“the box was taken.”
faerie tale feet painting inspired by gaston leroux’s the phantom of the opera.
“the box was taken.”
faerie tale feet painting inspired by gaston leroux’s 1911 novel, Le Fantome de L’Opera.
I've seen the musical Phantom of the Opera live on stage (usually from the back row!) a couple of times. And, because I've always been super-intrigued about where stories started, I had read the classic Gaston Leroux novel (Le Fantome de L'Opera, first published in 1911) as well.
But of course, when you're doing research into a tale, you learn so much more that you hadn't noticed when "merely" enjoying a story!
I remember seeing the musical and both times being utterly confused at the opening auction scene. And I think I'm not alone at having been lead by Andrew Lloyd Webber into rooting for the inspiring Phantom over her mortal beau of Raoul. (As in, who even is this guy??)
In the book, I root for neither of them. And I personally take much more kindly to the (botched, as far as true-to-the-source-material) 1943 film version in which she leaves all bumbling suitors behind and pursues her career, instead.
And as I'd first read the book as a younger person, a lot of the insinuations of Christine’s “purity” and the “ecstasy” the Phantom was leading her to via her talents and song were lost on me. But what I do appreciate, in most all versions, even as a fully-fledged grown-up now, is the mystery.
Phantom’s author, Gaston Leroux, was a career journalist and an author of detective novels. And as my tastes in literature lean towards magical realism and not just the stark facts of reality, I much prefer to read Phantom with the lens of supernatural leanings, and not just the logical Sherlock-esque clue-gatherings of illusion and facts and plausibility. I like to believe it’s beyond reasonable explanation of how the “Opera Ghost” could perform such tricks and maneuvers within and below the infamous opera house.
But we all know there is magic in stagecraft. And architecture, for that matter. In Leroux’s book, Erik, i.e. the Opera Ghost, i.e. The Phantom of the Opera, was one of the chief architects to help Charles Garnier design the famous Paris Opera house, also known as the Palais Garnier. Erik therefore knew its secrets and perhaps even secretly crafted his own lair (and lots of secrets traps and escape routes) to remain hidden from the world and wallow in his deformity and angry self-consciousness.
Over the past century, there has much psychoanalysis of the tale. Christine Daaé's Stockholm Syndrome, the tale’s mirroring of the Beauty & the Beast faerie tale, parallels to Dr. Faustus, Greek myths that extol the trials of artists who struggle against the gods for love of a woman, exploring deformity and societal norms, as well as mental health and abuse of power (even at the hands of her violinist father, not just the Phantom). There have been many historical research missions into the parallels of Christine Daaé to the Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson, and debate about which disease(s) Erik/The Phantom was suffering from to cause his mania and grotesque physical appearances. I also can’t help but pick up on vibes from Pygmalion/My Fair Lady. There’s both a genius, and then the other, unremarkable, guy, who gets the lady’s love after the art of transformation is complete. Although Henry Higgins was a bit less devastated about it than the enraged Phantom, Professor Higgins was indeed dreadfully disappointed in feeling like all this work was for naught if Eliza ended up married to poor Freddy Eynsford-HIll.
But at the root of it, I choose to believe we all love a good story about music. About unexpected muses (whether supernatural, or super-human), about talents elevating our souls to a personal place of rapture, and their powers to convey immeasurable joy and awe to others when we express them. And while all nerdy gals like me may dream of, or at least love to read about, two suitors and a love triangle, none of us ought to hide a relationship or be in fear of those who love us. So I say: be empowered by Christine's rise to fame, and don't fear the next success as your potential downfall as she did. Celebrate the cultivation of her talents from mediocrity and complacency to her belief that her father had sent her an Angel of Music from the other side of the grave to tutor her. And don't let love or fear or marriage or society's expectations hinder you from pursuing your creative call in life.
Another pretty fascinating study has been the Phantom's mask itself. Taking into account all the hints given in Leroux's book, our best guess is that his mask was a full-faced black mask (although his forehead is still visible.) In the 1925 silent film version, Lon Chaney wears a terrifying full-face porcelain doll-like mask with a piece of fabric over his mouth that flutters when he (silently for the audience) speaks. Andrew LLoyd Weber, however, was the one who immortalized the white half-face mask (and added that jaunty black fedora.)
Have a look at my painting process for my faerie tale feet piece “the box was taken.” below. (Including a total re-start of composition and technique!) Then I’ll break down all the the included story iconography, share my exhaustive research resources list, and share some favorite quotes from the original book as well. Happy music-making to you, my angels!
