Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)

Erik (also known as The Phantom of the Opera, commonly referred to as The Phantom) is the title character from Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, best known to English speakers as The Phantom of the Opera. The character has been adapted to alternative media several times, including in the 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney, the 1943 remake starring Claude Rains and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.

Erik
The Phantom of the Opera character
First appearanceThe Phantom of the Opera (1909)
Created byGaston Leroux
Portrayed byLon Chaney
Claude Rains
Herbert Lom
Michael Crawford
Robert Englund
Julian Sands
Gerard Butler
Ramin Karimloo
Charles Dance
In-universe information
AliasThe Phantom of the Opera
Opera Ghost
The Angel of Music
SpeciesHuman
GenderMale
NationalityFrench

Character history

In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past. The novel confirms that Erik has traveled to multiple countries including France, Russia, Persia, and northern Vietnam, learning various arts and sciences from each region. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his birth deformity, and that his father, a true master mason, never saw him. Most of the character's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian or the Daroga, who saved Erik's life in Persia, and followed Erik to Paris; other details are discussed in the novel's epilogue (e.g., his birthplace is given as a small town outside of Rouen, France).

Phantom

Many different versions of Erik's life are told through other adaptations such as films, television shows, books, and musicals. One such popular literary adaptation is the Susan Kay novel Phantom (1990), a fictional in-depth story of Erik from the time of his birth to the end of his life at the Paris Opera House.

For the most part, Kay's novel stays in context with Erik's life history as laid down by Leroux. However, Kay (as explained in her Author's Note) changes and shapes the character to match her own vision, influenced by other adaptations besides the original. In addition, the ending/resolution is quite different from Leroux's. The story follows Erik through his entire life, starting with the night of his birth, and is told from different viewpoints throughout the novel (Erik's mother, Erik, Nadir/the Persian, Christine, and Raoul). Kay places the highest priority on portraying romantic aspects of Erik's life.

Yeston and Kopit

The theatrical songwriting team of Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit created a musical based on the novel, which investors backed out of after Webber's version became a huge hit. In this version, Erik has spent his entire life living beneath the Opera. Over the years, he became possessive of the Opera, and the creative driving force for the company. No artistic decision is made without Gerard Carriere seeking his approval.

He offers to teach Christine Daaé to sing after hearing her working in the costume shop, and falls in love with her.

This storyline was also the basis for the 1990 miniseries starring Charles Dance, Teri Polo, and Burt Lancaster as Carriere.

The Canary Trainer

In Nicholas Meyer's 1993 novel The Canary Trainer, Sherlock Holmes develops several theories as to the Phantom's identity. His first idea is that he is an employee of the Opera; however, when the Phantom's knowledge of the Opera becomes evident, Holmes then believes that he is Charles Garnier, having faked his own death. When Garnier's corpse is identified, Holmes then theorizes that the Phantom was Edouard LaFosse, the (fictional) assistant of Garnier who designed much of the Opera's interior and who allegedly died after a building collapse. Holmes theorizes that he did not die, but was merely disfigured and therefore took to hiding in the Opera. However, when Holmes finally confronts the Phantom, he claims that he cannot speak without his mask, as his mother forced him to wear it whenever he wished to speak as a child, and he is not Edouard LaFosse. Holmes therefore admits that he is not sure how true any of the theories or claims of the Phantom's identity are. The Phantom never provides a given name in the novel; he only tells Christine that his name is "Nobody.”

Regardless of his identity, the Phantom in The Canary Trainer is much more unhinged and bloodthirsty than in the original novel or play. For example, when killing Madame Giry's replacement with the chandelier, he kills "almost thirty men and women in the twinkling of an eye", just to ensure that he kills his main target. He is also more psychologically disturbed, to the extent that when he tells Holmes that he has been 'taught' not to speak without his mask, he is revealed to only be capable of communicating in snarls and other animalistic sounds when Holmes knocks the mask off in their final confrontation.[1]

The Angel of the Opera

In Sam Siciliano's novel The Angel of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes is brought in to solve the case of the Opera Ghost, and both Erik's and Holmes's stories unfold through the eyes of Holmes's assistant, Henri Vernier. Siciliano places Holmes and Vernier at several of the crucial scenes in Erik and Christine's relationship, and draws parallels between Erik and Holmes. Holmes sympathizes with Erik so much that after Christine leaves him, Holmes brings him back to England. One of the first people that Erik meets on his arrival is a blind girl with a fondness for music.

