The Phantom of the Opera

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Cover of the 1910 edition of the novel

In 1986, Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera was adapted into what is now known as Andrew Lloyd Webber's best known musical—and its producers' claims that it is the single most financially successful entertainment venture of all time may have some truth to them.

Leroux tells what he insists is the true story of a young soprano, Christine, who believes she is being tutored by the "Angel of Music", sent to her from Heaven from her deceased father. Originally considered nothing special, especially compared to her rival and the opera's resident diva, Carlotta, after three months under the Angel's tutelage, Christine shines. The managers quickly realize the depth of her talent... and so does Christine's childhood best friend, Raoul, who sees her in her newfound glory and realizes that She's All Grown Up.

After a show, Raoul is eager to be reacquainted with Christine, but she is kidnapped by the Angel (really the titular Phantom) and taken to his lair. There, the Phantom puts her under his spell with his music and tells her that he wants her for his bride. However, when Christine takes off his mask to reveal his disfigurement, the Phantom throws her out in shame.

Shortly afterwards, Raoul and Christine become engaged. The Phantom overhears them, and decides to win Christine's love, once and for all... or, failing that, punish them both for their arrogance.

While the novel and many films saw the Phantom as pitiable, the image of him as an outright romantic figure is one established by the musical and its fanbase.

Adaptations:

The Phantom of the Opera (novel), written in 1909-1910 by Gaston Leroux, has been adapred to other media multiple times:

• a Russian film, which is only known due to surviving publicity material; the film itself is lost.
• The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film), a silent film starring Lon Chaney -- this is faithful to the novel excluding some minor quips (the titular Phatom's and Ledoux's backgrounds and the whole final act). It has fallen in the public domain and may be watched at Archive.org and Google Video.
• Phantom of the Opera (1943 film), a film starring Claude Rains
• The Phantom of the Opera (1962 film), a British film starring Herbert Lom
• Phantom of the Opera (1976 musical), a theatrical production adapted by Ken Hill
• The Phantom of the Opera (1983 TV movie), a 1983 TV film starring Maximilian Schell

• 

  Promotional image for the 1986 musical

  The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), a theatrical production adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber. (The musical finally finished its run in April 2023.)
  • The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film), an adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical released after years in Development Hell, starring Emmy Rossum as Christine and Gerard Butler as Erik, the Phantom.
  • The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, a 2011 British filmed production of the 25th anniversary staging of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, starring Gerard Butler
  • The Phantom of Manhattan, a 1999 sequel novel to the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.
  • Love Never Dies, a 2010 sequel musical to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
• The Phantom of the Opera (1989 film), a film starring Robert Englund
• The Phantom of the Opera (pinball), a 1990 pinball machine by Data East
• Phantom (1991 musical), a theatrical production adapted by Maury Yeston & Arthur Kopit.
  • The Phantom of the Opera (miniseries), a 1990 two-part American TV miniseries starring Charles Dance
• The Phantom of the Opera (1998 film), an Italian film directed by Dario Argento
• The Phantom of the Opera (audio drama), a 2007 audio drama for radio, adapted by Barnaby Edwards

The story is also spoofed in the Discworld novel Maskerade.

Tropes used in The Phantom of the Opera include:

Leroux's original novel and its fandom contain examples of

• Above the Influence: Christine obviously expects several times to be raped during her two abductions, but it turns out the Phantom respects her privacy and honor.
• Affably Evil: The usher Madame Giry certainly thinks so—as far as she knows, the Phantom is always a polite patron and a generous tipper!
• Agent Scully: Mifroid and Faure, the police commissary and examining magistrate, laugh at Raoul's and the Persian's stories about the phantom of the opera.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The lake (see Truth in Television).
• Antagonist Title: But then again...
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Except not Played for Laughs, and Christine doesn't feel insulted that she escapes this Fate Worse Than Death.
• Artifact Title: For English translations that refer to Erik as "the Opera ghost" or "the ghost" in the text instead of "phantom."
• Backstory: The Persian tells the Phantom's backstory to Raoul (and to the Narrator later).
• Bad Liar: Christine, to the point where the Persian is practically Face Palming as she fails to Show Some Leg to Erik to get him and Raoul out of the torture chamber unnoticed.
• Bathe and Come to Me
• Bastard Boyfriend: Erik could be a Deconstruction if not an Unbuilt Trope: In the original book the author wants you to think Erik's a Jerkass and Christine is a saint for putting up with him: (Domestic Abuser meets Love Martyr), but the Misaimed Fandom (and all the adaptations) wants you to think Erik's totally hot and the relationship is deliciously kinky.
• Beast and Beauty: Tragic enough to border on Deconstruction.
• Beta Couple: Count Philippe and La Sorelli.
• Betty and Veronica: With Raoul as Betty, the nice childhood sweetheart and The Phantom filling the role of Veronica, the passionate madman.
• Bishonen: Raoul, according to Leroux's description of him in Chapter 2.
• Bittersweet Ending: Letting Christine go is, unquestionably, the right thing for Erik to do... but it's still hard not to feel sorry for him.
• Bizarrchitecture: The Opera House. Originally this was because the Phantom was actually the architect and did it on purpose, but later versions leave it unexplained.
  • The Phantom also has a gigantic mirror room, which he uses to torture the hero, by introducing a sun lamp. This is one of the stranger moments in the melodrama.
  • Parts of it are Truth in Television; the Palais Garnier really is like a maze.
  • The Daroga mentions that Erik built a palace at Mazenderan where you could not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo. With his trap-doors Erik spied for the Sha. Ventriloquism explains how Erik could be heard at First Tier Box Five, but this trope explains how Erik can hear all the conversations in the ghost’s box without being present..
• Blackmail: The Phantom demands 240,000 francs a year and exclusive use of First Tier Box 5 or else he'll drop chandeliers on people. One has to wonder what he does with all that money, although one possibility springs to mind.
  • The Batman reference is perfectly appropriate because the answer is:
  • Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Erik being a Mad Artist / Mad Scientist / Evil Genius can make a lot of Homemade Inventions, but still needs the money to buy supplies (the mirrors of his Robotic Torture Device came to mind). Given the Opera is administrated by two Pointy-Haired Bosses, Erik must have not a problem getting everything delivered there.
• Building of Adventure: The Paris Opera.
• Career Killers: According to the Persian, Erik did this as part of his work for the Sha-in-Sha:

He took part calmly in a number of political assassinations;

• Cassandra Truth: After Christine is abducted from on-stage, Raoul quickly gains a solid reputation as a madman when he begs anyone who will listen to believe that she's been kidnapped by the phantom of the opera who lives in the cellars under the building.
  • The Persian confessed everything to the Judge. The Judge doesn't believe a word.
• Childhood Friend Romance
• Compelling Voice: Yes, this does come across all too well in a literary medium.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Long time before even meeting Christine, Erik did work for the Sha-in-Sha: the little sultana, the favorite of the Shah-in-Shah, was boring herself to death. Erik built a Hall of Mirrors for her. When she bored of that, Erik transformed it into a Robotic Torture Device aptly named “the chamber of horrors”, used to execute people sentenced to death. He also teach her how to strangle people efficiently. The little sultana soon applied that knowledge to simple peasants and her own friends.

"Wretched man!" I cried. "Have you forgotten the rosy hours of Mazenderan?" "Yes," he replied, in a sadder tone, "I prefer to forget them. I used to make the little sultana laugh, though!"

• Crazy Jealous Guy: Erik turns more and more vicious and threatening towards Christine as his jealousy of Raoul grows.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mifroid.
• Dead Guy on Display: The final line of the novel is a plea for giving Erik's body this treatment. Oddly enough, It seems to be a Type 1, when the person was an honored figure (despite the fact that Erik was a Psychotic Man Child unrepentant killer), and his body would be preserved as a relic/object of reverence:

And, now, what do they mean to do with that skeleton? Surely they will not bury it in the common grave! ... I say that the place of the skeleton of the Opera ghost is in the archives of the National Academy of Music. It is no ordinary skeleton.

• Death by Childbirth: Raoul's mother.
• Death Trap: The Phantom installed one as the first room beyond the back entrance to his lair to intercept trespassers. When Raoul and the Persian fall into it, it starts as a Sauna of Death and ends as a Drowning Pit, although its greatest torture is psychological.
• Decoy Protagonist: La Sorelli seems to be set up to be the female lead in the first chapter.
• Deceptively-Human Robots: Erik "also invented those automata, dressed like the Sultan and resembling the Sultan in all respects, which made people believe that the Commander of the Faithful was awake at one place, when, in reality, he was asleep elsewhere." for Mehemet Alí Bey.
• Disappeared Dad: During his Motive Rant, the Phantom laments (among other things) how he never knew his father.
• Damsel in Distress: Christine.
• Dramatic Unmask
• Driven to Suicide: Torture Technician Erik favorite method of disposing of his victims with his Robotic Torture Device. If you are lucky, he only will strangle you to death.
• Elaborate Underground Base
• Entitled to Have You: Erik sees Christine's love for Raoul as betrayal.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The whole point of the novel is that Erik never believed that Christine could love him and so he was ready to destroy all the Opera, but when she really accepts to be with him if he spares Raoul and kiss him, Erik is so moved that he let her go.
• Evil Laugh: Which leads Christine and the Persian to suspect poor Erik is (going) insane.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Raoul, twice. Christine is not too happy about it.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: Probably not the Trope Maker, but definitely the Trope Codifier and still one of the most famous examples of the breed. Based on a real-life accident when one of the counterweights of the Opera House's grand chandelier fell into the auditorium and killed a woman.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Christine tries to kill herself before the Phantom can force her to "marry" him in the climax.
  • It's worth noting, though, that Erik seems to have an almost humorously non-sexual view of marriage- his chief goal in having a pretty wife, as described to Christine herself, is to buy her nice things and take her for walks in the park on Sundays, while he wears a mask that (he thinks) sufficiently makes him look "like anyone else".
    • From a modern perspective, the threat of Christine being unable to be with the man she loves (and actually wants to marry) and in a forced state of virginity thanks to a sexless marriage with a repulsive man who treats her like a living doll could be seen as a Fate Worse Than Death in itself.
    • For all his talk about the happily married life they're going to have, Erik seems to be dead-set on a double-suicide with his new wife, once they've been married; he explains in the end that he only began seeing her as his living wife once she kissed him out of pity, and this prompted him to let her go. It has to be remembered that Erik is extremely unhinged and has a morbid obsession with death which doesn't let him go even when he's trying to become "normal".
• Faux Affably Evil: In the same conversation Erik explains how he pulled the Practical Joke on Carlotta with his Ventriloquism he casually uses it to prank Raoul and the Daroga in the Torture Cellar.
• Fix Fic / Self-Insert Fic / Wish Fulfillment: An example In-Universe: Erik, (who terrorizes his beloved Christine into being his wife) is writing a music masterpiece based on the Opera Don Giovanni, The Casanova who really believes the woman who wants to love him has to accept him as a cheating Jerkass Bastard Boyfriend, and who ends being dragged to hell (and Did Not Get the Girl) to please the Moral Guardians. Why is a Fix Fic? Because the title: “Don Juan Triumphant”.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who reads the prologue knows that the Persian survives to tell his story to the narrator, Christine and Raoul disappear, and Erik and Philippe both die.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: After his getaway from home, Erik was exhibited as “the living corpse” in fairs across all Europe, then learn to be a magician and artist from the Gypsies. He was a great singer, ventriloquist and displayed legerdemain. The Shah-in-Shah, hearing about him, send the Daroga to bring him… then: He become an Above Good and Evil Evil Genius Torture Technician who also was a Career Killers.
• Genre Savvy: Raoul seems to know he's the "safe" love interest in a Gothic romance, given his utter lack of surprise at Christine's love for her stalker/kidnapper despite no recognition of Stockholm Syndrome as such at the time.
• Gilded Cage: Christine's Louis-Philippe bedroom in Erik's house.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Phantom's Eyes of Gold can only be seen in the dark, and they glow like a cat's.
• The Grotesque: Subverted by Erik, whose deformities make him a living corpse, but also averts being a Gentle Giant: he is so socially deformed that his attitude as a Psychopathic Manchild Bastard Boyfriend make him truly terrifying. Ironically, his Above Good and Evil attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a Torture Technician, Career Killers and Blackmailer, because Humans Are Bastards. The Narrator lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind. However, Erik is vindictive with the humanity that rejected him, he gives human life no value, and his act of mercy surprised even him.
• Hall of Mirrors: The Phantom uses one to convince Raoul and the Persian that they are trapped in a desert.
• Happily Adopted: Christine by Madame Valerius after her father died.
• Hello, Nurse!: La Sorelli.
• He Who Must Not Be Named: Half the dancers and employees of the Paris Opera constantly try to tell the other half never to speak of "the ghost." The Persian refers to him as "He" around Raoul and orders Raoul not to say his name.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Phantom spends a lot of time as The Voice and The Faceless.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Narrator refers to Christine's first abduction (the one where she disappeared for two weeks) as "not the infamous abduction" which everyone has heard of. In context, this refers to how famous her second abduction became in the news in-universe, but the story is so famous now through Popcultural Osmosis that this clarification seems to be Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
• Hypnotize the Princess: The Phantom's voice has a seemingly mesmeric effect on Christine.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Given that the Phantom is not interested in sex, he pulls a And Now You Must Marry Me.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The Phantom's motivation—the guy doesn't actually like living underground.
• In the Blood: Christine is following in her father's footsteps with her career in music.
• It's All About Me: Arguably, everyone except Christine, the Persian and Madam Valerious:
  • Raoul: After Christine murmurs: “Poor Erik!”

