones. Sarah Brightman might well have been the only one who could be heard properly against all those riffs.

Can't make up my mind on this yet...but it seems OK so far. Mathias worried me at the start as he sounded a little like Uwe...but less so as the song progressed.

And here are the Alternates for Hamburg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bp80GMICw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWIqd3MY3Ao

Short new video to Hamburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIDbcqoDpIA&feature=youtu.be

It appears that a veritable sh*tstorm has been taking place on the official Facebook page for the Hamburg production this week.

It turns out that many long-time fans of the show in Germany were deeply disappointed and felt misled by the slogans proclaiming the return of the original, because in fact the "original" has returned with its orchestra diminished by over 50% (from 29 originally to a now meagre 14). Demonstrations took place outside the Neue Flora, while on Facebook, fans started criticising both the orchestra cuts and the casting (comparisons of the new principals with Peter Hoffman and Anna Maria Kaufmann do not appear to have been favourable from either fans or the press, although Stage Entertainment did fly Hal Prince in to say that, in fact, the cast was one of the best).

Stage Entertainment, unfortunately, do not appear to have learnt the lessons that RUG has been slow to learn over the last few years. It lashed out at those fans criticising the cuts saying that the page was a fan page and that, if they didn't like it, they could just stay at home. This comment was then deleted, and a big apology was posted the next day (and a statement today). The irony is that, if tempers hadn't been lost by the admins/Stage Entertainment in the first place, not many people (myself included) would have been alerted to the dispute by way of the apologies that appeared on every follower's feed!

It'll be interesting to see what reactions are over the course of time... I was planning to see this but I haven't booked my tickets yet.

I also think it needs to be pointed out that this mounting is using a set that, from my perspective, is not custom built for Neue Flora. The size of the proscenium arch does not fill the actual width of the vast stage. Yes, this is a replica, but I think not adapting to the demands of a space are problematic.

However, I was not at the Neue Flora during the original run, so I can only surmise, through images of it, that the set was larger and more adapted to the playing space. Can anyone confirm that this Hamburg revival is indeed a smaller playing space on the vast Neue Flora?

Masquerade new Cast Hamburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WhStXVCSMLg

Title Song new Cast Hamburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8xpaZ0Xpc&feature=youtu.be

Rebecca Pitcher's brother, Rob, makes his debut performance as the Phantom in Hamburg tonight! I remember years back when he understudied for the role of Raoul.

Valerie Link Think of Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QJ-xkShYHc

Yesterday Michelle van de Ven had her premiere as Christine.

Rob Pitcher played some shows in the last weeks.
Kurosch Abbasi is not (more) in the ensemble and not cover Raoul and Phantom.

MajesticPhantom wrote:I also think it needs to be pointed out that this mounting is using a set that, from my perspective, is not custom built for Neue Flora. The size of the proscenium arch does not fill the actual width of the vast stage. Yes, this is a replica, but I think not adapting to the demands of a space are problematic.

However, I was not at the Neue Flora during the original run, so I can only surmise, through images of it, that the set was larger and more adapted to the playing space. Can anyone confirm that this Hamburg revival is indeed a smaller playing space on the vast Neue Flora?

Yes I have done some digging and found a few pics of the new proscenium being loaded in and it is smaller and more 'traditional' looking, which might look a bit small in the space. But, I did read in an article many years ago that Maria herself was not happy with how things turned out in the original Hamburg designs, particularly with the proscenium. Until that point Phantom had not played on such a large venue and she commented that she thought they went overboard in the size of the proscenium. If you look at photos of the original proscenium I can see what she is talking about because the top if it is huge and very long and does not have the nice curve to it that the smaller ones have. To get over technical, it has 4 lyres on each side if the angel and 4 garlands, the current set up has 3 and 3. She had similar reservations when the show went to toronto, thinking that the proscenium looked way too top heavy.

Wish I could post photos here but my photobucket is acting up

the good thing though about Hamburg and the theatre's hugeness is that back in the day (can;t say about now) sets like masquerade were just one large piece that did not have to be dismantled or collapsible, it could just roll off into the HUGE wings.

I am hoping this production lasts because I am hoping beyond all hope to make it to London in January next year and would love to hop across to see it as well as Lion King. Always wanted to see phantom in German

So the current Hamburg production has extended its run, until autumn sometime.

Someone at Det Ny Teater told me that the plan has been all along to extend the run until a year or so, and then Love Never Dies will follow. We'll see…

There are also negotiations for a new Hamburg cast album!