Musical Night: ****Man of La Mancha, *****The Phantom of the Opera (2011)

Man of La Mancha (1972) is the movie version of the musical.  It is available on instant Netflix.  It is based on the book by Miguel de Cervantes.  It stars Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren with Coco as Sancho.   I studied this book in college, and I like the way the musical and movie takes concepts from the book and reworks them.  For example in the book there are often side stories.  Int the book the characters will find a manuscript and sit down to read it.  In the musical, the prisoners retell the story, taking part as characters.  Cervantes takes time to make fun of the Catholic Church during the inquisition.  He dressed a donkey as a priest.  In the movie, it starts with making fun of the Church in a drama.  Cervantes walked a thin line.  Another aspect of Cervantes is the distortion of reality.  Such as the helmet of Mambrino.  If a barber's basin is worn on the head, is it in fact a helmet?  In the book an artifact is used as a door knob.  It then had become a door knob.
As for the movie, it is based more on actors portraying characters, rather than great singing.  The characters come through, and carry their part.  On of my favorite scenes is when Don Quijote finds Dulcinea by the side of the road after being raped.  The emotion really comes through.

The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall also available on instant Netflix is the 25 year anniversary of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic.  It is a filmed musical version of the musical, not a movie based on the musical.  It includes the entire show, with a bit extra at the end.  The love triangle of the Phantom (Ramin Karimloo), Christine (Sierra Boggess) and Raoul (Hadley Fraser) is classic.  In this presentation Christine is as close to perfection as you can get.  The Phantom and Raoul are a bit less than perfect.  I thought the Phantom had a tendency to go sharp, and this presentation is based on the music.  The most gruesome part is the tenor hanging from the rafters.  The falling chandelier was not very well done.  Just pyrotechnics and no falling.