Monday Musings: The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies
As I mentioned in last week's post on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I've been listening through some of my favorite musicals again lately, along with favorite musicals suggested to me by others. Two of those musicals are inspired in whole or in part by Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera: Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and his maybe-sequel (he can't seem to make up his mind about that) Love Never Dies. I want to look at what's good (and not so good) in these musicals.
Phantom is one of those musicals that everybody seems to know about. At the very least, they've probably heard one of the show's more popular songs like "Music of the Night" or the title number. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's the tale of an up-and-coming opera singer named Christine Daaé and her lover, a young nobleman named Raoul, as they are swept into the machinations of the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom has long been a figure of legend at the Paris Opera, and has his own private box from which he may view all the shows. He also holds highly opinionated views on the way the opera house should be run, including which parts should be offered to which singers.
After a long time apart, Christine and Raoul are reunited and find their once companionable friendship blossoming into something more. Unfortunately, Christine's musical tutor (her "angel of music" as her father once termed it) does not appreciate Raoul's intrusion into Christine's life. The angel reveals himself to be the Phantom, and Christine is torn between her devotion to her music (and thus, to the Phantom who has secured her a place as the rising star of the opera) and her love for Raoul. As the Phantom's true personality makes itself known, Christine grows ever more fearful of the Phantom and what he might do to keep her as his own.
One thing that has puzzled me is the romanticizing of the Phantom in popular culture. Though the novel presents the Phantom as a pitiable but deranged genius, the popular impression of the musical's version seems to be more sympathetic. Yet as I've listened through the soundtrack again, I find that the musical has actually preserved the obsessive (and possessive) aspects of the Phantom's personality. He is brilliant, but as Christine says in the final scenes of the play, it is in his soul, rather than his disfigured face, that the true deformity lies.
The songs of Phantom range from the haunting and lasting "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night" to the romantic "All I Ask of You" to the dazzling "Masquerade." There are scenes and songs which lean heavily on the operatic setting of the musical such as "Prima Donna," but many of the songs favor a rock and pop style that meshes surprisingly well with Christine's necessarily operatic voice. "All I Ask of You" is my personal favorite because of its genuine emotion between Raoul and Christine (in contrast to the Phantom's seductive lyrics in "Music of the Night").
More than 20 years after the premiere of Phantom, a second show featuring many of the same characters appeared. Love Never Dies was based partially on a novel that itself was a sequel to Phantom, but I can't really view it as a sequel because although many of the characters' names are the same very few of them act consistently with who they were in Phantom (either play or novel).
Supposedly taking place 10 years after Phantom (the dates are actually further apart, but who's counting?), Love Never Dies views Christine as an international success who's a bit down on her luck. Her husband, Raoul, has gambled away their fortune, and she's now forced to take a job at an American amusement park and entertainment center run by the mysterious Mr. Y (if it isn't already obvious, he's the Phantom). Madame Giry and her daughter Meg (supporting characters from Phantom and friends of Christine's and the Phantom's) have been hiding and helping the Phantom as he works to rebuild his life after the events of the previous play. Christine has a son (whose paternity is, shall we say, uncertain) named Gustave, who is a delight to her but a burden to Raoul. (I did warn you that the characters weren't themselves.)
If you can divorce yourself from the idea that these are the same Raoul, Christine, Meg, and Erik/Phantom from before, Love Never Dies is actually a beautiful musical with compelling characters. The story in itself is fraught with tension. Will Christine stay with Raoul or choose the Phantom? Is Gustave really Raoul's son or the Phantom's? Will Meg's obsession with the Phantom ever garner his attention, or is his own obsession with Christine too strong?
As before, the Phantom's main song about Christine ("Till I Hear You Sing") seems romantic, but the fact that he's still pining away after a woman who's now married kind of kills some of that, especially when you consider the possessive nature of his "love" for Christine. (However, taking it apart from the previous show, it's a beautiful look at the longing for lost love many of us have experienced.) Other standout songs include the rock theme "Beauty Underneath" and the dueling duet between the Phantom and Raoul, "Devil Take the Hindmost." The Phantom and Christine also get a lovely song "Beneath a Moonless Sky."
If you do listen to the soundtrack for Love Never Dies, try to get the concept recording, as it's different from the versions later produced, keeping the original songs and order. Keep a synopsis handy, though, as the finale sort of drops off. (There is action on stage, but it's silent; I wish they'd inserted a reprise of "Beauty Underneath" since that would have tied in perfectly with the onstage action.)
Are you familiar with either of the musicals in today's post? What do you think of them? DO you have favorite songs? Let me know in the comments!
The Phantom of the Opera
Phantom is one of those musicals that everybody seems to know about. At the very least, they've probably heard one of the show's more popular songs like "Music of the Night" or the title number. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's the tale of an up-and-coming opera singer named Christine Daaé and her lover, a young nobleman named Raoul, as they are swept into the machinations of the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom has long been a figure of legend at the Paris Opera, and has his own private box from which he may view all the shows. He also holds highly opinionated views on the way the opera house should be run, including which parts should be offered to which singers.
