Phantom of the Opera

[rm]

So, since Patty's mother was in town last night, we went to see Phantom of the Opera. Despite the fact that I live here and actually like musical theater a good deal, I'd never seen this.

I have, necessarily, an affection for backstage plots; the time period is of particular interest; the costumes were quite pleasing (oh, the inverted box-pleats on the romantic lead's greatcoat!); the voices were excellent; the show is a technical marvel (stage manager, I salute you); the voices were exceptional; the spoof of Baroque opera almost killed me; other than the two very famous melodies everyone knows from the show I thought it was surprisingly complex musically (and made me want to see some real opera again) and all in all the show had much more energy than I generally expect from a Wednesday night performance of anything so long-running. I had a very good time.

But now that I've said that, OMG, WHUT?

Of course, to call it a two-and-a-half-hour musical about rape vastly understates the bizarreo-world factor of this musical, although it's hardly an inaccurate statement.

At first, I was merely staggered by what this show must do to thirteen-year-old girls. I mean, it's just utterly designed to be seductive to anyone who doesn't want to own their sexuality and is drawn to any sort of narrative of submission, ordeal or apprenticeship. I should have, in fact, been all over this shit. At thirteen, I surely would have been. And the gaggle of girls that age we saw in the bathroom surely were.

But honestly, it's much, much weirder than that. Because is it about Christine's latent desire for the Phantom? or just her latent pity? And she doesn't seem that into her boyfriend other than as someone to rescue her from her own desire for the ordeal. It all seemed a bit Snape/Hermione too, of course, and that was amusing to me, at least until the daddy issues showed up. Snape/Hermione never had daddy issues, at least the Snape/Hermione I read.

And wow, that's a lot of play and a lot of sex and a lot of heaving bosoms (I'm more of a total package sort of person, but I could not stop staring at Christine's chest in this. Oh My God) to not even obliquely mention the opera girl/titilation/whore factor (now sure, part of that is because hi, huge Baz Luhrmann fan here, and also historically aware, but really, the ridiculously uptight ballet mistress that I should totally be cast as? The sexually-repressed conduit of the show's sexuality? What the hell is that about?).

What a completely bizarre and vaguely intellectually offensive show. Man, when this first came out, gender and sexuality scholars must have been like "happy birthday to me" -- what a goldmine of crazy!

Comments

[christinenorris.livejournal.com]

Um...owned the soundtrack in HS. Sung "Think of Me" as a solo for my senior Spring concert (ah, I miss those days of first soprano...). Bought the movie when it came out, read the book.

Agree completely with your analysis. It's all the same sort of story - Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phantom. I was contemplating this very thing this morning while pondering my steampunk Cinderella novel, which is still in the Pondering Stage.

Wow. I'd love to see your analysis of sexual tension in Sonheim's "Into the Woods". Just listen to "Hello, Little Girl" once or twice - it's really rather twisted. Red Riding hood was definitely a cautionary tale about sex. I mean, c'mon - the Wolf EATS Little Red. *snerk*

[coriander.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Into the Woods! Funny!

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

if you think into the woods has sexual tension, check out sondheim's passion - twisted and haunting and imho one of his most gorgeous scores

but really most of sondheim is about sex in some way - from west side story to company to sweeney todd to his movie work such as "sooner or later..." from dick tracy which won an oscar

[theniwokesoftly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was obsessed. I saw it for my thirteenth birthday but the obsession died sometime in high school and was replaced with a Sondheim obsession and thank goodness.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I first saw Phantom at seventeen or so, in London.

This was about the same time that I had a literally paranoid schizophrenic stalker ex.

I was sort of hoping Christine would fucking shank the freak and GTFO, but I have never had a great opinion of whiny sopranos, and didn't expect much from her.

Something that sometimes gets missed is that the Phantom does genuinely improve her voice and thus her career possibilities. It was the only thing that made the whole thing understandable for me, on the "why the fuck is she still there, unlike me she *has* other people to turn to in this situation, even Quasi-Useless Male Lead would be better".

While I am enamored of exchanges of honor and freedom in exchange for skill, I didn't find much honor in Phantom; the Phantom was a psycho freak, not worthy of an apprentice's trust.

But once I was done wanting to shank the bastard, oh yes, costumes and set and staging and ooooooh pretty. Of course I'd just had my set-building career taken away from me as well, so it stung.