Erik's deformity

In the original novel, Erik is described as corpse-like and is referred to as having a "death's-head" (human skull) throughout the story. He has no nose, and his eyes are sunken so deep in his skull that all is seen are two eye sockets, except when his yellow eyes glow in the dark. His skin is yellowed and tightly stretched across his bones, and only a few wisps of dark brown hair are behind his ears and on his forehead.

His mouth is never described in as much detail, but is referred to as a “dead mouth” by Christine, and Erik acknowledges that his mouth is abnormal when lifting up his mask to display ventriloquism. He is described as extremely thin, so much so that he resembles a skeleton. Christine graphically describes his cold, bony hands, which also either feel or smell like death. There is debate among both English and French speakers as to whether the original French word used here, sentir, was intended by Leroux to mean "smells like" or "feels like,” as the French word is used for both feel and smell depending on the context.

Erik woefully describes himself to Christine as a corpse who is "built up with death from head to foot." According to the Persian, Erik was born with this deformity and was exhibited as le mort vivant in freak shows earlier in his life. Erik sometimes plays up his macabre appearance, such as sleeping in a coffin and dressing up as the Red Death for the masked ball.

Lon Chaney's characterization of Erik in the silent film The Phantom of the Opera (1925) remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. In this version, Erik is said to have been deformed at birth. Chaney was a masterful make-up artist and was considered avant-garde for creating and applying Erik's facial make-up design himself. It is said that he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the women of the time that theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand to revive those who fainted.

Several movies based on the novel vary the deformities. In Universal's 1943 adaptation, he is disfigured when the publisher's assistant throws etching acid in his face. In the musical horror film Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Winslow (the Phantom character) gets his head caught in a record-press, while the horror version starring Robert Englund has him selling his soul to Satan and having his face mutilated as a result. This version also has a gruesome variation on the mask, in which Erik is sewing flesh to his face.

In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation, only half of Erik's face is deformed (thus the famous half-mask often associated with Erik's appearance.) His show was originally planned to have a full mask and full facial disfigurement, but when the director, Harold Prince, realized that it would make expression onstage very difficult, they halved the mask. The logo featuring a full mask was publicized before the change. The deformity in the musical includes a gash on the right side of his partially balding head with exposed skull tissue, an elongated right nostril, a missing right eyebrow, swollen lips, different colored eyes, and a wrinkled, warped right cheek. It is covered by a white half mask and wig.

In the 2004 film adaptation of the musical, Erik's makeup was made to look much less gruesome than previous adaptations of the story. Instead of a skull-like face, his disfigurement resembles that of a mildly malformed face, which he covers with the mask. Film critic Roger Ebert noted that Butler was more "conventionally handsome" than his predecessors "in a GQ kind of way".[2]

The 1998 film adaptation starring Julian Sands as Erik is notable in that the character is not deformed and has instead a classically handsome face.

Performers

Film

Onscreen, Erik has often been cast as a tragic hero but also a tragic villain, depending on the film's point of view.

