Erin A. Craig (Sisters of the Salt series; Small Favors) taps into her vast imagination to develop Our Strange Duet, a dark and passionate YA adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, told from the first-person perspective of soprano Christine Daaé.
Twenty-year-old Christine's father died four years ago, in 1891, leaving her alone in Paris. She is now a dancer at the glamorous Opera Populaire but "secretly, in the deepest recesses of [her] heart," she longs to be a singer. One evening she hears the mysterious voice of a man in her dressing room. He declares himself her "Angel of Music," the spirit of "divine inspiration" that her father had promised would train her to become the singer she had always dreamed of being. Christine's singing improves and her status in the company rises. But she is uncertain whether the voice belongs to her Angel or the notorious and fabled Opera Ghost, also known as the Phantom of the Opera. Her feelings for the Angel deepen at the same time Raoul, her adolescent sweetheart, becomes the opera's newest patron. Soon, the "delicious frivolity" of Christine and Raoul's youthful passion sparks anew.
Craig interviewed Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote the music for the famous musical (itself inspired by Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel), and was inspired to add new depth and breadth by digging into the characters' back stories. The fiery layers of relational complexity between Christine, Raoul, and the Angel are likely to satisfy romance and drama lovers, and Craig's dedication to retaining the original plot gives fans of the play multiple levels of entertainment and understanding. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor