The Phantom of the Opera can refer to both the original novel and the famous stage musical, and each was written at a different time.

Quick Scoop

  • The original novel Le FantĂ´me de l'OpĂŠra by Gaston Leroux was written in the late 1900s and first appeared as a newspaper serial from September 1909 to January 1910.
  • That story was then published in book form in 1910 , which is why 1910 is usually given as the year it was “written” or published as a complete work.
  • The famous stage musical The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber (with lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe) was written in the mid‑1980s and premiered in London’s West End on October 9, 1986.

If your question is about the classic story itself, people usually point to 1910 (the novel); if you mean the blockbuster musical everyone talks about in theatre news and forums, they usually refer to the 1986 West End premiere era as when it was written and brought to the stage.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.