OG

Ah, the Opera Ghost. Who is he? Anne Perry has a great description for O.G. “He is a very complex ghost, who loves and hates, who creates and destroys, who plays tricks, writes letters, demands money, who takes terrible revenge, who kills in anger and to protect, and who himself is tortured beyond endurance.” He wanders about the Opera House, a tortured soul, like other ghosts who continue to haunt places they once inhabited.

O.G., as we know him, is Erik’s persona. The word persona is a Latin word for “mask” or “character” that a person portrays. It’s the self-constructed image Erik chooses to embrace to express himself to the world around him -- one of a ghost -- a dead person. Psychologists would term this Erik’s “persona,” because it’s the role in life he chooses to play among the living. This is how Erik wants the social world to know him.

He prefers you address him as the Opera Ghost or O.G. He doesn’t make himself known as the Phantom of the Opera or the Angel of Music, as he does to others who are close to him. He wants you to know him as a ghost. He exists, but in a different dimension. After all, he’s dead. You cannot see him, but he can see you. He watches you from the shadows when you’re unaware. He slips through walls, rooms, and disappears. His voice travels as if he’s every where and any where. You cannot see him unless he lets you have a fleeting glimpse of something moving in the shadows.

He communicates to the living through his notes. He signs them with the seal of a skull to remind you that he is dead, but he oddly uses the phrase that he is your “obedient servant.” He communicates in the most amiable and polite nature when you please him, but takes terrible revenge and haunts you when you do not obey his commands. To those who occupy the Opera House, he’s O.G. This is his home, and he wants you to know he haunts it, but allows you to be there as his guest, living in peace, only if you do his bidding.

Erik clearly portrays his social standing in life as the walking dead. Even when he reveals himself at the masquerade, he appears to the crowd as Red Death stalking abroad. His persona speaks volumes about how he perceives himself among the living. As a ghost, it gives him anonymity, stealth, and power through intimidation. Your choice is to do his bidding or to fear his wrath.

Erik, our complex Opera Ghost. Erik in his humanity, lonely and lost. Erik in his persona, a ghost, wandering about the Opera House only known as death. This is his tortured existence -- death stalking about. This is his doom throughout eternity. Erik’s tortured soul grasps our hearts as we continue to understand the complexity of who he is. It’s another facet of his personality that we are strangely drawn to.

Do each of us have a persona that we project socially to the world around us? Perhaps. You may not be a ghost, or the walking dead, but there probably is another character you portray that makes you feel safe in social surroundings as well. Just a thought to ponder about yourself.

Your obedient servant,

Phantom's Student

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Erik

"All I ever wanted was to be loved for myself."

I had hoped to leave this post for a future date, but my heart seems to be stirring me to write it now. Today, I want to talk about Erik. Not the Phantom of the Opera (his disguise) or the Opera Ghost (his persona), but the human part of the man behind the mask. The person that we so identify with - the man and his humanity.

Anne Perry, in her introduction to Leroux’s version, published by Random House, describes Erik as “…the best and the worst in all of us. He is all of us who have ever walked alone, and hated themselves, and longed for redemption.”

Erik is a tortured soul, a mind and heart in agony. He’s wounded and broken within, but radiates a hardened exterior to mask his pain. No one gives him compassion, and as a result his heart has become dark and angry. He lives a life in isolation, hidden in the shadows, and untouched by the warmth of another human being. He is unloved and unwanted. He dreams of beauty and secretly yearns for heaven, but lives in perpetual hell. He hates who he is, a gargoyle of a man doomed to a life of loneliness.

He wants Christine to learn to love the monster behind the mask. He longs to be loved for who he truly is - Erik. He pleads to Christine to save him from his solitude at the Point of No Return. When she exposes him, he resorts to force to obtain what he needs and wants from her, because he is convinced no one can love him for who he truly is. He is so desperate to be freed from is lonely existence, that he will do anything to make his inner pain leave, even if it means kidnap and murder. His face reflects the two warring personalities that dwell within him -- light and darkness. He cries for redemption.

Of all the characters in the Phantom of the Opera, we gravitate toward Erik. We relate to his loneliness. We feel his pain, because we have tasted the bitterness of it ourselves. We want to embrace him and give him the love he yearns for, because we understand. How many of us would have followed him through the broken mirror as Meg did to offer him love in Christine’s place?

Even with all the darkness he embodies as the Phantom, we forgive his indiscretions, because we understand what motivates the beast within him that drives him to do the unthinkable. We also, like him, yearn for beauty and to be loved and known for who we truly are. Like him, we have the dark capacity within us to resort to the unthinkable in our search for love. We too are well skilled in hardening our exteriors to mask the pain within. We all long for redemption.

I find it interesting that I myself look for solace from my own loneliness in the arms of a character who isn’t alive, but who embodies in many respects what I feel inwardly. Loneliness and isolation is a human condition that touches many lives. This is Erik’s humanity. Research validates that to be a healthy and whole human being, we need companionship, love, and touch. Yet we live in an increasingly crazy society where relationships are shallow, and where people abandon us and reject us. No one shows us compassion or courtesy in the simplest of actions. The love of many has grown cold. Is it any wonder we yearn for beauty as he did, but find ourselves often doomed to a different existence?

