Phantom - The OG Opera Ghost and a Fuckboi

15/07/19

When I first watched Phantom of the Opera, specifically a proshot recording of the 25^th anniversary version, back in August 2018, I was blown away by the amazing songs and the wonder of all the voice variation ad emotion. I didn’t really understand the exact details of the storyline, that was to say. To the extend of confusing Raoul and Erik in the songs, especially the duets with Christine.

But now I find I can identify which parts are Erik singing and which parts are Raoul. Not just cos of the voice registers and the vocal texture of the singers. Because that really depends on which actor is playing Raoul or Erik. I haven’t heard many versions of the musical soundtrack, but usually I think Erik has a lower voice as compared to Raoul.

But it is the thematic difference in the lyrics that Erik and Raoul sing that I use to differentiate who is singing which part. Songs include:

·         Think of Me

·         I remember…/Stranger than you Dreamt it

·         All I Ask of You

·         The Point of no Return

These are selected Erik-Christine and Raoul-Christine duets. Songs that involve Erik tend to have a darker texture and involve words that deal with death and spirits and Erik seems to have an unhealthy obsession with the night-time. Whereas the songs that involve Raoul tend to have more “sunshine and rainbows” of the daylight.

And this could be a reason as to why I am Team Phantom. Because all the emo and goth imagery resonate with my depression. Granted Erik is a freakshow with possible psychopathy and serious kidnapper tendencies. (Together with Quasimodo and Beast, the trope of the deformed, ugly Frenchman who kidnaps a young and beautiful Mademoiselle and forces them to love him.) but Raoul is too much of a young immature Fuckboi for my liking.

In Think of Me, there are lyrics such as “evergreen”, “young and innocent”, “flowers”, and “fruits of summer”, which suggest an atmosphere of Spring or Summer, all bright and sunny and smelling like sweet nectar and feeling like teenage love.

As for All I Ask of You, there are lyrics like “my words will warm and calm you”, “freedom”, “daylight”, very directly a “summertime”, “shelter”, “light”, suggesting a dry and warm place, like suntanning in the sun, or a picnic under the shade on a sunny day. The phrase “love me every waking moment” also alludes to the daytime during which neurotypical people are awake, like a vanilla love story between two innocent people.

On the other hand, in I remember…/Stranger than you Dreamt it, the tone is very different. There are lyrics such as “swirling mist”, “vast, glassy lake”, “candles”, “shadows”, “mask”, in Christine’s part, which suggests a wet, moist atmosphere, somewhat dreamlike and hypnotic, the colour tone being a blue, black night-time. The only source of light being a dim candle. Erik sings words such as “demon”, “curse”, “lying”, “viper”, “loathsome gargoyle”, “burns in hell”, “secretly”, “monster”, “repulsive carcass”, and this portrays a snake-like, sly environment, with people not being truthful with each other, and a general distrust and darkness to it. And also, the carious descriptions of monstrosities which add to the dark tone of this song.

Similarly for The Point of no Return, the lyrics are as such, “deepest urge”, “silent”, “our passions may fuse and merge”, “succumbed”, “defences”, “backward glances”, “raging fire”, “soul”, “sweet seduction”, “unspoken secrets”, “silence”, “defenceless”, “passion play”, “blood”, “flames consume us”, “watch [the bridge] burn”. This brings away from the cave-y feel of the previous song, and towards a hellish feel. There is a sense of magic and entering the unknown, into another world. There is also a huge deal of power play in this song about Christine giving herself to Erik. There’s also what I view as an allusion to the myth of Orpheus and Persephone, with the backward glances, and which is also related to the whole layer of being in hell.

And though I am indeed cherry-picking songs ahaha. But there is a patterned difference between Raoul and Erik in terms of the types of words which they sing in their songs.