Television

Theatre

Andrew Lloyd Webber musical

See main list: The Phantom of the Opera

  • Michael Crawford in the original cast of the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in London's West End, the 1988 cast on Broadway and the 1989 cast in Los Angeles.
  • Steve Barton played the role as well as the original Raoul in London
  • Dave Willetts replaced Michael Crawford in the London cast when Crawford was cast to open the Broadway production in 1988.
  • Martin Smith
  • Timothy Nolen replaced Michael Crawford on Broadway when Crawford was cast to open the Los Angeles production in 1989, and is the first baritone Phantom, and the only bass baritone Phantom
  • Ethan Freeman Famous for being the most Leroux-faithful Phantom and the youngest to portray the role in a language not his own. He performed the role in Vienna: 1988–90, West End: 1994–95, Toronto: 1997–98, Essen: 2006
  • Robert Guillaume replaced Michael Crawford in Los Angeles, becoming the first African American Phantom in the US
  • Colm Wilkinson (1989)
  • Anthony Warlow in Australian performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical (1990, 2007)
  • Rob Guest, who subsequent to Anthony Warlow, played the role a record 2,289 times in the Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical[3]
  • Franc D'Ambrosio
  • Howard McGillin, the longest-running Phantom
  • Anthony Crivello in Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular (2006–2012)
  • John Owen-Jones The West End Production and the 2011–2013 tour
  • Brad Little
  • Gary Mauer
  • Davis Gaines
  • Simon Bowman
  • Mark Jacoby
  • Paul Stanley on stage in Toronto (1999)
  • Kevin Gray becoming the first Asian American Phantom on Broadway
  • Peter Karrie in the Toronto and West End productions
  • John Cudia – Previous Phantom had portrayed both Raoul and the Phantom
  • Thomas Borchert
  • Earl Carpenter played the role in the London West End and the 2011–2013 tour
  • Ramin Karimloo played both Raoul and The Phantom in the London West End, as well as The Phantom in the West End production of Love Never Dies, and played the Phantom in 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera at Royal Albert Hall in 2011
  • Ben Lewis in Love Never Dies Australian production – May 2011, as well as Phantom of the Opera in London until September 2018
  • Peter Jöback – Previously played the Phantom in the west end and Broadway. Took over on Broadway in 2018 for the 30th anniversary
  • Hugh Panaro – Previous Phantom had portrayed both Raoul and the Phantom and played the Phantom in the 25th-anniversary production on Broadway
  • Norm Lewis played the Phantom until February 2015 becoming the first African American Phantom on Broadway
  • James Barbour played the Phantom until December 2017.
  • Ben Forster played The Phantom until December 2017
  • Ben Crawford – the current Phantom in the Broadway cast. Crawford's first show took place on April 16, 2018
  • Jonathan Roxmouth – The Phantom of the Opera world tour 2012 as the youngest English-speaking phantom / 2019–2020 tour
  • Josh Pitterman playing the Phantom in London West End from September 9, 2019
  • The Phantom appears in Bob Dylan's 1965 song "Desolation Row", disguised as a priest.
  • The heavy metal band Iced Earth has a song called "The Phantom Opera Ghost" on their album Horror Show.
  • The heavy metal band Iron Maiden has a song called "The Phantom of the Opera".
  • The violinist Lindsey Stirling made a cover of the song "Phantom of the Opera" on YouTube.
  • The Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish performed a cover of "The Phantom of the Opera", the title song of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, on their 2002 album Century Child–with bassist Marco Heitala as The Phantom.
  • Symphonic metal group Dreams of Sanity also covered "The Phantom of The Opera" from Webber's musical, featuring Tilo Wolff from Lacrimosa as the phantom, the band was signed to Wolff's record label "Hall of Sermon".
  • The Phantom has also featured in the Night Gallery episode "The Phantom of What Opera?", starring Leslie Nielsen as Erik, though he is never directly referred to by name.
  • The Count Duckula episode "A Fright at the Opera" parodies the story.
  • Universal Studios' attraction, Beetlejuice's Rock n' Roll Graveyard Revue, features the Phantom of the Opera as a rock star.
  • The 1988 animated film Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School shows The Phantom (voiced by Hamilton Camp) is now a ghost. His daughter Phantasma (voiced by Russi Taylor) plays the organ.
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Phantom of the Opera is mentioned.
  • In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, one of the Gremlins can be seen wearing a phantom-esque mask, and later in the movie there is a parody of the unmasking scene, in which one of the other Gremlins, dressed in a frilly pink gown, walks up behind him when he's playing an organ and removes his mask.
  • R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series includes The Phantom of the Auditorium, where junior high school students put on a production of The Phantom only to meet a mysterious student who plays the Phantom's role in the story.
  • In Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, the episode "The Phantomato of the Opera" shows the Phantomato, a disfigured tomato, rescuing Tara Boumdeay from the Killers, and she pulls his mask off as he plays for her.
  • In the Wishbone episode "Pantin at the Opera", the Phantom wears a full mask.
  • In Tiny Toon Adventures, "Toon TV", the video for "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)", shows Buster Bunny as the Phantom and Babs Bunny as Christine as she takes off his mask.
  • In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Wedding", a future Martin Prince lives in the cellar of Springfield Elementary, wearing a half-mask and playing the organ.
  • The American Dad! episode "Phantom of the Telethon" contains numerous references to the story, including Roger's costume resembling the Phantom and him dressing Steve Smith as Christine.
