Madrigal by Jennifer Linforth - REVIEW

Madrigal: A novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
Kindle Edition

This novel is actually a pretty good sequel to the story of the phantom of the opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber could learn a lesson or two from this author in how to write and pull of a decent sequel to this story. The novel takes place years after Gaston Leroux's work. Erik who faked his death finds a friend and possible lover in Anna, a young girl who leaves him care packages of figs and ink. As the novel goes on Christine comes back to the Paris Opera. Among the action, passion, deceit and mayhem, Erik must decide and make sense of his love for Christine and the idea of having a real love and life with Anna.

Overall I was impressed with this sequel. The author did a great job bringing Erik back to life with the suggestion that he faked his own death. There was a lot of action, and a lot of questions Erik had for himself. I really enjoyed the fact that Erik and Raoul remained enemies, I don't like the idea of them as friends which is what happened in Sadie Montgomery's series.

I was impressed and will continue reading the series, I've already started the next novel Ablendied and will definitely buy Rondeau for my kindle.

If you'd like more information on Jennifer Linforth's novels you can browse her website.

March 2012 - Sexy Phantom

Sexy Phantom has been around for 2 years now! I started the Sexy Phantom of the month in March 2010 and have been able to keep it going pretty strong for a full two years, it's an accomplishment considering that sometimes I'm not so sure who to pick for the month or if I will think of anyone at all. 

So to celebrate Sexy Phantom's 2 year anniversary, phans PHeast your eyes on John Owen Jones (also known as JOJ). He's pretty hot stuff both masked and unmasked.

This is the cover of an album he has - after lent is over and I can shop again this is going to the be first thing I purchase

Could he be eluding to the role of the phantom in this photo? 

Portraying the man we all know and love 

                                     

Phantom Diaries by Kailin Gow - REVIEW

The Phantom Diaries

I provided a link with the option to purchase this book from amazon but honestly I wouldn't even bother. This is one of the most awful phan phiction novels I've ever come across, it's not as bad as Frederick Forsyth's Phantom of Manhattan but it's definitely almost just as foul IMO.

The summary and the only part of the story that makes sense is that Annette Binoche comes to Metropolitan Opera House in NY to become a seamstress. She runs into Erik (in this version the author has brutalized his name and it's spelled as Eric) who's magically lived through time for years and years. He helps her get the lead in the new production. Annette is a pretty confused and loose character. She divides her time and affections between Chace, Aaron Aragon and Eric. One minute she's kissing Chace, the next minute she's pleading with Eric by telling her how much she loves him. The book ends after Annette is possessed by Kristine's spirit (again the name is butchered), Kristine also happens to be Annette's long lost relative. There is a struggle between Kristine's spirit and Annette over control of her body. Apparently there's two more installments of this crap, I asked Shawn to get one for me, if he's able to get it I might ask him to get the other one. All I know is if I'm going to suffer through any more of these for reviewing purposes I'm not buying it.

The author definitely screws up the paranormal twist they so desperately tried to do according to amazon. The book makes absolutely no sense, jumping from one ridiculous scene to the next. Annette is a loose character who I personally have no respect for. Again my verdict is do not waste your time with this twilight co tail writer who seriously fouls and stinks up the story of phantom almost as badly as ALW does with LND. I know this review is probably very harsh but I don't like this book and I want to protect anyone from making the mistake of reading it.

Phantom of the Opera 10,000th Broadway Performance

On February 11, 2012 Broadway's Phantom of the Opera hit a record and performed it's 10,000th performance during the afternoon performance.

Principal performers for this record breaking show were Hugh Panaro (playing the phantom), Trista Moldovan (playing Christine), Kyle Barisich (playing Raoul - GROSS!), Aaron Galligan - Stierle (Monsieur Andre), Kevin Ligon (Monsieur Firmin), Cristin J. Hubbard (Mme. Giry), Heather McFadden (Meg Giry), Michele McConnell (Carlotta), and Christain Sebek (Piangi).

