History Literature / AngelsOfMusic

* KillerOutfit: KnifeNut Rollo wears a BadassLongcoat lined with dozens of knives so he always has a blade to hand. He dies when Erik grabs the coat and pulls it tight around him; causing him to be stabbed by dozens of his own knives.
* KnifeNut: Rollo is the knife-thrower in ''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' in "Guignol" who is dismissed for collaborating a little too willingly with the horrors. He returns in "Deluge" equipped with dozens of blades and looking to extract vengeance on the Angels by skinning them.
* KnifeThrowingAct: In "Guignol", Rollo is a knife-thrower with ''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' who is dismissed by Guignol for collaborating a little too willingly with ''Le Theatre Des Horreurs'' when they take over the theatre. He returns in "Deluge", alongside several other of the Angels' old enemies; now a fully-fledged KnifeNut looking to flense the Angels in revenge for his earlier humiliation

* Act I: The Marriage Club (1870s). A number of prominent men have been acting uncharacteristically after recently taking young and beautiful wives of obscure origins. What role is played by the socialite [[Literature/ArseneLupin Countess Cagliostro]], and the mysterious works of [[Literature/TheSandman Monsieur Coppélius and Signor Spallanzani]]?

* LiteralMetaphor: In Act V, Irene Adler calls Olympia "a real doll", and Kate Reed chides her for using Americanisms. Irene replies she wasn't. [[Literature/TheSandman Olympia really is literally a life-size doll animated by an internal mechanism]].

* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: The Phantom, the Persian, and Christine Daaé from ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' join forces with the heroines of ''Literature/{{Trilby}}'' and "[[Literature/SherlockHolmes A Scandal in Bohemia]]". All the later Angels are also borrowed from various works of fiction, as are most of their antagonists and a fair percentage of the side characters.

* CaptainErsatz: The depiction in "Les Vampires de Paris" of the title character of ''Theatre/DieFledermaus'' owes more than a little to ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', down to being a mechanical genius, with decades of physical training, and of course waltzing around rooftops with a costume with a bat on the chest.

* NeckHoist: In "Deluge", Rollo is deciding which of the Angels to execute first when he grabs Aralune by the throat and holds off the roof the opera house one-handed. It looks like he is preparing to drop her, but instead starts strangling her.

* SwordCane: Yuki is always described as carrying her parasol, which is eventually revealed to have sword concealed in it.

* TheStinger: The book's final chapter is followed by the author's afterword and acknowledgments, an author bio, a page plugging other books from the same publisher, and ''then'' a brief epilogue with a SequelHook.

* LosingYourHead: In the stage show at the Théâtre des Horreurs, a representation of Saint Denis is decapitated and his headless body continues to blunder around, while his headless body preaches against immorality until another character kicks it off stage like a football.

* ShoutOut: In addition to the many borrowed characters who are central to the plot, even ones who get a line or two at the most of description are often lifted from other works. Chapter one features [[Film/CitizenKane C.F. Kane]]'s mentor, Baron Maupertius (a mentioned but not seen character in [[Literature/SherlockHolmes "The Adventure of the Reigate Squire"]], described as having 'colossal schemes', here described as a 'colossus') and Basil Hallward (who painted Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray), mentioned by first name and explicitly identified as a homosexual. There are many, many more (including brief reference to Sibyl Vane, also from ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'').

* ChainedToARailway: In "The Mark of Kane", the original {{Dastardly Whiplash}}es, Raymond Owen/Mr Koerner (from ''The Perils of Pauline'') and Perry Bennett/the Clutching Hand (from ''The Exploits of Elaine''), have an off-page discussion about how this never works out for them.

* LegionOfDoom: Charles Foster Kane assembles one in Act IV, though one of the Angels observes it's full of notable second-raters (compared to the Legion that normally shows up in Newman's work, which boasts Moriarty and Fu Manchu); members include Raymond Owen and Perry Bennett (some of the earliest villains to tie a damsel to a railway), Mr. Potter from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', Senator Paine from ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'', the Face from ''AdamAdamantLives'', Natasha di Murska from George Griffith's ''The Angels of the Revolution'' and General Sternwood from ''Film/TheBigSleep''.

* LegionOfDoom: Charles Foster Kane assembles one in Act IV, though one of the Angels observes it's full of notable second-raters (compared to the Legion that normally shows up in Newman's work, which boasts Moriarty and Fu Manchu); members include Raymond Owen and Perry Bennett (some of the earliest villains to tie a damsel to a railway), Mr. Potter from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', Senator Paine from ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'', Natasha di Murska from George Griffith's ''The Angels of the Revolution'' and General Sternwood from ''Film/TheBigSleep''.

* BelievingTheirOwnLies: In the interlude, Irene Adler is convinced her husband has some kind of dark secret. It's revealed that [[spoiler: she convinced herself of this fact to justify leaving him because she can't bear living an ordinary married life]].
* CanonWelding: The depiction of Irene Adler and Kate Reed suggests that the book is in the same universe as Newman's ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' and ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'' stories. In fact, Sebastian Moran is seen at the French villa in "The Mark of Kane", where he's vacationing at the end of the latter.

''Angels of Music'' features the same version of Irene Adler as Newman's earlier ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'', and has guest appearances by several characters from the Literature/DiogenesClub series.

* AdaptationalBadass: Sort of a necessity, since the stories are all action based, while many of the works the original characters came from were not. For certain characters (like Gigi and Eliza) its explained as tutelage from the Persian and lessons from Erik.

* AdaptationalBadass: Sort of a necessity, since the stories are all action based, while many of the works the original characters came from were not.

* CaptainErsatz: The depiction in "Les Vampires de Paris" of the title character of ''Theatre/DieFledermaus'' owes more than a little to ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.

** Charles Foster Kane, decidedly Boorish. He's a FatBastard war profiteer tycoon who buys up European towns and turns them into tacky resorts with adjacent fast food restaurants.