Madame Giry's Tale / The Fairground Lyrics - Phantom of the Opera, The

Song Overview

This cue from the 2004 film soundtrack of The Phantom of the Opera lands like a cold shiver: a spoken-word vignette over a brooding carnival waltz, where Madame Giry explains the Phantom’s origin and Raoul decides what to do with the truth. On the album it’s billed as “Madame Giry’s Tale / The Fairground,” running 3:29 on the Deluxe Edition, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright, conducted by Simon Lee, and featuring Miranda Richardson and Patrick Wilson against Andrew Lloyd Webber’s orchestral churn. First released December 10, 2004, the soundtrack would go on to notch serious chart mileage and certifications, but this track’s job is mood: the veil lifts, the fairground creaks, and the story turns darker.

Review & Highlights

As a set piece, “Madame Giry’s Tale / The Fairground” works because it slows everything down. The scene pauses the chase, turns to a memory, and lets the camera breathe in the flicker of a sideshow. The lyrics function more like testimony than song, spoken over a carousel that feels slightly out of tune. That tension makes the cue hum: sweetness on the surface, menace underneath.

I first heard it in a late show, winter air on my coat, and felt the room lean forward at “Come and see the Devil’s Child.” The orchestra doesn’t shout; it sidles up, almost polite, while the story gets sharp. Two listens in, you start hearing the production nuts and bolts: Simon Lee’s baton keeping the pulse tight, David Cullen’s orchestrations adding shadow in the low strings, and Richardson’s voice cutting clean through the gauze. Key takeaways: the cue re-frames the Phantom as a survivor, seeds the Red Death era’s dread, and sets up Act 2’s moral knot without sermonizing. It’s plot, yes, but it sings in the bones.

Verse 1

Not a verse so much as a prologue: Giry sketches the traveling fair, the “gypsies,” the dormitories, the cruelty. The band turns a music-box idea into a circling waltz. You can almost smell lamp oil and sawdust.

Chorus

There isn’t one, which is the point. The refrain is narrative momentum: each line widens the frame, each swell of the strings pulls you further into the tent.

Exchange/Bridge

Raoul cuts in with the rationalist’s line and gets swamped by Giry’s memory. The bridge is friction between disbelief and the evidence of a life lived in the walls.

Final Build

The cue resolves on a thesis: “Genius has turned to madness.” The orchestra leaves you there, not with closure, but with a question mark aimed at the rest of Act 2.

Song Meaning and Annotations

At heart, this track reframes the antagonist as a consequence. The fairground is not just scenery; it’s thesis.

“Come and see the Devil’s Child.”

The line isn’t subtle, but the delivery matters: exploitation packaged as entertainment. That’s the seed the whole musical waters.

The rhythm is a carousel three-step, gently off-kilter.

“There was a traveling fair in the city.”

The waltz leans forward, never toppling, while woodwinds dart like shadow puppets. It’s tidy spectacle covering a bad story.

Tonally, the cue starts clinical and ends personal.

“I hid him from the world and its cruelties.”

Giry moves from witness to accomplice to protector in a handful of bars. The orchestra warms as her resolve hardens.

Historically, the film tips its hat to Grand-Guignol texture and Leroux’s backstory, swapping 19th-century Parisian sensationalism for a 21st-century studio sheen.

“He’s a genius… an architect and designer… a composer and a magician.”

The piling up of roles echoes fin-de-siècle myths of the savant outsider.

Production-wise, listen for the low strings and contrabassoon under the music-box figure.

“Very well… it was years ago.”

That tiny pause before the memory opens is the conductor giving the scene air. Simon Lee’s orchestra swells just enough to feel like the tent flap lifting.

Language and image do the heavy lifting.

“Genius has turned to madness.”

The line sits like a verdict, but the harmony underneath argues back, holding some sympathy in reserve. That ambiguity is the show’s engine.