After a long time apart, Christine and Raoul are reunited and find their once companionable friendship blossoming into something more. Unfortunately, Christine's musical tutor (her "angel of music" as her father once termed it) does not appreciate Raoul's intrusion into Christine's life. The angel reveals himself to be the Phantom, and Christine is torn between her devotion to her music (and thus, to the Phantom who has secured her a place as the rising star of the opera) and her love for Raoul. As the Phantom's true personality makes itself known, Christine grows ever more fearful of the Phantom and what he might do to keep her as his own.
One thing that has puzzled me is the romanticizing of the Phantom in popular culture. Though the novel presents the Phantom as a pitiable but deranged genius, the popular impression of the musical's version seems to be more sympathetic. Yet as I've listened through the soundtrack again, I find that the musical has actually preserved the obsessive (and possessive) aspects of the Phantom's personality. He is brilliant, but as Christine says in the final scenes of the play, it is in his soul, rather than his disfigured face, that the true deformity lies.
The songs of Phantom range from the haunting and lasting "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night" to the romantic "All I Ask of You" to the dazzling "Masquerade." There are scenes and songs which lean heavily on the operatic setting of the musical such as "Prima Donna," but many of the songs favor a rock and pop style that meshes surprisingly well with Christine's necessarily operatic voice. "All I Ask of You" is my personal favorite because of its genuine emotion between Raoul and Christine (in contrast to the Phantom's seductive lyrics in "Music of the Night").
Love Never Dies
More than 20 years after the premiere of Phantom, a second show featuring many of the same characters appeared. Love Never Dies was based partially on a novel that itself was a sequel to Phantom, but I can't really view it as a sequel because although many of the characters' names are the same very few of them act consistently with who they were in Phantom (either play or novel).
Supposedly taking place 10 years after Phantom (the dates are actually further apart, but who's counting?), Love Never Dies views Christine as an international success who's a bit down on her luck. Her husband, Raoul, has gambled away their fortune, and she's now forced to take a job at an American amusement park and entertainment center run by the mysterious Mr. Y (if it isn't already obvious, he's the Phantom). Madame Giry and her daughter Meg (supporting characters from Phantom and friends of Christine's and the Phantom's) have been hiding and helping the Phantom as he works to rebuild his life after the events of the previous play. Christine has a son (whose paternity is, shall we say, uncertain) named Gustave, who is a delight to her but a burden to Raoul. (I did warn you that the characters weren't themselves.)
If you can divorce yourself from the idea that these are the same Raoul, Christine, Meg, and Erik/Phantom from before, Love Never Dies is actually a beautiful musical with compelling characters. The story in itself is fraught with tension. Will Christine stay with Raoul or choose the Phantom? Is Gustave really Raoul's son or the Phantom's? Will Meg's obsession with the Phantom ever garner his attention, or is his own obsession with Christine too strong?
As before, the Phantom's main song about Christine ("Till I Hear You Sing") seems romantic, but the fact that he's still pining away after a woman who's now married kind of kills some of that, especially when you consider the possessive nature of his "love" for Christine. (However, taking it apart from the previous show, it's a beautiful look at the longing for lost love many of us have experienced.) Other standout songs include the rock theme "Beauty Underneath" and the dueling duet between the Phantom and Raoul, "Devil Take the Hindmost." The Phantom and Christine also get a lovely song "Beneath a Moonless Sky."
If you do listen to the soundtrack for Love Never Dies, try to get the concept recording, as it's different from the versions later produced, keeping the original songs and order. Keep a synopsis handy, though, as the finale sort of drops off. (There is action on stage, but it's silent; I wish they'd inserted a reprise of "Beauty Underneath" since that would have tied in perfectly with the onstage action.)
Are you familiar with either of the musicals in today's post? What do you think of them? DO you have favorite songs? Let me know in the comments!
Yeah, I can't think of the LND characters as being the same. I ignore the storyline and enjoy the songs. :). Also, YES, BEAUTY UNDERNEATH, I love that song.
ReplyDeleteLND is basically Phantom fanfiction. XD It's good fanfiction as far as that goes, but it's still not the original.
DeleteYeah, I can't get away from the idea that we needed a reprise of "Beauty Underneath." It would have made that last moment perfect.
I think that part of the reason why the Phantom is viewed more sympathetic than he was is due to two things. First of all, he is mysterious and that pulls folks to him and makes him interesting. Secondly, folks WANT the scarred person to be good and the handsome man to be bad. It seems unfair somehow for the beautiful to get everything and the scarred nothing. As you said, it's his soul that is damaged and repels others, but to the popular notions (that I think are not necessarily all bad to have, though wrong here) there is more sympathy for the suffering than the blessed.
ReplyDeleteThat probably is at least a part of it. And if Phantom were a traditional Beauty and the Beast story, we *should* sympathize with Erik. As it is, the story is more of an inverse Cupid and Psyche, and as we've said it's Erik's soul that is twisted, rather than his face.
DeleteThanks for your comment!