‘Phantom’ Insight

Re Charles Champlin’s July 11 column, “Catching Up With the ‘Phantom’: A Night of Opera,” in which a friend asks him what “The Phantom of the Opera” is all about:

May I make a suggestion to those planning to attend the stage musical? Before seeing “Phantom” in New York, I read Gaston Leroux’s original story (available in paperback), and this made all the characters and stage interpretation clear and recognizable.

To fully appreciate later what one has experienced, read the book “The Complete Phantom of the Opera” by George Percy (available in stores and some libraries). This book is magnificent in historical content, color photographs and descriptions of costuming and staging. The libretto is included.

I plan to see “Phantom” again. It is not “canned soup,” as Times critic Dan Sullivan has said, but rather nectar of the gods.

M. ENYART

Glendora