At first, he thought he must be mistaken. To begin with, he was persuaded that, if any one was to be pitied, it was he, Raoul. It would have been quite natural if she had said, "Poor Raoul," after what had happened between them. But, shaking her head, she repeated: "Poor Erik!" What had this Erik to do with Christine's sighs and why was she pitying Erik when Raoul was so unhappy?

• • Erik, After his Love Redeems scene, meets the Daroga, who asks him (repeatedly) about the murder of Count Philippe:

"Daroga, don't talk to me ... about Count Philippe ... " … "I have not come here ... to talk about Count Philippe ... but to tell you that ... I am going ... to die..."

• • Mme. Giry:

"Mme. Giry. You know me well enough, sir; I'm the mother of little Giry, little Meg, what!" This was said in so rough and solemn a tone that, for a moment, M. Richard was impressed. He looked at Mme. Giry, in her faded shawl, her worn shoes, her old taffeta dress and dingy bonnet. It was quite evident from the manager's attitude, that he either did not know or could not remember having met Mme. Giry, nor even little Giry, nor even "little Meg!" But Mme. Giry's pride was so great that the celebrated box-keeper imagined that everybody knew her

• • Moncharmin: Excerpt from the (exceptionally long) "Memories of a Manager":

"A grievous accident spoiled the little party which MM. Debienne and Poligny gave to celebrate their retirement. I was in the manager's office, when Mercier, the acting-manager, suddenly came darting in. He seemed half mad and told me that the body of a scene-shifter had been found hanging in the third cellar under the stage, between a farm-house and a scene from the Roi de Lahore. I shouted: " 'Come and cut him down!'

• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The Phantom, at the end.
• I Was Just Joking: Raoul wonders aloud how Erik knows how to work all the trap doors and navigate the secret passages. What, did he build them? The Persian explains, yes, he did.
• Killed Off for Real: The Phantom kills 3 people that we know of by name -- the chief stagehand, for accidentally discovering the back entrance to his lair; the new concierge because the new managers didn't comply with his demands; and Raoul's brother, although he insists to the Persian that the Count just fell in the lake and drowned.
• The Kindnapper: Erik. He kidnaps Christine multiple times with the intention of romancing her and making her his wife so that he can buy her nice things and take her out on Sundays. He keeps her in a luxurious bedroom as well. Despite his becoming increasingly controlling and aggressive towards Christine, she develops a case of Stockholm Syndrome so bad that she even asks Raoul to take her far away from the Phantom No Matter How Much I Beg. Not that Raoul has a chance to follow up on that...
• Lemony Narrator: Gaston Leroux, which Lowell Bair, at least, mostly preserves.
• Literary Agent Hypothesis: The Narrator really insists that he's telling a true story.
• Living MacGuffin: Christine.
  • On the other hand, she could be this trope until the end of the novel, but then we discover that any normal woman would have Gone Mad From the Revelation or be Driven to Suicide rather than marry with Erik. Only Christine could have really agreed to marry him without trying suicide, and Erick is so shocked that he quits his plan to Kill Them All.
• Lost Wedding Ring
• Love At First Note: Writ large!
• Love Hurts
• Love Makes You Crazy and Evil and Redeems: Probably one of the few cases of a single character managing to hit all three of these.
• Love Triangle
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: The connection between love and fear and which is the strongest is a recurring theme.
• Mad Artist: The Phantom composes beautiful music. And, you know, kills people.
  • Besides the music, Erik's many talents include being a great architect, the world’s best ventriloquist and Torture Technician.

