She is a professional artist, Member of International Federation of Artists
and national Artist’s Union of Russia, and Member of International
Association of Society of Designers (as she has been working as well in the
sphere of costume design, including theatre costumes). Eventually her
interest has been shifted to easel graphics, printed series of posters and
book illustrations. She has participated in exhibitions in Russia, Canada,
Japan, Switzerland, Belgium and Finland. Maria’s works are in private
collections in Russia, Switzerland, USA, France, Syria and etc.
Maria is currently lives in Moscow with her husband, her little daughter
and lots of pets.
The Phantom of the Opera theme entered her live unexpectedly but made a
huge impact on her creativeness and her art works, and thanks to it she
wrote her first novel “Angel of Music, or The Private Life of Giselle” and
illustrated it (it was a milestone for the development of Phantom theme in
Russia, as it was first official published novel on this subject with
illustrations). Maria had been writing the novel from 2001 to 2004. It was
published in 2007.
Maria has also collaborated in the creation and hosting of the Russian site
on Phantom theme for 5 years - FANDROM – she is writing articles for it,
regarding Leroux’s novel and Erik’s character and etc., as well as placing her
writing works and graphic works on this theme in relevant sections.
Plot Summary
Erik,The Phantom of the Opera, hasn't died after the tragic events described
by Leroux, but you can be dead in spirit, though your body still lives. The
Persian, Daroga, called in the novel "Aslan", helps Erik out of mere pity ,
but slowly Erik will find a person, who's love will bring him back to life
and recover his spirits - a talanted young ballerina, Camilla Fonteyn, brave
and charming girl. But not only her charms work on Erik, they even work on
poor Daroga, who becomes her admirer, and unfortunately on rich
aristocrat, Anri Nerval, who turnes out to be a mysterious "Parisian
Vampire" - maniac and sadist! And he also tracks down Erik, the "Phantom
of the Opera" for his own sinister purposes!
Thank you so much dear Maria, you have became a wonderful friend to me.
Sandra - What was your motivation in order to write your Phantom book?
How did the idea of write a novel begin?
Maria - The story of Phantom – Erik made me ponder seriously. I wanted to
speak out all the feelings, which have been eating me. To do that I had to
make up situations, in which these ideas and thoughts could be justified or
proved themselves. And I didn’t want to part with the main character of the
novel – Erik. There is so little of him in Leroux’s novel.
Sandra - What do you think about the main character, Erik? Tell us your
personal opinion about him.
Maria - I find that Erik is a very interesting character in world literature.
Although his origins go back to the Beauty and Beast story, he is much more
complicated. Leroux gave him a lot of talents and highly developed intellect,
but at the same his appearance and looks made it impossible for him to
bring those qualities to life. Such person realizes injustice of life towards
him but instead of choosing the path of destruction he is able to sacrifice
himself for the sake of the woman he loves. Thus, his personality began to
equal his genius. And this is a rare quality – the ability to change yourself.
And that is why I admire him and deeply feel for him.
Sandra - What do you think about the possible reality/myth of this story?
Maria - I believe that this story is a combination of reality and myth. In
other words, it is a real story, transformed into archetype. The story became
mythological in modern culture (like story of Dracula, Frankenstein and
others – fantastic unreal design, but the essence is linked with problems and
issues of real live). That is one of the reasons of its popularity, in my
opinion.
Sandra - How did you discover The Phantom of the Opera story?
Maria - I discovered it in 1986 when accidentally caught a glimpse of TV
report about the toast of the season – the new musical in London, called
“The Phantom of the Opera” and saw a couple of close-ups with Michael
Crawford and Sarah Brightman in Point of No Return and Graveyard
scenes. It happened right after the serious surgical operation, which
literally brought me back hope to live on. But then it was impossible to go
abroad to see that musical. And in our country musical was never
performed. Even the recordings of the musical were not available for long
time (till late 90s). So only in 14 years after that TV show I’d spotted, I
bought OLC of Phantom of the Opera – it was really something for me.
After that I read original novel of Leroux. So, that’s the story behind the
story. :)
Sandra - We see you have read Leroux's book. What's your opinion about it?
Maria - As I mentioned above, I read it. My own novel is in fact a sequel to
Leroux’s novel, not to Webber’s musical. In my novel many characters from
Leroux’s novel are taking part, for example, the Persian, called in my novel
“Aslan”. Some are only mentioned but many hints or situations came from
original novel. My novel is written in the same style as Leroux’s – detective
story with mystical elements and adventure. At the same time it is a love
story.
This novel has attracted me with the fact that Leroux’s novel has reflected
such important questions as “being different from others”, “ the issues of
art and ordinary live”, “ the responsibility of one for its talents and the
punishment for being extraordinary person”, “the idea that inner world
matters more than just your appearances” and etc. After being fascinated by
this story I found suddenly a strong need to write my own version of this
story or better to say I decided to try to answer these questions.
Sandra - In your story appears some new characters, like a young dancer,
how did the inspiration to write this new story come from?
Maria - The inspiration to write this new story came from this idea: “If there
had been a different girl, would it have been a different story?” Imagine a
girl, who is talented, bright and strong person with ambitions, familiar with
the world of the art but doesn’t afraid of unusual and likes it, who is able to
love Erik for the person he is (the thing Christine Daae failed to do in the
original novel). This is how Camilla Fonteyn showed up. She received her
last name after the famous British ballerina Margo Fonteyn. The ballet word
means a lot to me, as not only I’m very fond of it, like to go to the theatre to
see it as much as possible and have a lot of literature on this subject, I also
have ballet roots in my family. One of my grand grand…mothers was
ballerina of Russian Imperial Theatre in XIX century and even danced in
Grand Opera de Paris.
Sandra - Have you thought to translate it into English so more Phantom
readers can read it too?
Maria - I’d like that Phantom readers from all around the world could read
it as I know, Phantom Phans are mainly from other countries, as in Russia
this theme is not as popular as in Europe or USA. So I’m thinking over this
translation possibility.
Sandra - Have you thought to write more books with this subject?
Maria - In fact, I’m writing a sequel to my novel right now. It is called “The
Turn of the Scorpion” and chapters from it are now on the Russian site
FANDROM. In fact it is a second part of my novel. I’m also writing a
prequel – “An hour of wolf”. It is a gothic novel, referring to Erik’s early
years and his traveling all around Europe, after he left Turkey and headed to
Paris, France. This novel also contains description of his Turkish life. As
well with elements of crossover when Erik visits Transylvania and Castle
Dracula (and his host).
I also wrote two short stories, called “Christmas tale for the Phantom of the
Opera” – sequel to Leroux’s novel, but with Christine Daae’s return to Erik
and “Head’s drawing- Lesson two” – modern events with links to the
Phantom story.
Sandra - What kind of literature do you like?
Maria - I’m a bookworm. I like classic (like John Galsworthy, William
Golding), mainstream, fantasy, SCI-FI (like Ray Bradbury, Roger Zelazny,
Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett), horror tales (Edgar Allan Poe, Sheridan Le
Fanu), memoirs of famous and outstanding people and etc. I can go on
forever.
Sandra - Tell us about your future projects.
Maria - I’d like to finish my novels “The turn of the Scorpion” and “An hour
of wolf” and to continue drawing more illustrations on Phantom of the
Opera theme (not only to Leroux’s novel, but also to my own works and to
the scenes, Leroux only mentioned in his novel – for example, Erik’s live in
Persia or Turkey). I’m going to continue my work with the site – because
Phantom theme is expanding and something new appears.
Please, don't copy this text without my permission.
Copyright by Ladyghost.
