Let me explain. Last night I heard you sing. I know, you thought you were alone. You were not. Mademoiselle, your voice is astonishing. An angel's voice is what it is, exquisite in tone and shape, in fact in every detail, except . . . it is untrained. Without training, your voice will never attain the heights for which I know it has been destined. I would like to help bring you there. And I can. I am myself a singer of . . . some renown. No, stay there. There is a condition. I have never taken any students. For until last night, I have never wanted to. If others hear I am giving lessons, they will want them as well. There-fore, if you choose to let me be your guide, I must insist that I remain anonymous. And I will do so by wearing a mask. Please, there's no need for an answer now. Good night.

-- Erik

Ever since I was a child, you are what I've heard in my dreams.

-- Erik

Send her back? Never! I may be the most hideous of God's creatures, but I am not hideous enough to do that.

-- Erik

For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed one sweet dream only. And though that sweet dream came in countless shapes and guises, it was what sustained me. I now know it was of her that I dreamed. I was born to live down here. But till now, I have never known quite why. Well, I was born so she could come and save me! For that is what she's done. She is the reason I was born. You seem startled. Did you think me incapable of such emotion? Well, it seems I'm not. What an astounding discover! Makes everything I've been through worth the waiting and the pain. What pain? The pain was a dream. All was a dream till this. When the gods give you a gift like that, you do not send it back. I love her, Gerard. And I believe, with any luck, in time, she will learn to love me. The gods would be cruel indeed to have sent her otherwise. I don't want you ever to come here again. From now on she will be all I need. But I thank you for all you've done for me in the past.

-- Erik (to his father)

But his face is like death. Darkness is Erik's only mercy. Get out while you can. Erik cannot be helped by anyone.

-- Gerard Carriere

No matter how terrible you may think you look, I know your face can be looked at by someone who knows what love is. Let me show you that it's true. Then you'll know it's not that bad. And you'll be healed.

-- Christine

Your mother saw your face and smiled. If love could let her gaze at you and smile, could it not do the same for me?

-- Christine

She asked a bit too much of me, that's all. She thought she loved me. She did. But only for a moment. Well! That's not bad - a moment such as that. Worth living for, I think. I do regret one thing, though. Not killing the Count de Chagny.

-- Erik

Tell her I'm sorry if I frightened her. And that I will watch after her, if I can.

-- Erik

I don't care what anyone says. Charles Dance is my all-time-favorite Phantom. He's tall, he's dark, he's cultured, he's irresistable!

I had never been interested in the Phantom Of The Opera before I saw the advertisements for this movie. I had read about an ancient silent film, I had heard a pipe organ overture, but it wasn't until NBC started running mysterious and gothic ads that I became terribly interested. As the air date approached, I went out and bought the Lowell Bair translation of Leroux, which I read in the afternoon before the program was scheduled -- being careful not to completely finish it and spoil the movie. This is a bit odd, I know, one does not usually prepare to watch a television miniseries. Happily, I was not at all disappointed.

Teri Polo makes an absolutely adorable Christine. To me, she is exactly as I envision Christine to be. I was interested to hear that several of Christine's songs (ones which appear earlier in the program when her voice is lovely, but not fully trained) were actually sung by Polo herself. Her voice both in speaking and in singing has an angelic quality that Erik would understandably be drawn to.

In fact, all the singing in this show, although it is recorded by voice doubles and then later lipsynched by the cast, is beautifully done and fully believable. I could listen to Charles Dance's voice double, Gerard Garino, for hours. Garino's voice is heavenly -- and matches Dance's spoken timbre to such an extent that it does not sound at all out of place. In fact, for quite some time I was convinced that both Charles Dance and Teri Polo sang their parts in entirety -- that is how seamless is the flow between dialogue and song.

In addition to Dance and Polo's outstanding performances, the supporting characters are equally well played. Count Phillipe (in this movie, Phillipe appears to have replaced Raoul as Christine's love interest) is the very image of a dashing young aristocrat, and Carlotta's husband, Opera manager Alain Cholet is ridiculously absurd. Carlotta herself is divinely hilarious, with a rendition of "Norma" which no one could forget.

The costumes are gorgeous, and what more could be asked of the set? Filmed on location in the Paris Opera, this movie is breathtaking in it's beauty -- and presumably in it's budget as well!

To be fair, this interpretation does suffer from an excess of plot revision. Based upon Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's musical, "Phantom", disgruntlement is certainly in store for the Erik-purist who will undoubtedly hate this kinder gentler Phantom who keeps company with his father (Burt Lancaster) when not hiding in the deepest recesses of his underground forest(??!!). This Phantom is no cold-blooded killer, either -- violence, as he puts it, "throws [him] off a bit".

As well, this version sadly falls prey to the temptation of rationalizing Erik's obsessive love for Christine away. Here, he becomes drawn to Christine because she has the same face and voice as the only woman who could "gaze at [his] face and smile", his dead mother Belladova (played also by Teri Polo). Sigh. Can't screenwriters leave well enough alone? Erik loves Christine just because he does. That is why. Because he does. That is good enough for me, but not for Kopit and Yeston, I presume, so instead, Charles Dance's Erik is saddled with a massive Oedipus complex.

Enough complaining. I don't really care what is "wrong" with this movie. I liked it anyways.

I remember sitting through the final scenes, knowing with a sinking feeling that all great love stories are tragedies, yet hoping against hope that Erik and Christine could live happily ever after. After drying my eyes, I went and finished the Leroux before I went to bed.

Luckily I had taped the miniseries, so over the next few months my brother and I watched it over and over until we could quote entire scenes word for word. I devoured all the Phantom-related material I could get my hands on, yet nothing made me feel more Phantom-y inside than Charles Dance and Teri Polo's final scenes together as they declare their love for one another in the climactic trio of Faust.

Ten years later, my feelings have yet to change. Complain all you like about a wimpy Erik, an unmemorable unmasking, or how on earth that forest got into the cellar. I will turn a deaf ear.

Keep your musical, and I will keep my miniseries, thank you very much! No other reinterpretation of Leroux could ever replace it in my heart.

--robyn

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