watch phantom of the opera 25th anniversary

When a falling backdrop barely misses resident soprano Carlotta Giudicelli, everyone blames 'The Phantom of the Opera,' who has troubled them for the past three years. In 1881, the Opéra Populaire's retiring owner, Lefevre, interrupts rehearsals for the grand opera Hannibal to introduce the company to his successors, Richard Firmin and Gilles André ('Hannibal Rehearsal'). The auctioneer presents a restored chandelier as the next item up for bid, noting its connection to 'the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained.' As the mammoth fixture comes to life, the theatre's former grandeur returns ('Overture'). In 1905 Paris, France, during an auction hosted by the defunct Opéra Populaire, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny purchases a music box an unknown woman told him about, noting it appears just as she described it. In order to enable more people to see the production, the final performance was relayed live to cinemas around the world via Fathom Events. Tickets for the three performances sold out within five hours of going on sale.

The orchestra was elevated on a platform and backed by a screen which the opera sets were projected onto, with LED screens on the lower portions of performance stage. The balconies of the hall were used to build uprights to form an opera house proscenium with boxes on each side. As a concert hall rather than a theatre, many of the show's elements (such as the chandelier, which instead of falling, exploded) had to be toned down and simplified: the Royal Albert Hall was simply not capable of accepting a show the size of The Phantom of the Opera, or at least not the full original. As a result, the event was planned as a full show.ĭesigning the staged show at the Royal Albert Hall was a daunting task, as the space (or lack thereof) was not an easy one to translate a proscenium show into. Designer Matt Kinley initially planned to hold a concert-style production not unlike the Les Misérables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 Arena, but Mackintosh made it clear the show would be fully staged, as both he and Lloyd Webber felt it would not work unless it was the whole show. To mark the milestone of 25 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh planned a special 3-day production to take place at London's Royal Albert Hall in October 2011.

Watch phantom of the opera 25th anniversary