Carlotta

Carlotta is a fictional character from the French novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the novel she is a minor character hailing from Spain. The first time that she is mentioned in the novel is during the chapter "The New Marguerite", where it is revealed that she could not perform at the ceremony for the former managers. Later in the novel she is threatened by Erik that if she performs at the Opera House "a great misfortune will strike". She shrugs the warning off and performs anyway. When she does however croaking noises come out of her mouth and the chandelier comes crashing down. Ashamed, she hides from the public view for a few weeks, before making a return to the opera house. In Andrew Lloyd Webber's production, Carlotta (last name Giudicelli) is from Italy and is one of the major singing parts as well as one of the Phantom´s victims, stalked, bullied and physically attacked, because the Phantom wants younger and more attractive Christine to get her place and attention. Carlotta and tenor Ubaldo Piangi are lovers; she often turns to him for consolation when things go wrong, and she breaks down crying when his dead body is discovered onstage. The film reveals that she likes poodles. In the Lloyd Webber-Joel Schumacher 2004 film version, she was played by Minnie Driver. Due to Driver's lack of experience in opera, her singing voice was dubbed by opera singer Margaret Preece, although she lent her actual voice to the song "Learn to Be Lonely" during the end credits. In Nicholas Meyer's novel The Canary Trainer, the characters of Carlotta and La Sorelli are combined into one, despite being mentioned as separate characters in the original novel. In Kim Newman's short story "Angels of Music" from the Tales of the Shadowmen anthology series, Carlotta is implied to be the ancestor of Bianca Castafiore from The Adventures of Tintin comic series.