We are touched by Erik’s humanity, because he represents a basic need we all share -- to be fully known, loved, and accepted for who we truly are. As Christine prayed to God asking for the courage to show Erik he was not alone, may God grant us the capacity in our hearts to give that gift to another human soul. I pray that if you live in the human condition of being alone, that God will be gracious to you and give to you the gift of unconditional love and redemption.

Fondly,
A Very Human Student

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Seduction

Let’s attend an opera and listen to the musical score the Phantom has written - Don Juan Triumphant. This post is only from the movie view, as I know my Leroux friends will have their own interpretations.

What is this strange opera that the Phantom writes? Who is Don Juan anyway? If you’re not familiar with the story, Don Juan (or Don Giovanni in other adaptations) is a legendary fictional tale about a libertine (a term for a man who is morally or sexually unrestrained). He enjoys fighting, he rapes, and seduces women. In the story he seduces a woman from a noble family, and kills her father. The ghost of the father invites him to dine with him in the cemetery. Don Juan accepts, only to be tricked into shaking the hand of a statute that grabs him and drags him into hell.

The Phantom’s title, however, is Don Juan Triumphant. It’s his declaration he will triumph in his conquest and seduction. As you first listen to the opera, the music is very chaotic in nature. Even the audience looks at one another wondering what strange opera they’re attending. The music is no doubt inspired by the chaotic agony within in the Phantom’s mind. His opera story is basically the same, one of seduction of his prey and conquest over her. He uses the opera to set the stage to seduce Christine and lead her into a trap.

The Point of No Return is no doubt the most erotic musical scene I’ve ever watched. The Phantom in Leroux said Don Juan Triumphant was, “Music so terrible it consumes all those who approached it,” and Christine found it intoxicating. Perhaps this is where Webber gets his inspiration for the scene. The Phantom gives Christine a song to sing to him where he makes her confess her unspoken deepest desires and passions she feels for him. He sings to her seducing her into the trap, even though he himself is in danger of capture. He risks everything to express his deepest desire for her. For a brief moment, Christine lays against his chest caressed in his arms lost in his seduction of her. As we know, she exposes him instead. He takes her by force and drags her back to his own hell.

Have you ever been seduced?

The Phantom's Student

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Ring

The geometrical design of a ring is an age-old symbol of eternity. A never ending connotation. Have you ever noticed the number of things in nature represented by rings or circles? The rings around planets, the orbits around the sun, the moon circling the earth, the circle of bird’s nest, the cycle of life interwoven in circles in the things we do. The ring is endless, timeless, repetitive, and an unbroken circle that is filled with symbolism.

Throughout history marriages have used the symbol of the ring not only to indicate eternity, but to indicate possession. The ring, given by the husband, indicates he possesses the wife, and she is no longer available to other men. We see the ring used in the Phantom of the Opera in both the original work and the movie as a symbol of possession. However, if you watch its journey, you’ll see the ring make a full circle, but never lives out its intended purpose.

In the book, the Phantom gives Christine a plain gold wedding band to wear. Gold bands were historically used as a symbol that the bridegroom trusted his betrothed with his valuable property. It was also considered good luck for the marriage to have gold bands rather than silver. The Phantom tells Christine, “On condition that this ring is always on your finger. As long as you keep it, you will be protected against all danger and Erik will remain your friend.” When Raoul sees the ring he knows it signifies the Phantom's possession of her as his future wife. Christine loses the ring. When the Phantom releases her, he gives her the ring back as a wedding gift. “I held in my hand a ring, a plain gold ring which I had given her." The Phantom upon releasing her gives her the ring back as a wedding present to her and Raoul. At his request upon his death, she returns to Erik to place the plain gold ring back on his finger. The ring has made a full circle.

In the movie, we see a different version. Raoul gives Christine an engagement ring. Only this ring is a beautiful piece of jewelry, not a plain gold wedding band. In high society the quality of the jewelry given to a woman indicated the social position and prosperity of the groom. Perhaps this is why Webber’s version uses a diamond ring. The Phantom, however, after seeing the ring tears it from Christine’s neck declaring her chains belong to him. He takes the ring as a symbol of his continued possession of Christine, not Raoul. Stealing the ring, as he plots to steal her. After he brings her to his lair, he gives her the ring for marriage. She puts the ring on her finger, agrees to become his wife. After the Phantom frees her to a life with Raoul, she takes the ring off, and she gives it back to him once again. He carries it throughout life until her death and returns it to her grave. Once again, the ring has made full circle.

The ring no doubt is a symbol of possession in the story, and the Phantom’s desire to be with Christine for eternity. However, as hard as he schemes to have her and win her love, he never fully possesses her heart. The ring never lives out its intended purpose of a symbol of eternity with her. It only makes a full circle and comes back to him and his life of solitude.

