The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera (French: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in "Le Gaulois" from 23 September 1909, to 8 January 1910. It was published in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierre Lafitte. The novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production of "Der Freischütz". It has been successfully adapted into various
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) financially successful entertainment event until "The Lion King" surpassed it in 2014. By 2011, it had been seen by over 130 million people in 145 cities across 27 countries, and continues to play in London and New York. In 1984, Lloyd Webber contacted Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of "Cats" and "Song and Dance", to propose a new musical. He was aiming for a romantic piece, and suggested Gaston Leroux's book "The Phantom of the Opera" as a basis. They screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Rains motion picture versions, but neither saw any effective way to