"Phantom" test screening: my review — Page 6

I bet it would have been! Ok...so the movie starts out with a candle and ends with that (safe for the fact that Raoul is at Christine's grave and the whole rose thing). Is the auction in color or in black and white?

How were the managers singing voices? I spoke with someone last night who swore that Cirian Hinds had been in the Phantom of the Opera before as both Phantom and the Raoul...I doubt this, but was just wondering. I know that Simon can sing....or at least he could when Amadeus was made.

~Rachel~

Oy, I'm sorry I even suggested AICN. The talkbalkers are bunch of extremely insecure young men who like to work out their psychological issues by seeing who can be more of a pretentious ass on the board. There are a few smart ones (and women), but that board has an obscene signal-to-noise ratio.

I hope AICN didn't frighten you away from us!

NOOOO! Don't tell us the ending! Unless...

//POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
I deleted this, because...well I was right.
//END

Just say "Yes" or "No". Don't give away the ending! I want to be surprised. And even if someone said, "you don't have to look at it!", then they don't know I have 0% self control when it comes to Phantom...and I would have to look at it :P

Updated On: 10/1/04 at 12:15 AM

Sure... Thanks :)

Rose, I wanna know! PM me!!!!!
Ciaran Hinds...I don't think was ever in the show...

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Rose, if you don't know the answer to BlueRose's question, don't worry! (It was a good question though) I'm a PHAN myself and even I have difficulties spotting the new lyrics.

Heres some more questions from a member of PhantomFans:
During her rendition of think of me, Does the elephant fall on carlotta or is it the backdrop?

how is the chandelier cut down? it seems to me that cutting a rope from backstage seems a little to easy to cut down a 7 tonne chandelier.

is the punjab lasso for raoul in the final lair scene realistic? it always seemed to me as something that could only work onstage.

when she described the deformity as looking like erik's face had been stretched, tell me its not stretchy-face-man from the carnival scene in the trailer? (the 19 second mark)

Do you think that we're being too spoiled? Not by this review, but by the pictures and everything we're seeing? Or is seeing it an entirley different experience on its own? I'm getting worried that I'm going to know every little bit before I actually see the movie :P

I feel a bit silly asking this, but some people have noticed that in pictures it seems that Patrick's sideburns change in direction in different scenes. Is this something that you noticed in the film?

I didn't notice that at all.

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That's what I'm talking about, Jake! That's also one of the best parts in Think of Me. I hope she can sing those vocalizations successfully.

~Rachel~

Hi... Thank you soooooo much for you patience in answering the questions we phans have about the movie (or at least the ones that we can mutter out amidst our drooling gaping mouths as we scower the internet for additional info about the film) ANYWAY TO MY QUESTIONS:

I am a musical theater major at a very respected institution for the theater arts and music. Quality musicianship is very key to our program... I am very critical of vocal quality in musical theater. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor I found appaulling in terms of their singing... I would be quite bothered if Emmy's interpretation of Christine results in a similar effect as Nicole Kidman's Satine. Nicole hit the notes thanks to the mircales of modern computer technology and excessive added reverb. But she would not have a prayer if she were forced to singing live (without her friends at the recording studio/lab spending hours altering her voice to the point beyond recognition). So what I want to know is: Does Emmy have a resonance and maturity to her sound? And does her vibrato have real consistancy (or does she even have a developed enough voice to start producing vibrato)? I just don't want the show to have that EXTENDED MTV Music Video quality that made evita LONG... OH so long! I just pray that she doesn't sound like a pop singer trying unsuccessfully to sound like a trained broadway performer (so few can... Queen Latifah can! Buy her new CD! Vocal Jazz and a musical theater flair :) Nicely trained voice)

The phantom really does not have to have a absolutely mind blowing, technically accurate voice in my opinion, however. Pitch as always is curcial and if I heard someone singing a song from Phantom outside of the show I would demand vocal quality and a real command of a classical foundation in vocal study. Not that he would sound like a opera singer... but would have studied to the point that a performer can really develop the musical line and phrases without resorting to gimicks and cliches to be expressive. So many more options. But in the show Eriks/phantoms voice is masked with reverb (and effectively so) because he is echoing from some unseen location. It is creepy. Micheal Crawford is a HORRIBLE singer! HORRIBLE... he has to have vocal folds of steal as he essentially is shredding his vocal folds everytime he sings. BUT I didn't reallize how bad he was until I saw him singing out side of phantom. His voice worked for that one role... but see him in Hello Dolly or those god awful programs he does on PBS. He always sounds like the phantom... strained, strained, strained! but it works for a creepy/romantic figure clouded in shadow and echo in a opera house. so....

SECOND QUESTION:

Are the characters mouths moving always when they are singing? Let me elaborate (I am long winded sorry), I hate it when in some contemporary filmed musicals... such as evita... when a song is song that relays an inner though the film maker/ director opt to act like the music is in there head and they don't move their lips... the voice is in the characters head. I find that is distracts from the theatrical excitement a musical gives us. Chicago had theatrical presence I felt like I had just walked out of a stage show. AND the characters sang fully and for the most part they sang well. I hope that this film retains its origins and does not move to do the "my inner thoughs as a musical voice over" rather than the character singing the song as if it were an actual staged show.

Thank you for listening to my long winded diatribes and I hope you can answer my questions :) Thanks.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I love Emmy! Especially now that she "kicks operatic ass"! WOO HOO

Again, I have another question from [b]Fishy[/b] from PhantomFans.Net...though its something I've been wondering too.

-What is with the Phantom being very very obviously the Phantom onstage during PONR? Does everyone (like the police, Raoul, etc.) know that he has murdered Piangi and is everything but getting it on with Christine? I just want to know how they handle PONR, with the Phantom disguised as Piangi disguised as Passarino...except...yeah.

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I know you said something before about Christine being hypnotized, but...this does seem somewhat confusing to me???