This week we have something totally different, that being using a song that is from a Musical or an Opera, and I think everyone will have fun with this. 

https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2020/09/05/entertainment-with-culture/

Thank you Jim.

My choice is The Music of the Night from the Phantom of the Opera.

I’ve loved the intricacies of this story from the very first time I saw it on television in the 60’s. At the time, I didn’t know it was based upon the novel The Phantom of the Opera (French: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), by French author Gaston Leroux.  I’m amazed how many versions before and after of this incredible tale exist. I’ve enjoyed watching many of them. I can’t choose a particular one as my ultimate favorite but I will say Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical contributions are incredible. However, in Webber’s musical, his focus was making it more of a romance piece. Whereas Leroux’s novel was a mystery and a romance and bits of other genres that had broader appeal to more audiences.

If you’re not familiar with the tale, it’s about a love triangle between the Phantom (Eric), Christine, and Raoul.

“Look! You want to see? See! Feast your eyes, glut your soul on my cursed ugliness! Look at Erik’s face! Now you know the face of the voice! You were not content to hear me, eh? You wanted to know what I looked like? Oh, you women are so inquisitive! Well, are you satisfied? I’m a good-looking fellow, eh?…When a woman has seen me, as you have, she belongs to me.She loves me forever! I am a kind of Don Juan, you know!…Look at me! I am Don Juan Triumphant! -Erik in The Phantom of the Opera” ~ Gaston Leroux

“You will be the happiest of women. And we will sing, all by ourselves, till we swoon away with delight. You are crying! You are afraid of me! And yet I am not really wicked. Love me and you shall see! All I wanted was to be loved for myself.” ~Gaston Leroux

Christine ran off with Raoul because she loved him, not Erik. A relationship based on pity will never survive. The story revolved on the pity she felt for Erik, but pity does not equal love. Plus, she was /terrified/ of Erik; he murdered innocent men, kidnapped her, stalked her, pretended to be her deceased father. I’m as much of an Erik lover as the next person, but Raoul was definitely the better choice for Christine.

Erik has been compared to other Gothic monsters like Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll. I can see the comparison because there’s hints of madness, jealousy, revenge and despair in Eric but then if truth be known those traits have also been mine too, from time to time. But I’m not called a monster, at least to my face.

“Know that it is a corpse who loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you!…Look, I am not laughing now, crying, crying for you, Christine, who have torn off my mask and who therefore can never leave me again!…Oh, mad Christine, who wanted to see me!” ~ Gaston Leroux

You must know that I am made of death, from head to foot, and it is a corpse who loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you!”~ Gaston Leroux