First Encounter of The Phantom of the Opera

[Kenneth]

How many people's first encounter of The Phantom of the Opera was the book?

Mine was the sound recording of the Broadway Musical. I did not get a chance to read the book until years later, mainly because I was so young when I became a fan and I did not understand the book when I tried to read it.

[Emmy]

My first was the Gerard Butler movie, with the musical, book, and Lon Chaney movie coming quickly afterward. I had to do a project on the musical for my speech class in high school. I just LOVE the story!

If you're looking for a good translation of the book, I highly recommend the Lowell Bair version (you can find this in the Bantam Classics edition).

[Alice]

The Lon Chaney movie was my intro. Then saw the broadway production. Discovered that a book existed by accident at a Borders Books. Gotta say I love them all.

[Kenneth]

I have enjoyed watching and reading so many adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera. Some were great and some were not so great, but I enjoy the story so much that I like to see or read other takes on the story. I even have my own ideas on the story that is from bits and pieces of all the adaptations I've been in contact with.

[Anna]

I read the book first, when I was very young and didn't really understand it. Then I discovered the musical and fell in love with it. I went back and read the book again and loved it just as much as the musical. I've seen the musical movie with Gerard Butler and the Lon Chaney movie as well. But in my opinion, the book always wins. :)

[Jolanda]

I was introduced to the Phantom of the Opera when I was 5 or 6 years old and my mother took me to see the musical. I still don't understand why she would take a 6 year old to see the Phantom of the Opera, for crying out loud, but she insists that 6 year old me insisted on seeing the Phantom. I was, apparently, incredibly offended that she had gone without me and kept nagging until she went a second time and took me with her. I remember that we used to have a cassette-recording of the show that we used to listen to in the car. I also vaguely remember a video that started with the Phantom sewing on his mask(?), at least, I assume it was the Phantom because I've never actually seen that video again after my early childhood and I was usually too scared to watch that particular part of the video.
Anyway, after this seemingly Phantom infested childhood, the Phantom soon disappeared from my life, until the 2004 movie came out, which re-introduced me to both the Phantom of the Opera and musical theatre in general. Being absolutely obsessed with the movie ( I don't understand why, I blame it on me being 13 and being in the middle of my fangirl-phase, I recently saw the thing again and it's... atrocious, absolutely horrible ) I purchased a copy of the original novel and loved it, saw a couple of old Phantom movies ( still have to look up the Chaney one though ). I've actually bought a new copy of the novel a couple of months ago, seeing as my old paperback is falling apart and it's awaiting re-read.

[Katherine]

I had heard so much about it I had to read the book. I found it dark and wasn't sure I liked it but I didn't hate it. From there I watched the movie (newer version) did not like it. A few years ago my daughter and I went to Vegas and there I saw the live version. It was Wonderful!!!!

[Wren]

I heard the music and liked it, so I read the book, then saw the movie, and then the play.

[Olivia]

My first encounter was probably the soundtrack. When I was little, my parents saw the play, liked it, but not the extent of listening to the soundtrack around the house. After that, without really making the connection,I read the book and absolutely LOVED IT (this was probably...6th grade I think?) My parents got me tickets to see the play in Kalamazoo in the 7th grade, and cried the entire way home because I loved it that much. Not too long after that, the Gerard Butler version came out, and now that's my favorite movie of all time. I've tried to watch the 1920's silent movie version with Lon Chaney, but I don't have too much patience for silent movies so I haven't seen the whole thing. So basically, in a nutshell...I'm just in love with anything Phantom of the Opera related<3
Favorite movie, favorite play, favorite book, and favorite soundtrack...can't get much better than that. =)

[Michael]

My first encounter was with the Herbert Lom movie. I was about 10 years old and loved anything creepy and spooky. The idea of a sympathetic monster with a heart that gets broken grabbed me. I wanted to know about the source material for this movie. I tried to find the book but that was hard to find. At Halloween time a local movie house showed the full length silent film with organ accompaniment. This was a unique experience in and of itself. I was swept away. The story was much more elaborate than the Herbert Lom version, which I still like. I found a copy of the novel several years later and devoured it. The book is still the best by far. The musical came out about a decade later and I was enraptured. I loved the stage musical, hated the movie version of the musical. I am pretty accepting of any film version, I like to see how the theme is played out in different scenarios. There is only one version of the Phantom that I refuse to watch and that is with Robert Englund. It is a morbid, gore fest that tosses out all elements that make the Phantom magical in order to be shocking and bloody.
The Phantom is a fairytale about rejection, revenge and redemption through love.

[Lisa]

My first experience was reading the book. I absolutely loved the storyline. Magic, Romance, mystery....what an amazing story this was. I read it like twenty yrs. ago and have never forgot it..

[Jeni]

Mine was also the book. My father gave me the most gorgeously illustrated book and I read that book over and over and over.

[Kelli]

I first heard of Phantom of the Opera when they did an episode of Night Court which was a take-off of it.

[Child of Ilúvatar]

I had the peculiar experience of being introduced to the Phandom (see what I did there? :P) by Frederick Forsyth's novel "The Phantom of Manhattan". Nerdy as I was in high school I sometimes hung out with friends in between the bookshelves of the library and one day I spotted this book just over my friend's shoulder.

It deserves all the criticism it gets but, having never even HEARD of the Phantom of the Opera in any of its incarnations, I read it with a fresh mind and rather enjoyed it. It was only upon looking back that I could see what an abominable thing it was. In any case, it was enough to pique my interest that I borrowed out the original book by Leroux, which I found even more enjoyable. From there I discovered that my mother had the highlights CD of the original London cast and my love affair with Phantom truly took off.

I've collected many editions of the original novel and I have listened to the London musical cast recording so many times that every note is embedded in my mind forever. I've seen most of its adaptations to film - a few of which I deplored, but none more so than the 2004 film. It probably isn't worse than the 1989 film with Robert Englund but I had such high hopes for it and the result was that I felt Webber betrayed himself and his phans by allowing that travesty of a film to happen.

[Wind]

My first was the 2oo4 movie, which I watched Fall 2006 and I went on to read, watch and listen to other versions and I've been obsessed ever since.