"Did you design that room? It's very handsome. You're a great artist, Erik." "Yes, a great artist, in my own line."

• Mad Scientist: Subverted by Erik: He built a Robotic Torture Device / Death Trap and a Deceptively Human Robot at the middle of the 19th century, but his tragedy, as the Narrator lampshades in the Epilogue, is that he is so ugly he could never become a scientist, but rather a toyman or stage magician:

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!

• Mailer Daemon: The Phantom's M.O. for seducing Christine is particularly Hilarious in Hindsight, considering it pre-dates the Internet by almost a century!
• Masquerade Ball
• Matchlight Danger Revelation: Escaping the Death Trap to find a room full of gunpowder... this is just not your day, Raoul.
• Melodrama
• The Moral Substitute: Erik is Don Giovanni done right: While Don Giovanni (and all versions of the Don Juan legend) is The Casanova who never cared if he hurts the women he claims to love and is sent to hell at the finale of the opera only to please the Moral Guardians who insist that Don Giovanni must be punished so the audience would not do this cool thing, Erik (who is Don Giovanni's Fan Boy) also plays Bastard Boyfriend to Christine while claiming to love her, but after breaking Christine’s spirit and successfully blackmailing her into being her wife, let her go with Raoul by his own will after Christine gives Erik his first True Love's Kiss.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: The Phantom almost does this to Raoul at the end.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Many of the characters in the original novel, including some of the main cast are thinly veiled versions of real people who lived in Paris around the time Leroux wrote the story, and few references to real events are also made. A few scholarly fans have even suggested that apart from the parts which involve the Phantom, the book was essentially a true story, although this is almost certainly heavy exaggeration.
• No Matter How Much I Beg: Christine eventually tells Raoul to take her out of the country away from Erik no matter how much she protests later (see Stockholm Syndrome).
• Offscreen Teleportation: The Phantom is everywhere and sees and hears everything!
  • Justified Trope: The Phantom can move through the hatches on the Opera, and some rooms were designed by Erik where you could not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo.
• Parental Substitute: Mama Valerius for Christine. Count Philippe is also 20 years older than his brother Raoul and has raised him since their father died when the latter was 12.
• Plucky Girl: Christine is a Swedish peasant girl trying to make her way in the world and a name for herself with her singing, not to mention all the physical, mental, and emotional torture she has to endure, mostly on her own unless she's trying to protect her boyfriend as well.
• Psychopathic Manchild: The Persian and Erik himself lampshade Erik's attitude as childish, and despite his multiple talents, he is not interested in sex but to have a beautiful wife and a life like any other guy. It’s only when he actually triumphs that he realizes how impractical those dreams are.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Deconstructed with Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin: Everybody knows they get their jobs thanks to their connections, that they don’t know a lot about music or how to run the Opera. Nobody really respects them and are accustomed to cruel pranks and jokes, and that is the cause they never take seriously the Phantom’s menaces until the Falling Chandelier of Doom incident.
• The Power of Love
• Practical Joke: Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin believe that all and every of the strange happenings at the Opera are this. Justified Trope: they are two Pointy-Haired Bosses and they get no respect.
• The Prima Donna: Carlotta.
• The Rival: Carlotta for Christine.
• Retired Monster: Erik, after his From Nobody to Nightmare phase, survives the assassination attempts from his employers because He Knows Too Much. Then, tired of his adventurous, formidable and monstrous life, he longed to be some one "like everybody else." And he became a contractor, like any ordinary contractor, building ordinary houses with ordinary bricks. He tendered for part of the foundations in the Opera. His estimate was accepted.
• Robotic Torture Device: The aptly named "torture chamber" is completely automated: when the victim falls in the room, it activates and gives him the illusion of a tropical forrest. When the victim cannot endure more, there is also a rope to hang himself. The Phantom uses it as a defense against curious people. The first victim of the book was already dead when the Phantom found him.
• Save the Villain: The Persian did this in the past and now frequently laments "My God, What Have I Done?"
• Scarpia Ultimatum: The Phantom threatens to blow up the Opera, killing everyone inside, if Christine doesn't "marry" him.
• Scooby-Doo Hoax: Erik is pretending to be a ghost haunting the opera house.
• Scrapbook Story: We hear the story from the Narrator based on his research (which contain several flashbacks narrated by Christine to Raoul and by Madame Giry to the new managers), memories of one of the new Opera managers Moncharmin, and the Persian.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Deconstructed in the original book showing the consequences of a society that embraces this principle: Richard and Moncharmin know how to play politics better than to manage, and Carlotta knows is easier being The Prima Donna that to sing better. This means that everyone is a Pointy-Haired Boss who doesn’t know how to do his job. Every employee knows that, so the bosses are Properly Paranoid about being pranked by them because nobody respects them. They also are the ideal victims for a Blackmailer, and that’s how Erik could convince them of letting him do whatever he pleases.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The departure of Opera co-managers Poligny and Debienne at the very start of the book—once a Phantom starts skulking their Opera and delivering Blackmail demands, they waste no time passing the buck and getting out of the Opera business as fast as they can.
  • Also Raoul de Chagny and Christine Daae (with Mama Valerious) flee from Paris to "the northern railway station of the world." Even when Raoul is victim of the Malicious Slandering that accuses him of his brother’s death, they never look back.
• She's All Grown Up: Before their reunion at the Paris Opera, Raoul and Christine were childhood friends and last met on the verge of adolescence and strange new feelings that they couldn't understand.
• Shoot the Builder: After Erik built his palace in Mazendaran, the Shah-in-Shah tried to do this to Erik. It didn't work.
• Shoot the Messenger: The standard method of solving any problem by Pointy-Haired Bosses Richard and Moncharmin is to fire those employees involved in it. Only those with enough influence can escape.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The Phantom for Christine, oh so much.

