“There were a lot of Italian people in the neighborhood, and one of my pals, Nick, had very little education but he loved opera. When I sang, mothers would bring me glasses of milk and pieces of cake.” They were the first tangible rewards of show business. I learned the Irish songs, ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’ and ‘Mother Machree,’ and I would sing them in the street. Yes, the big horn and the dog’s face listening, that one. “My mother had a collection of John McCormack recordings which I played on our Victrola. Those who have read the original Leroux novel or seen the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical extravaganza version may well wonder how Lancaster fits into the proceedings. The filming was done in Europe, much of it in and around Paris. Sunday and Monday on Channels 4, 36 and 39, with a fresh scenario by playwright Arthur Kopit (“Indians”), direction by the movies’ Tony Richardson (“The Loved One,” “Tom Jones”) and a starry cast headed by Elmer Gantry himself, Burt Lancaster, with Charles Dance of television’s “Jewel in the Crown” and the film “White Mischief” as the Phantom. The three networks, under ever-increasing pressure from cable television, independent stations and the demon VCR, are having to go the Gee Whiz route to hold audiences.Ī glittery case in point is NBC’s $10-million, four-hour miniseries version of Gaston Leroux’s 19th-Century melodrama, “Phantom of the Opera,” airing 9-11 p.m.

Competition in television can work both ways, lowering standards in hope of attracting a broader audience or raising standards to outshine whatever else is in view.

Charles dance phantom of the opera cast