my SUPERNOVA PHANTOM - the mystery's unlocked
♥ ♥ ♥ ETHAN FREEMAN!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
This is the name of the German phantom, or as Gianna named "Nazi Phantom", that I have been unable to track down for four months and was first mentioned in this post: http://ladybows-fs.livejournal.com/113951.html. I thought I was limited to those three videos and I would never find out who he was; that he'd be, pun intended, a phantom Phantom.
But no - he's a Phantom I completely overlooked, which is awful because this guy's been doing the role since 1989. I was thinking he seemed youthful, but no, he was like 47! He's played Erik over 1000 times in German and English. And sounds sexy in both. ;)
Oh dear, I'm just so happy. I said "oh my God" so many times to myself when I first heard the first proof that this guy was the one I was looking for. It was this recording that had me wondering, a performance of Music of the Night at a Phantom of the Opera Gala from this January (which had performances for Yeston/Kopit and Ken Hill's musicals too; it was a great non-excluding event!) As I listened, I thought he sounded just wonderful, and then, along with wonderful, he was pronouncing everything exactly the same way as Anonymous German Guy, and strengthening/softening his voice at all the same times. That's when all the "oh my God"'s started, and then I looked him up and started comparing his face. Same huge cheek bones, same brow, same wide mouth. I don't know how nobody noticed from outside my door, with all of the "OH MY GODDDDDD"'s I was projecting. I was seat-dancing and everything.
♥
He's a sad, bitter, brilliant man. He has a great brain and can be a real bastard. I find him easy to understand - he's motivated by a terrible profound loneliness and has been forced to create his own universe which has its own laws. Anyone who has known some kind of loneliness or feeling of apartness when they were children or growing up can tune in to this crucial aspect of the Man, which is his great mythical attraction. He is so powerful, awesome, in control and yet so hurt and vulnerable. He must epitomise great beauty and great ugliness at war with each other, reason and insanity, God/Satan, Id/Ego battling it out.
poto.com interview
And Jesus Christ, what he has to say just makes me love him more.
I can't stand it when I see Erik played as a "nutter". Yes, he goes "crazy" a few times, but in general he is not insane in the pathological sense. I feel if he is played as a schizophrenic or a psychopath, the romantic ideal of the story is dashed, because both of those conditions would indicate a "determination" that makes any hope of redemption impossible.
Well, when you put it that way... ._. Oh well, "Erik"'s not even really Erik, anyway!
Oh, and lucky, lucky me - I found his Point of No Return.
Click to viewHowever, this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3KpgpytJU4&) was recorded and sounds a lot better, and has this interesting piano in it... I don't know what CD it's from, but if he recorded the whole musical in English I'M SO BUYING IT. I rather like the Christine, too.
Ugh, just so so happy now. I can stop saying "that anonymous German guy" when asked who my favorite ALW phantoms are. Michael Crawford, John Owen Jones, ETHAN FREEMAN, Christian Müller, maybe Davis Gaines (not sure yet.) And furthermore, I can research him and hopefully one day have a full performance from Essen 2006 in my Phantom collection.
♥_♥
Edit: Just ordered his compilation of Phantom songs on Amazon. Ialreadylovehimtopieces ;o;