  • The Phantom appeared in the Big Bad Beetleborgs episode "Phantom of Hillhurst", portrayed by Ken Merckx. This version is shown to have supernatural powers, was friends with Christine Daaé (until she moved away), and was also an old friend of Flabber. After the Paris Opera House had burned down, the Phantom stays at Hillhurst until it is rebuilt. While working on his latest musical, the Phantom recognizes Jo's singing voice to be similar to a younger Christine's singing voice and claims her to be one. The Phantom manages to kidnap and mind-control Jo to help create his musical. When Flabber fails to stop the Phantom, he calls in Drew and Roland for help. What stopped the Phantom was Flabber managing to reunite the Phantom with Christine. Both Phantom and Christine left for France as the Phantom removes the spell from Jo.
  • In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Something Smells", SpongeBob plays dramatic music on an organ while wearing a cape, only to turn around and reveal his mask to be Groucho glasses.
  • In the Tom & Jerry Kids minisode "Droopy of the Opera", McWolf dresses as the phantom, and tries to sabotage Drooperotti's performance and later steals the Diva for himself but is ultimately stopped by Droopy and his son.
  • In the polish comedy movie Planet Single 2 Anne's mother is having sex with some man, that man wears an cape and Erik's mask but is in his underwear.
  • In the Chowder episode "Panini for President", the character Gorgonzola wears a costume similar to the Phantom including a white half-mask.
  • In the Monster High franchise, the Phantom of the Opera teaches a music class. His daughter Operetta is also in attendance at the school.
  • In the video game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, villain, Don Octavio, is an opera singer turned mob boss who wears a white fitted mask. Later during his boss fight, Sly Cooper attempts to drop a chandelier on him, further referencing the play.
  • In the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb, Phineas Flynn plays the Phantom in the episode "Roller Coaster: The Musical!" In one scene, he wears a half-faced mask, with a cape and wardrobe similar to the 2004 film adaptation.
  • In a third season episode of Glee, Kurt Hummel initially intends to sing "The Music of the Night" for his NYADA audition. He begins his audition with the song singing Erik's part, with Rachel Berry portraying Christine (who the song is sung to; she does not sing).
  • Erik (credited as the "Phantom of the Opera") appears in Hotel Transylvania 2, voiced by Jon Lovitz. He appears as Hotel Transylvania's residential musician. The Phantom is first seen playing melancholy music at Mavis and Johnny's wedding and even played music during the dinner with Mavis and Johnny's family while listening in on their conversation. The Phantom of the Opera later plays music during Dennis' fifth birthday party during the performance of the person performing Kakie. During Dracula's heated argument between Mavis and Jonathan, they get fed up with the Phantom playing during this time and shout at him to shut up.
  • The Phantom appears in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order as an Assassin class Servant.
  • Erik is a central figure in Kim Newman's pulp pastiche anthology Angels of Music, in which he is re-imagined as the head of a private detective organisation called the "Opera Ghost Agency", employing as its agents the female protagonists of popular contemporary media, including Trilby O'Ferrell, Christine, Irene Adler and others, in homage to the television series Charlie's Angels. In addition to his skills as a musician, composer and architect, he is portrayed as a practitioner of savate and uses a secret elixir to remain vital into old age.
  • In Terry Pratchett's novel, Maskerade, Erik's character is split into two parts. His artistically beautiful side is the janitor Walter Plinge, the original ghost in the book. All he does is give hints on how the performances could be improved. He comes out of his shell to become the Director of Music and later goes on to invent musicals. Erik's selfish and murderous side is covered by Mr. Salzella, who murders and steals from the Opera as the ghost to hide the fact that he is embezzling much of its funds. He dies due to believing stage combat is real.
  • In season 3, episode 12 ("Spooktacular/Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot") of The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show, an obvious parody of Erik (voiced by Jeff Bennett who was only listed as "Additional Voices") appears and goes by the name of "The Phantom of the Show". He claims that 80 years ago, he, too, was a show-runner, until a beautiful chorus girl distracted him during a dance number, and a chandelier crashed down on top of him, leaving him, in his own words, "hideously deformed", despite him not even have a single scar when he removes his half mask. Later in the episode he gets up on stage and sings a brief song about loneliness before being distracted by Mrs. Arugula Hughes and yet another chandelier falls on top of him. Even later in the episode, it is revealed that "The Phantom of the Show" was actually just Peabody and Sherman's landlord Mr. Hobson the whole time before a chandelier appears out of thin air and crushes him yet another time.
  • In the opening of The Umbrella Academy, Vanya plays "Phantom of the Opera" on the violin.

References
  1. Meyer, Nicholas (1995). The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson as edited by Nicholas Meyer. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. p. 158. ISBN 0-393-31241-0. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  2. "Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera". Roger Ebert. December 21, 2004. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-12.
  3. "The World Today - Stage star stopped by stroke". www.abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
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