I don't think that I would have become obsessed with this if it had found me sooner, because I was more into subjugating myself to institutions, states, big things, not a mere person. And I had never liked helpless heroines or sopranos. (I became briefly obsessed with Eponine in Les Mis, to contrast and compare and explain the sort of person I was.)

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Haven't ever seen it, but know the plot and used to know the music better than I care to admit.
What you just wrote crystallized something for me though: that vaguely icky feeling I always got from it is *exactly* how the excerpts and summaries of Twilight make me feel.
You know that I am not someone whose go-to battle cry is "won't somebody think of the children?!" but it's hard not to worry about what this kind of thing teaches.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Susan-Kay/dp/0440211697

[shipchan.livejournal.com]

I guess Phantom was kind of the Twilight of it's day, though better written and acted.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

That was rather my response to it. I love the music, particularly the Baroque spoof, but OMG the plot hurts my head.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

I'm in agreement on Phantom of the Opera. No matter how many times I see it (currently I'm up to three staged performances), the ending just always falls flat for me. The songs are gorgeous, and the Phantom himself is intriguing as a character, but the boyfriend is just boring and Christine... she really does let the guys push her around and she just makes bad decisions. I guess I just can never fathom why she wants the boyfriend who is basically just a rich pretty-boy with no real personality and pretty much just sees her as a shiney that he's been wanting since childhood no matter of who she really is.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Full disclosure - I'm a 36 year old woman whose only familiarity with the play is the movie version that came out a few years ago. I totally concur with your:

I mean, it's just utterly designed to be seductive to anyone who doesn't want to own their sexuality

Nail. Head. Re: why teenage girls like it. I remember my repressed 13 year old self - the idea of a dashing stranger who is obsessed and just sweeps you off your feet without any effort on your part is awfully appealing when you're new to all this sex stuff. I get it.

My problem is that I don't think most teenagers can understand the difference between fantasy and reality!

[fierceawakening.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I've had my eye on this discussion a while, and I definitely disagree there. Maybe it's just that I and my friends were bookworms and theater fans from very young ages. But just about every character in any story ever behaves in ways we don't or wouldn't want to identify with. It's impossible to have a plot -- or even any kind of interesting characterization -- if that's not the case.

And honestly, I think the message of Phantom is pretty clearly that the kind of romance portrayed in it, while very sexy, is also very messed up. Erik is a broken character, full of rage and aggression. That's not shied away from or prettified at all. I mean, when Christine pleads with him for compassion and he snarls "the world showed no compassion to me!" he knows what he's doing, full well, and so do we.

Also, I think it's getting a bit lost in this discussion that although, yeah, ALW did focus on the dark romance of the story, it was and still is horror, at its base.

[sushis.livejournal.com]

I agree.

I actually never saw a production of Phantom, and only saw any full rendition of it a couple of years ago, when the most recent film version came out. So, my reaction to the first viewing was that of a 30-something adult, not an adolescent, but, I really doubt my enjoyment of it would have been so different at a much younger age. Of course, that's just me, and I'm not necessarily representative of a larger group of females, but, I think it's quite possible to thrill to the seductive aspects while realizing that the characters are not suitable role models.

[fierceawakening.livejournal.com]

YEah. I mean, it's possible I was raised so well (or was simply so smart) that I was capable of discernment despite many a sexual fantasy, where most young girls aren't... but honestly I'm skeptical of that. I just don't think libido makes us quite that stupid.

[sushis.livejournal.com]

"utterly designed to be seductive to anyone who doesn't want to own their sexuality and is drawn to any sort of narrative of submission, ordeal or apprenticeship"

I'm not sure why these qualities, of not wanting to own one's sexuality, and of being drawn to a narrative of submission, are being associated here. What if one's sexuality tends towards some variety of submission?

[fierceawakening.livejournal.com]

*nod* and like I said over at my place, if you're dominant, it's not like Phantom tells you you get to have a ball. First, you must be a homicidal maniac. Second, you don't get the love interest anyway.

[misch.livejournal.com]

This post has been sitting in the back of my head for a long time, and StumbleUpon was kind enough to remind me of this music video created in advance of The Phantom Of The Opera opening in London. It stars Sarah Brightman as Christine and Steve Barton as The Phantom. There's some interesting imagery in the video.

It also contains lyrics a bit different from the production version, much closer to some of the previews at a Sydmonton Festival.