So this is how the visual process begins. After reading multiple retellings and histories, and the original multiple times over, plus watching stage and screen versions, I sit down at my drafting table, sketchbook and mini moleskin notebook full of story notes in hand.
I narrow down the story notes I’ve taken to the shapes to represent moments or characters to best tell the tale for the painted background pattern. I copy the drawings out of my sketchbook at different ratios so they’re of consistent proportions- I’ll retrace these photocopied drawings to make my background pattern drawing.
Here I am at my lightbox, tracing all the story icons, twisting each this way and that, to fill up my background pattern drawing. I also drew in the Phantom’s mask (see the light red line? the eye socket overlapping the rose and horse hoof?), and as you’ll see in the painting process to come, made that visible just by changing the colors of each shape within the mask.
Abandoned first attempt in progress seen here! My first concept was Erik descending the staircase down to his inky river with a chandelier hanging over the story iconography.
This was as far as I got on our first concept before I regrouped. Erik’s red cape (the masquerade Opera ball), actual Faust sheet music for the staircase, a golden chandelier inspired by the real one at Palais Garnier. Story icons painted in layers of ink washes on illustration board. I didn’t love it. I started over.
So after I re-drew my background pattern full of story iconography, this time in an oblong 11x14” shape instead of a square. I re-traced my drawing down to illustration board with graphite paper, and here I am filling in the background paint color around allllll those shapes.
The background gouache has to be done in one sitting- usually upwards of 5 hours. Then, over the next days and weeks, I can mix up a new color of paint for each story icon, and fill in all the cats the same shade of periwinkle. Or mix up a sky blue for the Opera Ghost’s envelope…
Fun fact: I mixed a total of 41 unique colors of gouache to fill in the story icons. You’ll also see that the shapes in the mask are tints of the colors each shape is outside in the regularly patterned background. I mix my paints on paper plates so I can save the paint for future paintings.
The last detail to the painted background was india ink candelabras and the Phantom’s underground lake.
Another fun fact: the stage curtain at Palais Garnier is actually a trompe l’oeil painting. The actual curtains were both too heavy and would get too dusty to clean regularly. So here I am with a photo of the painted curtain, recreating a piece of it in watercolour to overlay for my Phantom piece.
I used an exacto knife to cut out my finished curtain painting, and in the final, it hovers above the gouache and ink painting beneath. so this is the final painting, minus the green tape keeping my boarders clean. it’s gonna look GREAT in a frame!! :D
search the background painting to find these pieces of included original story iconography:
Horseshoes: a theatre crew and performer tradition to rub it before entering the theatre; in France, posted right-side-up in order to collect all the good luck falling from the heavens.
Two masks: Christine’s was black at the masquerade, the domino mask she told Raoul to wear was white. This is the night the Phantom appears as The Red Death, dressed in all scarlet with a huge hat, recreating Death from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death.” An infamous number in the stage production.
Keys: M. Armand Moncharmin and M. Firmin Richard, the Palais Garnier’s newest managers as the book opens, receive two tiny keys that grant them access to all of the Opera House’s 2,537 doors.
Envelopes: Madame Giry and the managers all receive mysterious letters and demands addressed in red ink with the Opera Ghost’s wax seal
Rose: often left behind in Box Five, the Opera Ghost’s reserved place for every performance
Violin: Christine Daaé’s father was a poor, Scandinavian violinist
Toad: Carlotta, the Opera’s resident Prima Donna diva, gets a throat-croaking malady when the theatre managers refuse to give the title role for that evening’s performance to Christine
Apollo’s Golden Lyre: an infamous statue atop the roof of the Opera House; even up so high above the city of lights, Christine and Raoul cannot escape the Phantom’s watchful, jealous gaze
Gold Ring: Christine returns from her unexplained two-week absence with a plain gold ring on her finger; Raoul believes her married to the Phantom; also slipped by Christine onto an unordinary skeleton currently housed in the archives of the National Academy of Music
The White Horse: César, missing from the Opera’s stables, which the Phantom uses to escort Christine down to his lair
Safety Pin: a failed attempt of the managers to catch the Phantom in the act of stealing the money (his grandiose monthly allowance) pinned into their suits
Cat with Star Eyes: Raoul doesn’t know if the Phantom was peering at him outside his bedroom window, or if it was a cat. But there was blood on the balcony after he fired shots at the creature’s eyes.
Feathers: Mme. Giry’s bonnet had two black feathers; she was both the keeper of the Phantom’s box, company ballet dancer Meg Giry’s mother, and reinstated in her role after her replacement was crushed by the falling chandelier (supposedly 220 tons; its electrical replacement only 7 tons in weight) on that infamous performance night.
