El fantasma de la ópera

One, Charles Dance is always terrific, playing good, bad or indifferent guys with equal aplomb and skill. (This time he's a good guy who, unfortunately, is not blessed with good looks.) Two, the sets and music are superb. And three, the final climactic aria is Charles Gounod's fabulous goosebump-raising "Anges Pur, Anges Radieux" ("Angels Pure, Angels Radiant") from "Faust". No, we don't see the Phantom's face....but Christine does, and her expression tells us everything.

I have seen all other film version of this story, and have read the original novel, and I can say this is absolutely the best adaptation. It surpasses the original story, it is presented with A-list actors, superb mounting, flawless film-making savvy across the board, but most importantly the changes to the original story, and the ignoring of every previous film effort, have made this TV production of The Phantom of the Opera the Classic cinema adaptation! I assume the fact of my missing this film in 1998 is due to it being an overseas TV production but the DVD I viewed is available in at least two of the giant rental chains in the U.S. And I found the soundtrack CD on Amazon.

I saw this 2 parter on NBC back when Andrew Lloyd Webber was sitting on top of the musical world with his Phantom of the Opera. This is a decent musical story version of the Leroux tale. The year before in 1989 Golan and Globus hired up Robert Englund a.k.a. Freddie Krueger to do a slasher movie version of the story which was a total off the original storyline of the Phantom of the Opera. That movie in all honesty, sucks ! When Yestin and Koppit released this mini series they returned Erik to Paris, France and to his beloved Opera House and once again he is deeply in love with engenue chorus girl and understudy to La Carlotta, Christine Daae, who's beauty and angelic voice reminds him of his dead mother, a nice back story line added to the original storyline with one more family member added in for the first time, the Phantom's friend and father played by venerable veteran actor Burt Lancaster. The soundtrack to this movie is available on RCA C.D. and Tapes under the simple name Phantom. It is the original theatrical stage production that this mini series was based on by Yestin and Koppit.

Beautiful Adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera. This is NOT the musical Broadway version. The only music here is the Italian operas the opera house is performing. This version based on a stage version of the book, by noted playwright Arthur Kopit, is beautiful and well performed. I love this movie because of its character development and lack of individuals breaking into song for absolutely no reason, what so ever. The use of the Phantom's various masks to convey his mood is a very unique approach, in this film. The climatic duet between Christine and Eric and a beautiful scene with Burt Lancaster and Charles Dance (Carriere and Eric) are both very moving.

A beautiful, and tragic love story.

I watched this movie because I wanted to see what Andrew Lloyd Webber was up against. I honestly thought it was going to be horrible. After, I saw the movie not only was I very impressed, but I couldn't get enough of it. I loved the cast. I was extremely pleased not none of Yestin's and Koppit's songs were used.(Now, I saw the Yestin's and Koppit's play long before I even knew a movie of it had been made.)I didn't like what they did with Eric's background story. I felt that it took away from his character. I hated that they didn't make Philippe more of a hero and that he had scenes in which he smoked!!! I was disappointed that we only saw Eric's face once and that it wasn't more believable. His face also really wasn't scary. I also thought that young Philippe, young Christine,and young Eric should have, at least, some dialogue.