I need some help figuring out the lyrics at :57. One transcription says that it’s

And another says that it’s:

Personally, I think that it *sounds* more like the latter version (I hear ‘ej någon’ in there more than ‘en gång av’; the amount of syllables in the second line fits better; and it seems to make more sense overall). But I’m not confident enough in my hearing/understanding of Swedish to be certain. 

Anyone else have any idea of which of these is correct (or if the lines are actually something entirely different)?

I’m 99% sure it’s the second. The first doesn’t quite make sense in the first line, and like you say, the second line doesn’t match the music. “Our love was once upon a time of eternal spring that renews itself each spring” sounds weird and way more creative than “our love wasn’t an eternal spring that is renewed (returns) every year”.

@tumjosefine​?

It is the second version that is correct. Vår kärlek var ej någon evig vår som varje år förnyar sig. It's quite a nice line in Swedish actually. The first version sounds slightly off and doesn't work that well.

Maintenance day here at Mini Her Majesty’s Theatre.

This is so great on so many levels!

20 or so years ago I asked Johanne Brochmann, from the Stockholm production, which part of Phantom she liked best to sing. Her answer was, a bit surprisingly, an emphatic "nothing, it's all rather horrible to sing". Really? I said. "Yes", she answered. "The range is horrible." "Well", she added, "the few nights when it works, then I think it is quite nice when the Phantom and sing opposite each other in the graveyard scene, but only when are doing it well."

Her point being that there is so much middle register in the role of Christine which can be hard for a high operatic soprano, which she was. She was great though and sang the role really well as far as I remember.

Finally after more than 100 years, Box 5 officially belongs to Erik. Better late than never.

Some recognition for our favourite ghost.

I found the location of the “Box of the Blind” that Leroux described in The Magic Envelope!

In the Gaulois, Leroux explained that the Box of the Blind was “an amply spacious box that was situated in the top tier of the auditorium, and from which one could not see a thing.”

We know from the Gaulois text that during the masked ball, the Managers agreed to “meet” Erik in the box directly below the Box of the Blind (Erik meanwhile was hiding in the Box of the Blind and threw his voice into the box below), and that Christine and Raoul hid in the box next door to the Managers.

The only box that meets Leroux’s description for the Box of the Blind is the one pictured in the top right of the photos above, beneath the angel sculptures. There is a parallel box on the other side of the auditorium, but I was able to figure out from the Gaulois text that Christine and Raoul hid in a box on the left side of the house. So the Box of the Blind must have been on the left side, as well.

This means that during this section of “At the Masked Ball,” Erik was in the box beneath the angel sculpture, the Managers were in the ornate box below it, and Christine and Raoul were in the box on the left side of Managers. Incidentally, the box where Christine and Raoul were hidden was two levels directly above Box 5.

I GOT TO GO INSIDE BOX 5!!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! It was just open, so my friend and I went inside. There were a bunch of other people in there too. I don’t know why it was open. We were there for about 20 minutes until a guard came and chased us all out. The guard told us that it wasn’t supposed to be open, so we just lucked out that we got to go in. Probably one of the workers left it open, cause they also did that briefly with the entrance to boxes 1-3. I’m still shaking!!!

Did you knock on the pillar to see if it is hollow?

Wasn't the first Hamburg production produced by Stella?

Opera singer Adelina Patti

Love the hair!

Peter Jöback backstage at Her Majesty’s Theatre, West End, 2012 ( X )

Peter Jöback backstage at The Majestic, Broadway, 2013 ( X )

I'm looking forward to more backstage pics in the autumn of 2016.

She looks absolutely gorgeous!

Alexander Goebel and Luzia Nistler with the Mirror Bride, Vienna 1988.

Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench. 

I can't help but thinking that Alexander Goebel looks kind of funny in many of the pics from Vienna. Here for example he looks like he is stating very matter of factly that "this is what I offer you, take it or leave it!"

…and for the nerds out there: Vienna’s “Lost dress”. Would have loved to see a clearer photo of this, as it has really nice details on bodice and backdrapes.

Lost dress Vienna.

booking tickets to Hamburg

Any good advice for hotel location?

Hotel Hafen Hamburg is nice.