YouTube clips

Oh boo, it's the LND Dressing Gown. Makes sense though.

JOJ is so amazing, wish I could get to England and see it. Sierra's voice sounds like it has changed quite a bit since Vegas.

Bleh. Kind of awkward staging, but not impressed with either of their performances on that song.

Apparently LND didn't win crap. God is with us.

The staging was definitely meeeh. They should probably have introduced the Phantom on a later stage. They hold back the "good stuff" (entrance of Phantom/Christine, the boat, the candelabras) on stage for a reason.

But that was two lovely voices singing the title song. Maybe not as epic as I had expected, but their voices really suited eachother, and I dig JOJ. I join others in the speculations... I think both JOJ and Boggess sung live, except the title song cadenza. Boggess is a bit Brightman - she has a nice lower range, and she also has a nice upper range as long as she don't have to deal with lyrics... (good thing that LND title song hasn't killed her voice, she often sounded strained at the latter half). I think she easily could have done the cadenza live, but her singing kinda looked... mimed.

Costume wise, the LND dressing gown blended well with the rest. It's a variation of the Bjørnson's design, a white dress with a narrow waist, engageant sleeves, and flounces at the neck opening and down the skirt. I doubt anyone by Phantom fans even noticed the difference. Sierra Boggess' wig was a bit odd, though. It looked thin. No long hair in the back, cause everything is moved to the front. But it isn't particularly thick there either. A LND wig, meant for a completely different hairdo?

Do you think they used the HMT boat and candelabras, seeing the theatre is dark on Sundays? Or could it have been a spare set, for example from the UK tour?

operafantomet wrote:Sierra Boggess' wig was a bit odd, though. It looked thin. No long hair in the back, cause everything is moved to the front. But it isn't particularly thick there either. A LND wig, meant for a completely different hairdo?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed the wig was odd! I think it was a LND wig, because it was shorter at the back.

Jerzy Jeszke Thomas Schulze and Colby Thomas in the Hamburg production.

Nice clip! If I'm not mistaken that's Thomas Schulze in the Wandering Child/Ruehrendes Kind - in fact, he's the Phantom for the whole clip. That gorgeous voice is pretty distinctive.

Loved that video. Thanks so much for posting it. I've never seen it before.

My God, that video is fantastic! I actually like how they've comprised the songs, it creates a nice flow for the video. And interestingly enough, pictures for a German souvenir brochure seems to have been taken along with this video (I remembered several of the poses and moments).

For promotional material and videos, Hamburg, Canada and Japan wins all the way. They seem to understand the whole Phantom universe better than other productions.

Lycanthrope wrote:Nice clip! If I'm not mistaken that's Thomas Schulze in the Wandering Child/Ruehrendes Kind - in fact, he's the Phantom for the whole clip. That gorgeous voice is pretty distinctive.

Thanks for clearing that up!


The other parts in Jeszke's channel include him getting in makeup etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/JerzyJeszke

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:

Lycanthrope wrote:Nice clip! If I'm not mistaken that's Thomas Schulze in the Wandering Child/Ruehrendes Kind - in fact, he's the Phantom for the whole clip. That gorgeous voice is pretty distinctive.

Thanks for clearing that up!


The other parts in Jeszke's channel include him getting in makeup etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/JerzyJeszke

You're welcome.
I just want to express my love of the third clip in that sequence - namely the beginning. It's brilliant, quite frankly - the B/W shots of Phantom composing with Christine's Denk an mich/TOM resounding in quite a haunting way, and then the camera 'ascending' into Denk an mich (with Hannibal backdrop and whole cast onstage) - wonder whether Joel Schumacher got the inspiration for that part of the movie here. Except this is better than that . I've seen parts of the footage before, but to see all of it is a real treat, thanks a lot for that!

Lycanthrope wrote:
I just want to express my love of the third clip in that sequence - namely the beginning. It's brilliant, quite frankly - the B/W shots of Phantom composing with Christine's Denk an mich/TOM resounding in quite a haunting way, and then the camera 'ascending' into Denk an mich (with Hannibal backdrop and whole cast onstage) - wonder whether Joel Schumacher got the inspiration for that part of the movie here. Except this is better than that . I've seen parts of the footage before, but to see all of it is a real treat, thanks a lot for that!

There really are similarities, when you think about it!

