


The star singer, Carlotta (Minnie Driver), storms off set, and the production looks certain to be shut down until chorus girl Christine (Emmy Rossum) stuns everyone with her beautiful voice and assumed the lead role. Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Andre (Simon Callow), the theatre’s new owners, and its new patron Raoul (Patrick Wilson) are in preparation for a new production of the opera Hannibal when a tragic accident strikes the rehearsal.

The story, for those who don’t know it, is loosely based on the novel Le Fântome de l’Opera by Gaston Leroux and concerns events at a Paris opera house in the late 1800s. Fifteen years later, director Joel Schumacher has finally brought this well-loved musical to the cinema screen as a lavish, large-scale costume-drama which looks set to be successful both at the box-office and at awards ceremonies in 2005. It premiered on the London stage with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the lead roles, and was an immediate smash hit, with its combination of lush romance, Gothic horror and classic themes of love and loss. One of the most beloved musicals in modern history, The Phantom of the Opera was written by British composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber in collaboration with lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.