The Phantom: You alone can make my song take flight, and help me make the Music of the Night.

• Small Name, Big Ego: In-Universe: Pointy-Haired Bosses Richard and Moncharmin and The Prima Donna Carlotta. Madam Giry is lampshaded like this (see It's All About Me), a humble usher who thinks of herself as an equal to the Opera’s administrators… just moments before they fire her. But Fridge Brilliance show us is subverted: In Parisian society, it’s not what you do, it’s who you know. Madam Giry knows the Phantom and he is happy with her work. Therefore, she is more important that Richard and Moncharmin. She gets his job back
• Stalker with a Crush: Erik to a T.
• Stalking Is Love
• Start of Darkness: The Phantom's exile from the human race because of his ugliness.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Christine—she herself lampshades it in everything but name, and Raoul is saddened but not at all surprised or confused to see how much she evidently truly loves her psychotic, jealous, possessive stalker while fearing him at the same time.
• Supervillain Lair
• Sympathy for the Devil: The narrator pities Erik as much as the Persian did after hearing the end of his love story. He succeeded in making his readers agree with him... perhaps even a little too well.
  • On the other hand, the Narrator never justifies Erik atrocities before he even become The Phantom, Erik is showed as a Psychopathic Manchild truly surprised he let Christine and Raoul go. At the epilogue, the narrator claims to pity Erik, but never attacks the shallow societies that persecuted him. He justifies the act it because Erik is really ugly. Instead of giving Erik a grave (or even the common grave) the last line was a plea for Erik to become a Dead Guy on Display on the archives of the National Academy of Music
• Tender Tears
• There Are No Good Executives: This is the reason Erik could maintain his reign of terror: In Parisian society, it’s not what you do, it’s who you know. Therefore the executives at the Opera and the police are not only corrupt, but Pointy-Haired Bosses who don’t care about how to do his job better but how to practice politics and being discreet with any problem.
• Third Person Person: Erik does this when he is particularly upset or angry. So, a lot.
• Those Two Guys: Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin.
• Together in Death: The Phantom's back-up plan.
  • This was Erik's real plan all along. Erik really never believed that Christine could marry him without being Driven to Suicide. When Christine convinces him she will not attempt suicide and kiss him, Erik is so shocked she let her go.
• Torture Cellar
• Torture Technician: The Persian reveals that Erik worked as one of these for the Shah-in-Shah in Mazenderan. It helps to explain a lot of things.
• Tragic Monster: The Phantom
• True Love's Kiss: Well, the way the Phantom describes it, anyway...
• Truth in Television: Because it was built on swampy ground, there really is a lake beneath the Palais Garnier. (And it has fish in it!)
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: What would have been, had Erik carried through with his ultimate plan.
• Ventriloquism: The Persian declares that Erik is the best ventriloquist in the whole world. He must be, because he uses this skill to do a lot of Practical Jokes, including convincing Opera Singer Carlotta (an all the Opera’s audience) that she croaked like a toad.
• Villainous Breakdown: Christine notices that Erik gets more unhinged and frightening as the plot progresses.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Christine never lets Raoul push her around and has no problem telling him to mind his own business.
• What Kept You?: Raoul's and the Persian's rescue mission ends with Christine forced to save them from the Phantom's Death Trap.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Christine and her guardian both chew out Raoul for too quickly assuming the rights of a husband or lover with his interest and meddling in Christine's private affairs. He knows they're right, but Love Makes You Crazy.
• Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Leroux reveals what happened to a few minor characters in the prologue; Meg, for example, eventually marries a baron.
• Wicked Cultured: Guess.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Leroux's original Erik—he murders at least three people over the course of the plot and is definitely not the sanest person on the block, but Leroux expresses pity for him in the epilogue.
  • Arguably, he's this the entire time due simply to his appearance; at the time, Beauty Equals Goodness was commonly enough believed to be Truth in Television. Imagine what people who believe that are going to think of somebody like Erik—no matter what he does...

