Phantom Thoughts pt. 18
Jan. 10th, 2019 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zellephantom{added Moncharmin. "We shall have the whole press against us! He'll tell the story of the ghost; and everybody will be laughing at our expense! We may as well be dead as ridiculous!"}
Mssr. Moncharmin appears to have a similar outlook to Hermione Granger's "We could be killed- or worse, expelled!"
{About the same time, Carlotta, who had a small house of her own in the Rue du Faubourg St. Honore, rang for her maid, who brought her letters to her bed. Among them was an anonymous missive, written in red ink, in a hesitating, clumsy hand, which ran:
If you appear to-night, you must be prepared for a great misfortune at the moment when you open your mouth to sing ... a misfortune worse than death.
The letter took away Carlotta's appetite for breakfast. She pushed back her chocolate, sat up in bed and thought hard. It was not the first letter of the kind which she had received, but she never had one couched in such threatening terms.}
The Phantom has messy handwriting- this probably offends Carlotta just as much as the threats. I imagine her having very flowing, elegant handwriting. She also has chocolate for breakfast! Good call. And is not threatened by hate mail! Good for her.
{The truth is that, if there was a cabal, it was led by Carlotta herself against poor Christine, who had no suspicion of it. Carlotta had never forgiven Christine for the triumph which she had achieved when taking her place at a moment's notice. When Carlotta heard of the astounding reception bestowed upon her understudy, she was at once cured of an incipient attack of bronchitis and a bad fit of sulking against the management and lost the slightest inclination to shirk her duties. From that time, she worked with all her might to "smother" her rival, enlisting the services of influential friends to persuade the managers not to give Christine an opportunity for a fresh triumph. ... Lastly, in the theater itself, the celebrated, but heartless and soulless diva made the most scandalous remarks about Christine and tried to cause her endless minor unpleasantnesses.}
That's seriously not cool, Carlotta. Faking sick (I assume?) then sulking because your replacement is *actually* good? And even if she thinks Christine is the Phantom, or else currying favor with the vicomte in order to supplant Carlotta, the extent she goes to ruin Christine's career is not okay. Yet I hesitate to agree with Leroux that she is a 'heartless and soulless diva'. (Especially since I love the headcanon that Carlotta was Erik's former pupil who cared more about securing her fame and becoming technically perfect in her singing than Erik and showing emotions in song.) Flawed, vindictive, and tempermental? Yes. A bully? Yes. A heartless monster? No, especially not when compared to Erik, who might be monstorous but is decidedly not heartless.
{The first thing she saw, when looking out of her window, was a hearse. She was very superstitious; and the hearse and the letter convinced her that she was running the most serious dangers that evening.}
Sorelli is also superstitious, isn't she? I wonder if the two of them get along, or can't stand each other. At least Sorelli cares for her underlings, while Carlotta seems to only care that she *has* them.
{The famous baritone, Carolus Fonta, had hardly finished Doctor Faust's first appeal to the powers of darkness, when M. Firmin Richard, who was sitting in the ghost's own chair, the front chair on the right, leaned over to his partner and asked him chaffingly:
"Well, has the ghost whispered a word in your ear yet?"}
The managers are snarky, as usual.
But the existence of this minor character, famous baritone Carolus Fonta, just makes me wonder why ALW felt the need to invent Piangi for the musical. Why not just keep the name Carolus, change him to a tenor (I think Piangi is a tenor?), and add that he has a thing for Carlotta? He's already, at least from our short look at him, got a soft spot for Christine, so you wouldn't even need to add that. Why Piangi, not Carolus?
Mssr. Moncharmin appears to have a similar outlook to Hermione Granger's "We could be killed- or worse, expelled!"
{About the same time, Carlotta, who had a small house of her own in the Rue du Faubourg St. Honore, rang for her maid, who brought her letters to her bed. Among them was an anonymous missive, written in red ink, in a hesitating, clumsy hand, which ran:
If you appear to-night, you must be prepared for a great misfortune at the moment when you open your mouth to sing ... a misfortune worse than death.
The letter took away Carlotta's appetite for breakfast. She pushed back her chocolate, sat up in bed and thought hard. It was not the first letter of the kind which she had received, but she never had one couched in such threatening terms.}
The Phantom has messy handwriting- this probably offends Carlotta just as much as the threats. I imagine her having very flowing, elegant handwriting. She also has chocolate for breakfast! Good call. And is not threatened by hate mail! Good for her.
{The truth is that, if there was a cabal, it was led by Carlotta herself against poor Christine, who had no suspicion of it. Carlotta had never forgiven Christine for the triumph which she had achieved when taking her place at a moment's notice. When Carlotta heard of the astounding reception bestowed upon her understudy, she was at once cured of an incipient attack of bronchitis and a bad fit of sulking against the management and lost the slightest inclination to shirk her duties. From that time, she worked with all her might to "smother" her rival, enlisting the services of influential friends to persuade the managers not to give Christine an opportunity for a fresh triumph. ... Lastly, in the theater itself, the celebrated, but heartless and soulless diva made the most scandalous remarks about Christine and tried to cause her endless minor unpleasantnesses.}
That's seriously not cool, Carlotta. Faking sick (I assume?) then sulking because your replacement is *actually* good? And even if she thinks Christine is the Phantom, or else currying favor with the vicomte in order to supplant Carlotta, the extent she goes to ruin Christine's career is not okay. Yet I hesitate to agree with Leroux that she is a 'heartless and soulless diva'. (Especially since I love the headcanon that Carlotta was Erik's former pupil who cared more about securing her fame and becoming technically perfect in her singing than Erik and showing emotions in song.) Flawed, vindictive, and tempermental? Yes. A bully? Yes. A heartless monster? No, especially not when compared to Erik, who might be monstorous but is decidedly not heartless.
{The first thing she saw, when looking out of her window, was a hearse. She was very superstitious; and the hearse and the letter convinced her that she was running the most serious dangers that evening.}
Sorelli is also superstitious, isn't she? I wonder if the two of them get along, or can't stand each other. At least Sorelli cares for her underlings, while Carlotta seems to only care that she *has* them.
{The famous baritone, Carolus Fonta, had hardly finished Doctor Faust's first appeal to the powers of darkness, when M. Firmin Richard, who was sitting in the ghost's own chair, the front chair on the right, leaned over to his partner and asked him chaffingly:
"Well, has the ghost whispered a word in your ear yet?"}
The managers are snarky, as usual.
But the existence of this minor character, famous baritone Carolus Fonta, just makes me wonder why ALW felt the need to invent Piangi for the musical. Why not just keep the name Carolus, change him to a tenor (I think Piangi is a tenor?), and add that he has a thing for Carlotta? He's already, at least from our short look at him, got a soft spot for Christine, so you wouldn't even need to add that. Why Piangi, not Carolus?