Trista Moldovan gave an interesting performance as Christine, her facial expressions were well done, she portrayed a very lost and confused Christine. Hugh Panaro did a better job in the second act of the performance, during the first act he might have been nervous or trying to direct the spot light to the other cast members but he wasn't completely on par. Michele McConnell was a great Carlotta, she performed the role of the diva incredibly well. Cristin J. Hubbard seemed to have confused the role of Mme. Giry with the role of Mary Poppins and Heather McFadden did well as Meg Giry but she had an older look to her, not the young look that Meg should have.

Once the performance finished, after the curtain call, Hugh Panaro made a speech, Gillian Lynne (the original choreographer of all productions worldwide) made a speech after Hugh Panaro finished his speech, Hugh Panaro then read a letter from Hal Prince. Once Hugh Panaro finished Hal Prince's letter a special projection presentation of pre-recorded well wishes from Andrew Lloyd Weber (blech!) and the London cast of Phantom of the Opera was shown. There was also a cake on stage featuring the number 10,000.

If you wish to glimpse the festivities one of the talented videographer phans, Krista taped the proceedings, her recording can be found on YouTube, below is a link to the video.

Krista's 10,000th performance video

My Phantom: The memoir of Christine Daae by Anstance Tamplin REVIEW

My Phantom: The Memoir of Christine Daaé
Kindle Edition

I have a feeling February is going to be filled with Phantom for me...maybe the month's name should be spelled PHebruary. I seem to be breezing through my kindle's collection of Phantom books, this month is the 10,000th Broadway anniversary, the London 25th anniversary has been released to DVD and Blu-Ray (mine was shipped today - Woohoo!!!). So anyway after the excited rambling, let's get on with this review.

This was a most wonderful retelling of Leroux's story. The author's narrative from Christine's point of view captivated me, transported me back to the time period, back to her desires. The Phantom is portrayed as a wonderfully noble, very misunderstood man. The end of the novel was quite sad for me, and the very end of the novel dragged on just a little bit. Instead of ending with Christine's narrative the author wrote a few letters from her descendants, it was nice to read the letters but I felt the novel would have ended just as well, if not more powerfully had she chosen to leave the letters out of the book. Besides the never ending letters, the book was great, a well written novel that I'd recommend to any Phan. 

Lessons from The Phantom of the Opera - REVIEW

Lessons From the Phantom of the Opera
Kindle Edition

Haven't done a review here in quite some time. I'm going to have at least two reviews this month, maybe more, the 10,000th performance of the Broadway Phantom is coming up and for some reason I'm choosing to read through all of the phantom of the opera literature I have on my kindle too.

Vicki Hopkins was strongly influenced by the story of the Phantom of the Opera, she started a blog to discuss lessons she learned from the story, her blog received many hits so she chose to publish a book based on her blog. I am a follower of her blog but so far I've only read this book version, haven't actually sat down to plow through the blog yet.

She divides this book into a few sections, she takes a few pages to discuss the characters, symbols, emotions as well as other aspects found in the story of The Phantom of the Opera. At the conclusion of each section she includes what she calls the view from 5. In the view from box 5, she asks a few thought provoking questions about what she just discussed. The View from box 5 was my favorite feature of the book, I didn't take the time to reflect or think about all of her questions but sometime in the future I'd like to go back to the text and write out answers. I'm all about encouraging reflection, conclusions or your own thoughts about a story so this little addition to each chapter was awesome in my opinion.

Sometimes I found her writing style to be a little bit campy but overall the book wasn't bad, definitely thought provoking and wonderful for delving deeper into the story. I think if I ever achieve a silly dream I have of becoming a Phantom of the Opera professor/lecturer in the future I will definitely use Ms. Hopkin's text, it makes a great teacher's text.

Sexy Phantom - February 2012

My sexy phantom might be a disappointing choice for this month and I apologize in advance since February is the month of love with Valentine's Day and all. Sometimes I find myself grasping at straws when it comes to the choice of sexy phantom for the month and I'm trying to keep it alive for as long as I can. Next month is the two year anniversary of sexy phantom. Anyway my choice this month is William Finley, star of Phantom of the Paradise. He's a very goofy phantom but at least he's masked unlike Julian Sands Phantom failure.

William Finley before he became the phantom in this movie

Here he is, he could be sexy in a steampunk alien fetish sort of a way!