---

The famous musical and myriad other adaptations further contain examples of

• AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle: In Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation, there seems to be no consensus as to whether the female lead's name is pronounced "Christine" or "Christine".
• Acting for Two: In the silent film, they must have really liked Joseph Buquet's hamming it up, so they have the actor also play his twin brother, who finds him dead.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Gerard Butler's Phantom in the film version is rather less ugly than his stage counterparts, to the point that film critic Richard Roeper quipped "He's the Fashionably-Scarred Stud of the Opera."
  • Peter Jöback who plays the part on West End between March and September 2012 originally auditioned to play the Phantom on Broadway but was rejected because he was considered too good looking for the part. He was offered the part of Raoul instead, turned it down and was then contacted by Andrew Lloyd Webber who asked him to come play the role in London.
• Adaptation Dye Job: The book Christine was blonde, but in all stage productions and the movie, she is a brunette.
  • Averted in the Hungarian production—Christine is sometimes blonde here. The actresses seem to have wigs the same colour as their own hair.
• Age Cut: Raoul, Mdme. Giry, and both The Phantom and Christine in the movie.
• Anachronism Stew: Musically speaking - the electric guitar that duels with the organ during the tag of the titular song.
• Angry Mob Song: "Track Down This Murderer", a reprise of the title song that's part of the lengthy climax.
• Auction: The prologue of the musical is set at a 1911 auction of the opera house's odds and ends.
• Big Damn Kiss: In the movie, Christine and The Phantom's kiss seems to go on for about five minutes. Good thing it's beautiful.
• Brandishment Bluff: In the 1926 version, when Erik is cornered by the mob, he appears to hold something in the air and brandishes it to hold them back, even turning to make those behind him retreat, then he laughs and shows an empty hand, prompting the mob to move in for the kill.
• Canon Discontinuity: It would be impossible to make a film adaptation of Love Never Dies without breaking continuity with the 2004 movie, since it had established that Christine dies in 1918, with the implication that it was because of the flu pandemic.
• Cash Cow Franchise: The London and New York productions have been up and running since 1986 and 1988 respectively. Tours and foreign productions are similarly popular, and a lot of merchandise follows in their wake. In Vegas, there's a special condensed 95-minute version that retains all the songs (sort of; see Cut Song below).
• Compelling Voice: "The Music of the Night" is an attempted seduction via this.
  • "The Point of No Return" is also a double seduction scene: Don Juan (sung by the Phantom) is seducing Aminta (sung by Christine).
• Composite Character: The Persian is completely absent, but his task of leading Raoul to the Phantom's lair has been given to Madame Giry.
• Costume Porn: Pretty much the whole show, but especially "Masquerade".
• Covers Always Lie: The artwork for the Las Vegas production features the Phantom bending seductively over...a blonde woman in a red dress with copious cleavage who generally looks nothing like the stage incarnation of Christine.
• Crosscast Role: Christine as the Page Boy, in an In-Universe example.
• Cut Song: "Magical Lasso" in the Las Vegas Recut, though since its melody reappears elsewhere in many other songs it's not surprising that the advertising claims all the songs appear.
• Dark Reprise: Several turn up in Act Two as part of longer pieces (particularly the appearances of the "Angel of Music" melody), but the Act One closing, the Phantom's reprise of "All I Ask Of You," is the best known.
  • The final words of the musical are the Phantom's despairing reprise of "Music of the Night."
• Dawson Casting: While most actresses to play Christine in the stage show are in their early twenties, a handful have been in their thirties or even nearing forty.
  • To be fair, her age is never explicitly stated in the book or stage show, to my knowledge. The only place that gives her an age is the 2004 movie (in which they said they WANTED to age down the characters).
• Department of Redundancy Department: "And if he has to kill a thousand men/ The Phantom of the Opera will kill and kill again!"
• Did Not Do the Research bordering on You Fail History Forever: the film moves the setting from 1881 (in the play) to 1871, apparently so they could time the ending to have Christine appear to be a victim of the Spanish Influenza in 1918 and to have Raoul a very elderly man. As the Phantom appears to be alive at least long enough to leave a rose on her grave, and is supposed to be substantially older than Christine and Raoul, this is already stretching credulity. The problem is, in 1871 Paris was besieged by these people called the Prussians in the middle of a little thing called the Franco-Prussian war and the Opera House wasn't even finished yet. Adding insult to injury in 1918 France was in the grips of the Influenza AND crawling out of the end of this little thing called World War I. Apparently they live in an alternate France that doesn't spend much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries at war with Germany.
• Dramatic Irony: In the 1943 version starring Claude Rains, when Erique Claudin tries to have his work published, one of the publishers tells him that he never received it. Little did either of them know, was that the company was showing Erique's work to renowned music critic Franz Liszt to get his testimonial for its publication. When Erique hears his music being played to Liszt in the other room, he assumes that the company stole his music and strangles the publisher to death. The publisher's wife then grabs a tray of etching acid and... well, you know the rest.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: "Your chains are still mine..."
• Dramatic Unmask: The silent film in particular has one of the best examples of this trope. According to the IMDb, "The sight was said to have caused some patrons at the premiere to faint."
  • Robert Bloch wrote about having seen this movie as a child. He didn't follow the plot much, and didn't get why the Phantom was wearing a mask. Then came the dramatic unmasking scene, and he slept the next ten years with lights on.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: In the silent film, surrounded by pretty much every adult male in Paris, the Phantom holds up his fist with what appears to be a grenade. After they have all retreated, he opens his empty fist and lets out one last Evil Laugh before they mob him and beat him to death.
• The Eleven O'Clock Number: "The Point of No Return".
• Electra Complex: Part of Christine's attraction to the Phantom is that he reminds her of her father. (Note how most of the lyrics in "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" could just as easily apply to the Phantom.) Word of God said that in the movie, M. Daae was deliberately cast to look like Gerard Butler.
• Evil Laugh: In the stage version, the Phantom breaks out in mad laughter first when he ruins Carlotta's performance and later when he crashes the chandelier. In the silent film, Lon Chaney proves you don't even need sound to let loose with an Evil Laugh.
  • In Maskerade, the Phantom (one of them, at least) writes down an Evil Laugh. With five exclamation marks, nonetheless!!!!! This lampshaded by one of the characters. (Opera will do that to a man.)
• Fatal Flaw: The Phantom's...craziness. Christine's naïveté.
• Flanderization: The Phantom has always been something of a Tragic Monster and may sometimes even be a sympathetic figure, but the Schumacher film (to the point of Villain Decay) and the stage musical (to a lesser extent than it's often accused of, especially considering the large amount of free reign the actor's given within certain boundaries) tend to exaggerate this aspect while simultaneously making everyone else unlikeable and downplaying the fact that, whatever else Erik may be, he is also a deeply disturbed and homicidal person.
  • This has also happened to Carlotta over the years. Originally she was part of a Technician Versus Performer comparison, with Carlotta having a marvelous instrument but no soul in her singing as opposed to the more passionate (if rather more erratic) Christine. Over the years this has been simplified to Carlotta's voice being awful (or at least past its prime), to the point where the Schumacher movie depicts opera staff stuffing cotton in their ears when she prepares to sing (thus leading to Informed Flaw, as Margaret Preece's voice is one of the better ones in the film).
    • In fact a few swings in the stage show can cover both Carlotta and Christine. Also Carlotta is always played by someone who's been classically trained.
• Foreshadowing: The Il Muto scene and its song "Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh". When the Phantom interrupts it, the Countess is with her lover, cheerfully singing about how she's cuckolding her husband, not knowing that he's hiding nearby. After Buquet's murder, Christine—about to take over the role of the Countess—and Raoul head to the roof to hide from the Phantom, share their first kiss together and declare their love...and the Phantom is privy to this all along. Is it any surprise that it's when Christine's taking her bow that night that the Phantom chooses to crash the chandelier?
  • Not to mention "Think of Me". The entire song. "...Though it was always clear, that this was never meant to be..."'
• Gambit Pileup: At the beginning of the stage musical—the change of the opera house's ownership means that everyone who wants things to change is trying to get a word in first. The Phantom's own machinations go unnoticed for some time because the new owners assume it's Raoul or one of the lesser players trying to stir up trouble.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: Everywhere you look.
• Grief Song: Both Christine ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again") and The Phantom ("All I Ask of You" Reprise).
• Hall of Mirrors: A straight version of the trope appears when Raoul follows the Phantom down a trapdoor after "Masquerade" and finds himself trapped in a mirror maze.
• Hotter and Sexier: The musical ("The Point of No Return," anyone?).
  • Even more so in the movie version, largely due to the choice to hire younger, prettier actors than are usually cast in the stage show (Gerard Butler especially). Emmy Rossum being only sixteen to Butler's thirty-five makes Point of No Return kind of ...uncomfortable. Also, most of the stage actresses are only in their twenties, and are very sexy indeed
    • Well, the ages of Rossum and Butler at the time of filming do match the ages of Christine and the Phantom (Butler may even be a touch young for the part, but I can't recall the Phantom's exact age in the book). Also keep in mind that Michael Crawford was approached to do the part but said no since Brightman would not be playing Christine. Imagine how squicky it would have been if Rossum had played against Crawford!
    • If you think the musical version is Hotter and Sexier you should see the one Dario Argento made!
• "I Am Becoming" Song: "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", Christine recognizes how hard she's been trying to hold on the past and tries to move on.
• The Ingenue: Christine is the epitome of this, except in 1943, where she's a well-adjusted, career-minded girl. Carlotta even lampshades Christine's ingenue status right before "Prima Donna":