Bronze Key: Christine’s only hope of freeing Raoul and the Persian from the Phantom’s trap
The Grasshopper & The Scorpion: made of Japanese bronze, they were inside miniature ebony caskets. The Phantom left Christine with an ultimatum and the little bronze key to open the caskets. Christine had until 11pm. If she turned the Grasshopper, it meant she had refused the Phantom’s proposal of marriage, and he would blow up the Opera and all of its attendees at that evening’s performance; if she decided to marry the Phantom, she would turn the Scorpion to say yes, and Raoul and the Persian, stuck inside the forest torture-chamber room, alongside all the kegs of gunpowder, would be drowned.
The Lake & Candelabras: rowing across the underground lake to the Phantom’s lair— also my favorite scene in the Broadway production. (The lake does indeed exist beneath the Palais Garnier, dug out during construction to help hold the weight of the massive Opera House in Paris’s soggy soil. Today, Parisian firemen use it for training to practice rescuing drowning victims in the dark; no thank you!)
yes, this faerie tale feet piece has no feet of our title character like most works in this series. but i thought a MASK gave the same vibe: it can be any of us as the muse or the teaching magician. throw yourself into the story and see how you come out the other side.
You never know what retellings will inspire the imagination! (Think I was only one of three people to read this one this year according to goodreads… ;D )
Things I love include sticky flags while reading. And ridiculous excuses to buy books. ;)
story research resources:
The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, 1911. Signet Classics, New American Library, Penguin Group, published 1987, new introduction by Dr. John L. Flynn, 2001; new afterward by J.R. Ward, 2010.
The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, 1911. Annotated and Illustrated by Michael Grant Kellermeyer, 2016. Oldstyle Tales Press.
Highlights from The Phantom of the Opera, The Original Cast Recording. Starring Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, Steve Barton, and cast. 1987, The Really Useful Group PLC, PolyGram Records.
The Phantom of the Opera, a Joel Schumacher Film. 2004, Warner Brothers Entertainment.
The Phantom of the Opera, 1925 silent film version, starring Lon Chaney. Mostly accurate to the book (except for the opening slide that indicates the stories below the opera house were medieval torture chambers and not, as in reality, dug to permit the swampy drainage of Paris during construction from 1861-1875). Also ends in a mob chase and the Phantom being thrown into the Seine— which was definitely not in the book. It's also the only adaptation I found that includes the awkward scorpion and grasshopper figurines in their ebony caskets that Christine must decide between in order to either blow up the entire Opera House and its audience, or to marry the Phantom.
The Phantom of the Opera, 1943 movie. Claude Raines gives a brilliantly subtle performance, and his character is an amalgamation of both the Phantom and Christine's violinist father. This adaptation is famous for its unresolved plot thread that alludes to this fired opera violinist being Christine's father, a story note that was attempted to be spliced from the film for fear of being construed as incestual pinings for his daughter. In the movie, this violinist is fired from the opera because of arthritis, and ends up murdering a music publisher who he believes to have stolen his concerto. The publisher's paramour assistant throws acid on him, he escapes to the sewers, and since he can no longer pay Christine's fancy voice tutor anonymously, he becomes her Angel of Music himself. What I appreciated about this adaptation was not its plot (and the very little resemblance it has to Leroux's novel), but its fantastically painted trompe l'eoil stage sets (filmed during WWII, movie budgets were slim for set building!), and the fact it was aiming to be more of a Technicolor musical than a serious, dramatic adaptation of the classic gothic novel. The staged operas were terrific (and original; set to classical music, but not real operas because getting foreign music rights during the war was impossible). Plus, Christine has two suitors (a policeman investigating the Phantom and the odd Opera happenings; as well as her long-lost childhood pal Raoul) who provide all the comic relief for this picture. And aside from her rejection of both suitors for the sake of her career (even at the time of the novel, a girl would have to leave the Opera if she got married, no matter if she were the Prima Donna or simply a company ballerina!), the most entertaining part of this film to me was the stage manager who would pantomime both a long nose and long beard anytime he wanted to ascribe a mysterious occurrence to the infamous and invisible Opera Ghost.
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, 2011. Directed by Nick Morris and Laurence Conner. Starring Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess, Hadley Fraser, and cast.
Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, recording as performed at The Regent Theatre, Melbourne, 2011. Directed by Brett Sullivan and Simon Phillips. Starring Ben Lewis, Anna O’Byrne, Simon Glesson, and cast. This musical sequel felt as if someone wrote fanfic for the stage and was asked to channel Julie Taymor and Tim Burton. But make it angry and dark and hopeless (with a dash of Manheim Steamroller and pseudo-Baz Luhrman). It included some beautiful ballads and melodies, but mostly bleak. Particularly because the audience is occasionally watching a performance within the performance that isn't supposed to be that great. Awkward and drab and basically a total bummer. One great take-away line that does kind of define the Phantom's own self-awareness from both stage and page: "A man hideous as this, believe me, is capable of anything." I personally much prefer the original Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, as I believe most people do!
