Published Monday, November 11, 2002
to 'Phantom'
Herald Staff Writer
You might say that D.M. Bernadette is haunted by "The Phantom of the Opera."
The Butler woman has seen the Toronto production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical so many times that she won't say how many, assuming that most people would be appalled at the number.
The four-year employee of the Sharon and Hermitage post offices also has read Gaston Leroux's book and seen the many film adaptations, and loves them all.
But, to Ms. Bernadette, the pen name of Deb Filgres, the story was incomplete. The phantom and his love, Christine, do not end up together.
"I'm a person who needs closure," said Ms. Bernadette, 46, who was born Deborah Marie Bernadette McClanahan.
She found closure in writing a sequel to "Phantom" called "Angel of Music," which recently was published by Xlibris, an arm of Random House.
On her many trips home from Toronto after seeing Webber's "Phantom," she would think about scenarios.
"I would ask, 'What if?' and I would hear his dialog and her response," she said.
Eventually, she had the story in her head, and wrote it out longhand before pecking it into a computer.
She wrote "Angel of Music" as a continuation of all "Phantom" adaptations, and talked about characterizations with cast members of the "Phantom" Toronto cast, including Colm Wilkinson, who played the role the first five years.
But it was the advice of Peter Karrie, who succeeded Wilkinson, that stuck with her on writing the character of the phantom: "He didn't want me to emasculate him. He liked the edge, the maniac."
She cast the phantom as struggling between his propensity for violence and his brilliance. But she got rid of the "bad habits" that Leroux had given his creation.
"I couldn't stand having him smoke marijuana and doing opium," she said.
Ms. Bernadette researched clothing, architecture and other aspects of Victorian culture, and was given a private tour of the Paris Opera House, where "Phantom" was set, by a kindly janitor while the building was closed to the public due to renovations.
"I was able to bring a lot of that to life, rather than imagine it," the Albuquerque native said. "Although it's fiction, you want it to be as realistic as possible."
While Leroux's book and characters are in the public domain, Webber's adaptation is not.
"I had to be very careful about treading on Andrew Lloyd Webber," she said. "The story he portrays through his musical is definitive. I was very respectful in adding to what he did."
Once she had a draft in her computer, she would run passages by her children, Clint, 25, Corrina, 23, Adrienne, 20, and Mitch, 17. She would rework sentences until her children all were left with the same interpretation that she intended.
Then came the uphill climb of getting published. She kept running into two roadblocks.
"The states (American publishers) didn't feel there was a big enough audience, and the Canadians wanted me to be a Canadian," she said.
One publisher said he would publish the book if Ms. Bernadette sexed it up. Although she was turning down a chance to be published, Ms. Bernadette refused to alter her manuscript.
"I wanted to retain the characters' dignity," he said, adding that she wanted a book her grandparents and children could read.
Xlibris agreed to publish the book, drawn to the romance of the phantom and Christine.
Unlike with a major publisher, such as parent Random House, Xlibris does not take over rights to the book, and leaves most of the work, from editing and cover design to obtaining a copyright and publicizing the book, up to the author.
"They guide you so you don't make fatal mistakes and look like a fool," Ms. Bernadette said.
Xlibris prints the book and can get it into major distribution chains, but bookstores also can buy the book from her.
Once the book was released Oct. 1, Ms. Bernadette admitted feeling vulnerable that her story was out there for anyone to read.
But the response has been positive so far. Amazon.com is carrying four glowing reader reviews. One reader said Ms. Bernadette "absolutely nailed the sequel" to "Phantom."
"Once I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down," another wrote.
"The first time I saw it there, I cried," Ms. Bernadette said of the reviews. "These people owe me nothing. They just like the story and that's the point."
Ms. Bernadette will sign books from 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 7 at Jerry Stigliano's BookSource, Hermitage. A chapter of the book is online at
www.xlibris.com
The book is on sale at
www.xlibris.com/bookstore,
www.amazon.com
www.borders.com and
www.barnesandnoble.com
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at
jpinchot@sharonherald.com