Carlotta: (to Andre and Firmin) Would you not rather have your precious little ingenue?

• • • Signora, no, the world wants YOU!!!
• In Name Only: Subverted with the 1989 slasher reimagining starring Robert Englund as the title character. Many often mistake it for this given its nature as a gory slasher—but in actuality, it is much closer to the original novel than the famous musical (which itself at times borders on the trope), maintaining the sadism of Leroux's Erik which many adaptations tend to downplay.
  • The Dario Argento version is very much an example of being The Phantom of the Opera in name only, starting with how The Phantom is not deformed and was raised by rats.
• Insistent Terminology: In the movie version of the musical, Gilles André would like to point out that he is in the business of scrap metal, not junk.
• Ironic Echo: The final lyrics of "Music Of The Night" are the Phantom's passionate declaration of love for Christine. But when they are sung again at the end of the show, he is now expressing despair at having lost her forever.
• Irrelevant Act Opener: "Masquerade". (Though, they do manage to tie the song itself back into an emotional moment with the Phantom near the end of the show.)
  • Although even at the beginning of Act 2 it could be seen as a metaphor for the Phantom's situation.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Raoul, obviously.
• Lampshade Hanging: From "Prima Donna":

You'd never get away with all this in a play! But if it's loudly sung and in a foreign tongue, it's just the sort of story audiences adore, in fact, a perfect opera!