Message

Abuse turned inward curdles into control. The cue doesn’t excuse the Phantom; it connects the dots. The fairground is both origin and mirror.

Emotional tone

Hushed, clinical, then protective. A slow thaw of empathy inside a room that still feels unsafe.

Historical context

Victorian and Belle Époque sideshows trafficked in othering; the film channels that world, translating Leroux’s lore into modern blockbuster grammar.

Production & instrumentation

Orchestral waltz with music-box motif, low strings, winds, harp, celesta, light percussion. Orchestrations by David Cullen; baton by Simon Lee; vocals spoken by Richardson and Wilson.

Phrases, idioms, symbols

“Devil’s Child” reduces a person to a spectacle. Chains, tents, masks, mirrors – the show’s symbolic toolkit returns here in miniature.

Creation history

Recorded for the 2004 motion picture adaptation, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright, and issued on the two-disc Deluxe Edition. On album sequencing, it follows “Masquerade/Why So Silent?” and precedes “Journey to the Cemetery,” functioning as a hinge between public glitter and private grief.

Key Facts

• Featured: Miranda Richardson (spoken), Patrick Wilson (spoken)
• Producer: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nigel Wright
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricists/Dialogue: Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe (film adaptation text)
• Release Date: December 10, 2004
• Album: The Phantom of the Opera - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)
• Genre: Soundtrack, Orchestral, Musical theatre
• Length: 3:29
• Label: The Really Useful Group Ltd. / Polydor (UK) under license to Universal Music Operations
• Conductor: Simon Lee
• Orchestrations: David Cullen
• Instruments: strings choir, woodwinds, brass pads, harp, celesta, percussion, music-box timbre
• Mood: reflective, ominous, documentary-like
• Language: English
• Music style: waltz-inflected underscore with spoken narrative
• Poetic meter: prose dialogue over 3/4 pulse
• © Copyrights: © 2004 The Really Useful Group Ltd. - ? 2004 The Really Useful Group Ltd.

Questions and Answers

What is “Madame Giry’s Tale / The Fairground” within the soundtrack?

A narrative cue where Madame Giry recounts the Phantom’s backstory over a waltzing fairground texture, bridging the gala of “Masquerade” and the graveside arc that follows.

Who performs on the track?

Miranda Richardson (Madame Giry) and Patrick Wilson (Raoul) deliver spoken lines; the orchestra is conducted by Simon Lee under Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score.

How long is the track and where does it sit on the album?

3:29 on the Deluxe Edition, Disc 2, Track 2, between “Masquerade/Why So Silent?” and “Journey to the Cemetery.”

Does it include a traditional sung chorus?

No. It’s structured as spoken testimony over underscore, with a recurring music-box-to-waltz figure in place of a chorus.

Why does this scene matter to the plot?

It reframes the Phantom from rumor to person, complicating the moral stakes of Act 2 and explaining why the Opera House remains both sanctuary and snare.

Awards and Chart Positions

The 2004 motion picture soundtrack that includes “Madame Giry’s Tale / The Fairground” hit no. 1 on Billboard’s Top Soundtracks and peaked at no. 16 on the Billboard 200, finishing high on several year-end tallies. It earned RIAA Platinum status in the U.S. in February 2005, and took the Recording Industry Association of Japan’s Gold Disc Award for Best Soundtrack Album in 2006. The album also achieved Gold certifications in the UK and Greece.

How to Sing Madame Giry’s Tale / The Fairground?

It’s primarily spoken, but delivery lives on the bar lines. Aim for 3/4 phrasing: let the first beat carry the thought, float beats two and three. Keep the consonants crisp so the orchestra’s celesta and winds don’t blur the words. For Raoul’s interjections, place the voice slightly forward and urgent, then back off to let Giry’s narrative retake the center. Breath plan like you would a recit: short inhales between clauses, one bigger tank before the longer “I hid him from the world…” passage. If you stage it, mark an inner tempo so the memory opens on a downbeat; that sync with the pit is the whole trick.