Isn't that Timothy Breese as Raoul? Wasn't he in the Viennese production too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE9HQ24773k

2:45 and a bit out - good video clips of the Lon Chaney statue from Masquerade! This clip is a 5,5 minute long clip from the last Hamburg performance, of vulnerable housewiphes big fans telling of their affection for the show, and them getting a backstage tour with Colby Thomas. Also a glimpse from Colby Thomas warming up, and from the final curtain call.

Lycanthrope wrote:I just want to express my love of the third clip in that sequence - namely the beginning. It's brilliant, quite frankly - the B/W shots of Phantom composing with Christine's Denk an mich/TOM resounding in quite a haunting way, and then the camera 'ascending' into Denk an mich (with Hannibal backdrop and whole cast onstage) - wonder whether Joel Schumacher got the inspiration for that part of the movie here. Except this is better than that .

Indeed! It reminds a lot of the movie (or rather opposite, as this is from the mid 90s).

Am I the only one getting a kick of seeing Colby Thomas wearing a Carlotta costume for "Denk an mich"?

operafantomet wrote:

Lycanthrope wrote:I just want to express my love of the third clip in that sequence - namely the beginning. It's brilliant, quite frankly - the B/W shots of Phantom composing with Christine's Denk an mich/TOM resounding in quite a haunting way, and then the camera 'ascending' into Denk an mich (with Hannibal backdrop and whole cast onstage) - wonder whether Joel Schumacher got the inspiration for that part of the movie here. Except this is better than that .

Indeed! It reminds a lot of the movie (or rather opposite, as this is from the mid 90s).

Am I the only one getting a kick of seeing Colby Thomas wearing a Carlotta costume for "Denk an mich"?

Hah, well I was wondering why she was wearing that ostentatious necklace.

As for the Raoul...well, he sounds rather English/American, rather than German, when he says "Christine". Other than that I'm not as quick to identify Raouls as I am Phantoms - plus there were a lot of English/American actors in the Hamburg production.

Lycanthrope wrote:As for the Raoul...well, he sounds rather English/American, rather than German, when he says "Christine". Other than that I'm not as quick to identify Raouls as I am Phantoms - plus there were a lot of English/American actors in the Hamburg production.

It is indeed Timothy Breese as Raoul, and yes, he also played the role in Vienna. The Hamburg clips here are from ca. 1993 (judging by when the brochure with pics from this filming was released), while he played Raoul in Vienna ca. 1991.

You're right about the amount of American/English musical theatre artists in Germany. It's still a lot of them. In Hamburg's Phantom they had many such leads. Colby Thomas, Ian Jon Bourg, Timothy Breese, David Gaschen, Dale Tracy...

operafantomet wrote:

Lycanthrope wrote:As for the Raoul...well, he sounds rather English/American, rather than German, when he says "Christine". Other than that I'm not as quick to identify Raouls as I am Phantoms - plus there were a lot of English/American actors in the Hamburg production.

It is indeed Timothy Breese as Raoul, and yes, he also played the role in Vienna. The Hamburg clips here are from ca. 1993 (judging by when the brochure with pics from this filming was released), while he played Raoul in Vienna ca. 1991.

You're right about the amount of American/English musical theatre artists in Germany. It's still a lot of them. In Hamburg's Phantom they had many such leads. Colby Thomas, Ian Jon Bourg, Timothy Breese, David Gaschen, Dale Tracy...

You're right about the clips being from 1993 - Colby Thomas has a picture of her in the Wishing gown, evidently a screenshot from the video, listed on her website as being from that year.
I find it quite amusing to listen to Phantom in German and pick out the English/American actors if you can hear their accent. I don't know who's the Meg on the Viennese recording but her veeery English sounding "Christine Daae koennte den Part singen, Monsieur" always makes me smile.

This video clip was gorgeous. I noticed a hell of a lot more costumes I've never seen before, plus, details that must be unique to the production.

I like how everything flowed. If I didn't already know the story, this would have me intrigued - for sure!

Also, I gotta say, I wish something like this was done with the original cast.

the Schultze/Thomas you tube video was fantastic, I wish they would have the whole Final Lair, but beautifully filmed, absolutely magnificent,

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

Just wanted to show how my stuff works, lol.

Dude, that's awesome.