RoseBlood, by A.G. Howard. Harry N. Abrams, 2017. A Young Adult modern retelling of the tale from the perspective of a teen at a French boarding school for musical performance.
The Angel of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes Meets The Phantom of the Opera, by Sam Siciliano. Otto Penzler Books, Macmillan, 1994. Here's why I appreciated this title: The author had obviously done as much research as I have into both the Phantom and Sherlock Holmes (see my painting, "the game is afoot" with ooooodles of story clues hidden in the background pattern painting!!) So it's always fun to see worlds and stories collide. Written in Doyle's style, the author let's us "re-read" Leroux's Le Fantome de l'Opera from the sidelines as Sherlock and his cousin observe Christine and Raoul's courtship and the mysterious events plaguing the Palais Garnier. Author Siciliano makes some reference to the other deformed literary monster of Paris, Quasimodo of Notre Dame, and gives us an even larger tour of Paris than Leroux does in his Opera-centric classic. There are some quips you'd swear Sherlock made himself within Doyle's original works, as well as those relevant science-y deductions and observations so ubiquitous of Britain's most famous consulting detective. This book integrates the author's research: giving us a little more cultural context for life in that era (the unlikelyhood of a Vicomte marrying a ballet dancer, although an affair like his older brother was having wouldn't be frowned upon; or the fact that if Christine got married she'd had to of quit singing. Yikes.) So it was rational explanations (would Sherlock settle for anything less?) for all of the Phantom's tricks, as expected. So I'd still love to read an account that gives some supernatural credit to the Phantom’s exploits. It seems like such a waste (to me) that such an eerie, gothic novel with "The Angel of Music" at its core has merely a man to point the finger at. But that's why our imaginations get to play while we read, and in my case, paint, too.
"Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, short story, 1842.
The Phantom of the Opera, Muppets Meet the Classics, by Gaston Leroux and Erik Forrest Jackson. Penguin Workshop, Penguin Young Readers Group, Penguin Random House, 2017. Hi, you know I’m ridiculous. Couldn’t leave this important piece of research unread. ;)
just for fun for the music buffs:
Like keeping track of Gryffindor Common Room passwords while reading through all the Harry Potter books, I kept a list of all the musical works and songs (real or imagined) mentioned in the original novel. My first concept for this faerie tale feet painting included a collage of actual sheet music pages from Faust, but after spending hours on it, I wasn’t happy. So the whole piece changed.
Polyeucte, by Charles Gounod
Roi de Lahore
Romeo and Juliet, by Gounod
Faust
La Juive
Ophelia, from Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas
The Magic Flute
Profeta
Dies Irae
Othello, by Rossini
Kyrie Eleison
Meyerbeer (the composer)
The Resurrection of Lazarus
Don Juan Triumphant (the Phantom’s own work in progress; in the 1943 film, the actor playing pianist Franz Liszt performs it on stage to draw the Phantom out for capture)
bonus:
You know I can never leave behind some great book quotes.
Here were some great ones from the original leroux book:
“You see the ghost everywhere!”
“You meet so many men in dress-clothes at the Opera who are not ghosts.”
“Christine, you must love me!”
“How can you talk like that?
When I sing only for you!”
“The box was taken.”
“I’ll tell you what happened. The ghost was annoyed again!”
“[Christine Daaé] acted throughout as though she were no longer the mistress of her own destiny as though she feared a fresh triumph.”
“… every great musician, every great artist received a visit from the Angel at least once in his life.”
“No one ever sees the Angel; but he is heard by those who are meant to hear him… Then people who do not know that the Angel has visited those persons say that they have genius.”
“Fate links thee to me forever and a day!”
“If they had known that the ghost existed the flesh, I swear they would not have laughed!”
“Poor, unhappy Erik! Shall we pity him? Shall we curse him? He asked only to be ‘some one,’ like everybody else. But he was too ugly! And he had to hide his genius or use it to play tricks with, when, with an ordinary face, he would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind! He had a heart the could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar. Ah, yes, we must needs pity the Opera ghost.”
the original painting has SOLD, but contact me for faerie tale feet pieces still available for collecting! :)
here’s the original all framed up! painting is 11 x 14” (on two layers!), plus acid-free museum board matting and handmade wooden black frame.