summary of the prologue of phantom of the opera book

Operafantomet wrote:I think it's the joy of using retrospective technique in the opening, to make the truth/story/whatever slowly appear to the viewer. But it only served to slow the musical down. Had there been an actual fire in the LND musical, as I think was originally planned, it would have made more sense. But they had little of the foreshadowings of Phantom's opening scene, and as such the scene didn't serve any purpose. Speaking of which, 'Love Never Dies' tried to copy the structure of a slow-motion, b/w opening scene contrasted by a colourful ensemble scene. I think it's also a historical nod to the first b/w movie, to open the musical in a sort of b/w setting, and make the next scene a major contrast, an explosion of colours (read: the coloured masquerade scene from the Chaney movie). The technique has later been much used in theatre as well as in movies. The retrospective technique was invented refined by writer Henrik Ibsen, who used it in the plays 'Ghosts' and 'A Doll's House' with great success. Seen that way, both the Hannibal poster, the guns, the monkey musical box and the chandelier makes sense and is a foreshadowing of the later storyline. if you present them early in the play, they're bound to bear some significance later in the play.

The items sold also appears to be the Phantom equivalents of 'Chekhov's gun', I.E. And also to make the viewer curious on how the retrospective scene relates to the overall story, and how it comes together (read: makes sense) in the end. I think it's the joy of using retrospective technique in the opening, to make the truth/story/whatever slowly appear to the viewer.

Summary of the prologue of phantom of the opera book