I'm late to the party regarding those Hamburg clips, those are amazing and go to show that if done properly, with interesting angles and some onstage filming, a DVD of the stage version can be totally awsome.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bajanwhiteboy

more shameless self promotion

I'm not sure if it's okay to post this, but this is the 'effects' used in a high school production, which sticks pretty close to Bjornson's designs (check out the chandelier - it's impressively close). However, what amused me most was that the Phantom - wait for it - flies during Wandering Child to escape Raoul's reach (coupled with reverb on his mike). Cracked me up, although it's a well-executed production - I live in hope that other amateur productions are this well thought-out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5n0TegPklY

sweet, loving that chandelier.

Lycanthrope wrote:I'm not sure if it's okay to post this, but this is the 'effects' used in a high school production, which sticks pretty close to Bjornson's designs (check out the chandelier - it's impressively close). However, what amused me most was that the Phantom - wait for it - flies during Wandering Child to escape Raoul's reach (coupled with reverb on his mike). Cracked me up, although it's a well-executed production - I live in hope that other amateur productions are this well thought-out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5n0TegPklY

Did...did the Phantom just throw glitter at Raoul? (That aside, I kind of like the flying idea...)

Their chandelier looks amazing. They must have an awesome booster club!

~LCD

LadyCDaae wrote:

Lycanthrope wrote:I'm not sure if it's okay to post this, but this is the 'effects' used in a high school production, which sticks pretty close to Bjornson's designs (check out the chandelier - it's impressively close). However, what amused me most was that the Phantom - wait for it - flies during Wandering Child to escape Raoul's reach (coupled with reverb on his mike). Cracked me up, although it's a well-executed production - I live in hope that other amateur productions are this well thought-out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5n0TegPklY

Did...did the Phantom just throw glitter at Raoul? (That aside, I kind of like the flying idea...)

Their chandelier looks amazing. They must have an awesome booster club!

~LCD

Yes, I believe that was glitter. Or magic pixie dust to make Raoul fly off to Never Never Land with him.

Chandieler did look cool. Not so sure about the flying. And I think they might've let Bouquet hang there a little too long, but cool they actually had a person doing that like in Vegas.

SenorSwanky wrote:

LadyCDaae wrote:

Lycanthrope wrote:I'm not sure if it's okay to post this, but this is the 'effects' used in a high school production, which sticks pretty close to Bjornson's designs (check out the chandelier - it's impressively close). However, what amused me most was that the Phantom - wait for it - flies during Wandering Child to escape Raoul's reach (coupled with reverb on his mike). Cracked me up, although it's a well-executed production - I live in hope that other amateur productions are this well thought-out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5n0TegPklY

Did...did the Phantom just throw glitter at Raoul? (That aside, I kind of like the flying idea...)

Their chandelier looks amazing. They must have an awesome booster club!

~LCD

Yes, I believe that was glitter. Or magic pixie dust to make Raoul fly off to Never Never Land with him.

Chandieler did look cool. Not so sure about the flying. And I think they might've let Bouquet hang there a little too long, but cool they actually had a person doing that like in Vegas.

I'd forgotten about the glitter...so the Phantom no longer has the skull staff of doom, but the Abominable Glitter as a deterrent. I thought the performers were pretty damn decent as well.

Booh, they didn't make that chandelier. They ordered it from here; http://www.zfxflying.com/gear-services/scenic-costumes/phantom-of-the-opera-chandelier/

Laziness I say! I think it gives everyone an opportunity to show their talents when they make everything from scratch. Same for costumes, but I understand if minor characters have catalogue-costumes.

Also on that same page;

We don’t just fly chandeliers either; we are also an industry leader in performer flying. Create mysterious entrances and exits for your Phantom or let ZFX provide a realistic hanging effect while keeping your performer comfortable and safe.

And that explains a lot.

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:Booh, they didn't make that chandelier. They ordered it from here; http://www.zfxflying.com/gear-services/scenic-costumes/phantom-of-the-opera-chandelier/

I'm surprised they're allowed to sell items based on someone else's design... Especially that of a major (and still running) musical. RUG are hard on the fans, and kind with those exploiting their copyrights...? Or are these chandelier licensed by the RUG?

I believe those zfx chandeliers are licensed by R.U.G because they have a partnership with R&H, If I am not mistaken, doesn't zfx handle the hanging effect in Vegas?