I am Red Death

It’s a winning combination; reading Leroux’s original Phantom and at the same time listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s cast recording… such a combination demands the production of art!

So it seems that I’m back to scribbling little Phantom figures all over the place… one moment he’s playing the violin or the organ, next he’s ranting and raving or sulking by himself. Ha ha, he’s such an amazing character.

Anyway, as I’m so fond of playing Masquerade (my favourite song) over and over again, I thought I’d sketch Erik as he appears at the masked ball; wearing that spectacular red costume:

“As Raoul once more passed through the great crush-room, this time in the wake of his guide, he could not help noticing a group crowding round a person whose disguise, eccentric air and gruesome appearance were causing a sensation. It was a man dressed all in scarlet, with a huge hat and feathers on the top of a wonderful death's head. From his shoulders hung an immense red-velvet cloak, which trailed along the floor like a king's train; and on this cloak was embroidered, in gold letters, which every one read and repeated aloud: ‘Touch me not! I am Red Death stalking abroad!'

Then one, greatly daring, did try to touch him... but a skeleton hand shot out of a crimson sleeve and violently seized the rash one's wrist; and he, feeling the clutch of the knucklebones, the furious grasp of Death, uttered a cry of pain and terror. When Red Death released him at last, he ran away like a madman, pursued by the jeers of the bystanders.”

Unlike in Webber’s production, however, I don’t have him carrying around his own opus ‘Don Juan Triumphant’. It seemed to me that it would be something far too precious (being his life’s work) to just chuck at someone’s feet as he does on stage.

(Artwork © Leona Preston 2008 /
‘Le Fantôme de l'Opéra’ © Gaston Leroux)


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