The Phantom's World of French Grand Opera

by Nicholas Sheets, dramaturg Within The Phantom of the Opera there are three operas: Hannibal, Il Muto, and Don Juan. While these are fictional operas, they illustrate the pompous and elaborate stagings of the French Grand Opera during the 19th century. Just take a look at the costumes and sets: [caption id="attachment_945" align="aligncenter" width="300"]

Japan's Version of Il Muto[/caption] [caption id="attachment_946" align="aligncenter" width="300"]

Phantom-Hannibal[/caption] French Grand Opera began in 1828 with the opera La Muette de Portici (The Mute Girl of Portici) by Daniel Auber. Within this five-act show there was a ballet scene, romantic passion set in historical contexts, and the use of spectacular staging effects. Also worth noting is the first production of this opera was performed in the Paris Opera House, or known officially at the time as "Académie Royale de Musique." Later, in 1858, an attempt was made on the life of Napoleon III when he arrived at the Paris Opera to see Rosini's William Tell, and plans were subsequently made for an opera house where the emperor and his wife could enter and exit safely. [caption id="attachment_954" align="alignnone" width="674"]

Salle Le Pelletier, which housed the Paris Opera in the 1850's[/caption] French Grand Opera reached its "Golden Age between 1830 and 1850. In fact, an opera mentioned during the auction scene of The Phantom of the Opera is Robert, le diable by Meyerbeer, originally performed in the Paris Opera House in 1831. [caption id="attachment_957" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Robert le Diable Ballet Scene by Degas[/caption] This was one of the most iconic grand operas ever performed. In fact, Frederic Chopin who saw the premiere, exclaimed, "“If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in Robert… It is a masterpiece… Meyerbeer has made himself immortal" (http://www.roh.org.uk). The French Grand Opera is not usually performed today because of the lavish costumes, elaborate sets, and full orchestras involved. Economic factors of today make shows more prone to budget cuts than budget expansions. However, according to Professor Sarah Hibbard, at the University of Nottingham, studying 19th century French Grand Opera is important for understanding political and social issues of 19th century France. Here's a video published by ArtPoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaV6bEuP7VQ Erik the Phantom is raised in this culture, and when we as an audience see The Phantom of the Opera, we are returning to that era when lavish costumes were the norm, the scenery elaborate, and ballet dancers essential.

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by Cameron Cox, Dramaturg As director of BYU’s production of Little Shop of Horrors, George Nelson wanted to provide a sense of foreboding, encouraging the audience to recognize the “flaxen cord” that Audrey II is in Seymore’s life without him knowing. The ominous ticking clock towering above the set creates this atmosphere and comes from science fiction tropes almost as old as the genre itself. The idea of the clock ticking away to destruction originated in 1947 by the Chicago Atomic Scientists (a group of researchers who worked on the creation of the first nuclear bomb used in World War II). “The Doomsday Clock” represented the time until the actions of mankind would end the world. The clock views a hypothetical man-made global catastrophe as midnight, and the minutes till midnight are measured by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which still exists to this day. When the clock was first invented, 13 years before the original Little Shop of Horrors film was written and directed by Roger Corman, changes in time directly correlated to the nuclear developments and concerns that the Bulletin had at the time. These concerns are evident in the development of western science fiction and traces of them can be found in both the original Little Shop of Horrors as well as the musical adaptation Menken and Ashman wrote 20 years later. But Little Shop’s relationship to the clock has become more poignant in the past decade in ways that Corman, Menken, Ashman, or even Frank Oz (who adapted the musical to a second filmed version in 1986) could have anticipated. In 2015 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists expanded the criteria of what contributed to the clock moving closer to midnight to include concerns regarding climate change. In the past five years, the clock has moved from three minutes to midnight steadily closer, with the Bulletin announcing earlier this year that the clock was the closest it’s ever been to midnight, 100 seconds. Audrey II represents a trend in fiction of the natural world fighting back against mankind's mistreatment of it. From Audrey II in Little Shop, to the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter series, to the Batman villain Poison Ivy, to Annihilation written and directed by Alex Garner in 2018, the concept of plants/nature beginning to fight back against mankind's mistreatment of them has been a trend that Little Shop of Horrors did not intend to start but has become one of the most classic examples of.

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The Phantom's World of French Grand Opera

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