• Lighter and Softer: If you're talking about the Lloyd Webber version as opposed to Leroux, there's always the TheaterWorks USA adaptation, which was expressly written to out-Light-and-Softness the Lloyd Webber version itself. (And in all honesty, the Lloyd Webber version comes off far, far darker onstage than it does in the film version.) The Theaterworks version does away with the love triangle altogether, makes Erik into Madame Giry's long-lost son who was burned in a fire in the opera house a few years previously, and has Christine coax him in the end into using his gift to open a music school in order to relieve his bitterness at being unable to perform. All of the denizens of the opera happily approve, and it ends with a song about accepting people who may look different from you. I wish I were making this up.
  • The Hammer Horror version is so light and soft that the Phantom doesn't even kill anybody! Instead, a homicidal little person who's friends with the Phantom does all the killing, so the Phantom's hands are technically clean throughout the whole movie.
• Long Runners: Since 1986 in London and 1988 in New York City; it's the longest-running Broadway show in the latter. (Les Misérables has got it licked by a year in London, and would have it similarly licked on Broadway had the Broadway version, which opened in 1987, a year before Phantom did, not closed in 2003)
• Lost in Imitation: The 1943 version changed the nature of the Phantom's ugliness from deformity to disfigurement, and several subsequent adaptations followed suit.
• Love Triangle: Depending on the version and/or the actors, this can be Triang Relations 4 or 7. In the 1943 version, oddly enough, it's not Raoul and Erik competing over Christine, but Raoul and a baritone Christine often stars opposite onstage. (The Phantom figure is Christine's father in this case, who wants her back after leaving her in her childhood.) In the end, Christine chooses her career over both of them.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Masquerade" is a grand celebration...of concealing your identity "so the world will never find you!" A Dark Reprise appears at the end.
• Manly Tears: Gerard Butler skillfully looks manly whilst simultaneously crying and wearing a frilly shirt.
• Mr. Fanservice: The various actors who have played Erik and Raoul.
• Mugging the Monster: In the '89 version not only are people stupid enough to try to mug the Phantom, they have to mug the one played by Robert frickin' Englund!
• No Name Given: Andrew Lloyd Webber and most other adaptors never call the Phantom "Erik". The Lon Chaney silent does, however, as does the novel The Phantom of Manhattan, a sequel to the Lloyd Webber version.
• Nostalgic Music Box: It has the image of a monkey sitting atop a barrel organ, and plays what is later revealed to be the "Masquerade" melody.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Everyone in the 2004 movie save for Miranda Richardson as Madame Giry, who is apparently the only person in France with a French accent.
• Number of the Beast: One has to wonder what jackass decided to tempt fate by putting the cursed chandlier with the bloody past into the musical's auction as Lot 666.
• Obsession Song: The reprise of "All I Ask of You" at the end of Act One.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Occurs in a couple of the movies, with the '89 version being the most blatant.
• Ominous English Chanting: The Main Theme has an ominous choir that chants He's there... the Phantom of the Opera.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: And how!
• Pretty in Mink: Carlotta wears a fur or two in about every other adaptation.
• Product Placement: In the movie version, the "hero" version of the chandelier was sponsored by Swarovski Crystals. There's a scene with a Swarovski store window, which depicts the Swarovski swan logo. However, the logo at the time would have been a flower.
• Race Lift: Robert Guillame was cast as the Phantom during the first national tour. To this date, he is the only African-American actor to play the role.
• Rage Against the Reflection: Movie version only.
• Recut: The Las Vegas sit-down production at the Venetian Hotel and Casino (Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular) was trimmed to 95 minutes by Andrew Lloyd Webber and original director Harold Prince. Most of the songs are shortened, but only "Magical Lasso" is dropped, and the special effects are even more elaborate—especially those related to the chandelier.
• Satan: The Angel of Music is another name for The Devil. The Phantom is Milton-esque figure who lives underground in a freezing lake (a la Dante) coming up to enchant and abduct beautiful innocent maidens. He is an Expy for Lucifer.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: "His life is now the prize that you must earn. So, do you end your days with me, or do you send him to his grave?" Raoul throws this back in the Phantom's face with "Why make her lie to you to save me?"
• Scenery Porn: The sets and special effects of the play (most infamously the chandelier) were groundbreaking for their time and still impress today. They may be flashy and overwrought, but they're done spectacularly well.
• Setting Update: Over the years, plays and films have been written that reset the story in other venues. Probably the best-known of these is Brian De Palma's 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise, which is set in the rock music industry and pastiches several horror/fantasy stories in addition to Phantom.
• Show Within a Show: See Stylistic Suck below.
• Snow Means Love: The 2004 movie of the musical. As Raoul and Christine romance on the Opera House Roof, it convieniantly starts to snow.
• The Song Before the Storm: "Prima Donna" and "Notes (reprise) - Twisted Every Way".
• Splash of Color: The 1925 Lon Chaney silent version is in black and white, except for the masked ball scene, which is presented in early Technicolor.
• Stylistic Suck: The three fictional operas performed in the course of the story (Hannibal, a parody of the grand late classical operas from the like of Meyerbeer and Gluck, Il Muto, an obvious parody of Mozart—or one of that crowd—and Don Juan Triumphant, Sir Andrew's spoof on serialism in modern opera, overwrought with dissonance, and bathing in clichés.
• Tenor Boy: Raoul fits this trope, but note that the Phantom is also a tenor. Starting with the original London cast, in which Steve Barton (Raoul) was also Michael Crawford's (The Phantom's) understudy, it's common for Raoul's actor to understudy the Phantom's role, sometimes taking it over later.
• This Is as Far as I Dare Go, Sir.
• Title Drop: Happens every five seconds...
• Torches and Pitchforks: The mob that chases after Erik at the end of the 1925 film—and in the 2004 version.
• Torture Cellar: Book and movie only.
• Tragic Monster: The Phantom is the epitome of the trope when he isn't being played up as a Draco in Leather Pants.
• Victim Falls For Rapist: The lyrics and tone of "Music of the Night" are presented as a seduction and reveal the Phantom's love for Christine. But if he has his way with her when the lights go out (there has been endless discussion as to the possibility of this), given Christine's unconscious/entranced state throughout the scene, this can only be construed as rape.
  • The original script for what would later become the 2004 film had the Phantom getting into bed with Christine as Music of the Night ended and the scene fading out as he drew the curtain around them, leaving little doubt as to his intentions. Probably changed as it would have been hard to continue presenting him as a romantic hero after such a blatant violation.
    • Many fans did note that her stockings are gone when she awakens at "I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It." Could just be a Continuity Snarl or...something else.
    • Word of God says the missing stockings are an unfortunate continuity error.
• Villain Love Song: It's a Long List...
  • "The Mirror"
  • "The Music of the Night" is one of the most famous songs in musical theater and one of the best examples of this trope.
  • "Wandering Child"
  • "Point of No Return"
  • "Down Once More"
• Villain Song: The title number.
• Voice Types: Christine, Carlotta.
• White Mask of Doom: Natch.
  • Only in the musical, though. In the novel it's once mentioned to be black, and never mentioned again. The mask used during the masquerade ball was naturally red.
• Whole Costume Reference: In the film, Emmy Rossum's costume in "Think Of Me" is practically an exact copy of that worn by Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sissi) in the famous portrait by Franz Winterhalter, right down to the hairstyle and the diamond stars in it. It doesn't hurt that Rossum is a dead ringer for the empress to begin with.
• Zettai Ryouiki: In the movie, Christine, after her first abduction by the Phantom (and an odd placement, at that).