If you have a wedding ring on your finger, take a moment and ponder its meaning. Be thankful you have someone who possesses your heart. There are those of us, like Erik, who have rings that have made the full circle. No one possesses our hearts though; and we, like him, have returned to a life of solitude.

The Ringless Phantom's Student

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Graveyard

Let’s take a walk through the graveyard. The path is surrounded by sculptures and figures. There is chilling white mist swirling around your feet, a cold snow falling softly as you walk past death all around you. Why is Christine here? What woeful song does she sing as she proceeds through icy darkness to her father’s crypt? What deception lays in wait to entice her once again? Let’s see if we can uncover meaning in the soulful trek she takes, and why the Phantom waits for her in the graveyard.

Christine, orphaned at a young age, was said to have “lost with the death of her father her voice, her soul, and her genius” only to discover it again after the Angel of Music visits her. The Phantom becomes her tutor, her guide, and she finds solace and protection in the Angel of Music in the absence of her father’s care. She trusts the Angel of Music blindly, because she believes her father has sent him to her as he promised. Only now, as she stands before his crypt, she has learned it is no angel, but a man, and he is the Phantom of the Opera.

Christine is at the crossroads of her life. She’s about to marry Raoul. She realizes, with grief, that in order to live, she must learn to bury her past and let go of her dead father. So in a symbolic gesture, she goes to the graveyard and sings a song of goodbye, asking for the strength to move on without him and to release her to her future.

The Phantom, however, sees Christine emerging into maturity and moving farther and farther away from her reliance upon him as her teacher. In an attempt to ensnare her once again, he calls to her. He asks if she has forgotten her Angel. Suddenly reality is blurred again. Is it her father calling? Is it the Angel of Music that he promised? Is it Phantom or friend? The Phantom, with his angelic and enticing voice, attempts to draw her back under his control. He knows her weakness. He plays upon her childlike trust, devotion, and yearning for her father until Raoul arrives to awaken her from the deception.

Christine struggles with the promise her father has made. She believed he had sent the Angel of Music to her, but now knows it was the Phantom all along. Does she struggle at the crypt to let go not only of her father, but also the Phantom to whom she owes so much? He is the one who taught her to sing again, gave her back her voice and inspiration. It is obvious that she is not ready to let go of the one she owes so much, as she pleads for Raoul to spare his life. He is the only Angel of Music she has known.

What can we learn from Christine’s symbolic walk through the graveyard? I believe there are times we too need to take a symbolic walk ourselves in the graveyard of life, to leave things behind that hinder us from reaching a new level of maturity. All of us have experiences, people, broken dreams, hurts, and emotions that we need to let go of and bury. If we don’t lay aside what hinders us, we will never reach a new level in our lives and be able to move on. We will doom ourselves to live in an emotional graveyard of cold monuments and ghosts that forever remind and haunt us of our past.

Do you need to take a walk through the graveyard? If so, take a stroll - bury the past and move on. You’ll be a better person for it.

Your Obedient Servant

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Music

What is music? Where does it come from? How is it inspired? The word music itself is a Greek word derived from “mousa” or muse. In Greek mythology, muses were believed to be a sisterhood of goddesses or spirits, who embodied the arts and inspired creation in song, stage, writing, music, and dance.

Music has the innate power to touch the depths of our souls and cause emotion to well up inside of us. It changes the way we feel and behave. It brings us joy, exuberant feelings, sadness, melancholy, inspiration, motivation, rest, beauty, and even healing.

The Bible speaks of the power of music in I Samuel 16:23, “And whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him.” Have you ever heard the statement “music has charms to soothe the savage beast?” Perhaps that is why the Phantom was given the gift of being a musical genius - to soothe the savage beast within him.

The Phantom understands the power of his gift of music, and he uses it to his advantage. Music is his tool to touch Christine’s mind and soul. He entices her with it, seduces her with it, and bids her into his world with it, entices her to give into the power of his music. He wants her to be one with him in music. He desires her alone to make his song take flight and help him make the music of the night. He gives to Christine the best of who he is - his music. She confesses how his music has touched her to Raoul on the rooftop.

Music is created from the heart of man and is molded by his emotion, and such was the score the Phantom writes in Don Juan Triumphant (which we will discuss in another post). Andrew Lloyd Webber uses music to touch us with the story of the Phantom of the Opera, by composing a powerful and haunting musical score to tell his story. Frankly, I think it’s genius that the genius of music, the Phantom, has been immortalized for us in a musical!

Why the violin picture? In Leroux's original work, three individuals play the violin. Christine Daae's father is an excellent violinist. Gustav Daae taught Raoul to play the violin as a child; and, of course, the Opera Ghost played his "enchanted violin."

How does music influence your life? What symbols do you see in the music in the Phantom's life? Have you ever been inspired or moved by the music in the Phantom of the Opera?

Sincerely,
The Phantom's Student

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Tears

“We cried together!

I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer!”

Why is Phantom of the Opera so popular? What is it that touches us so deeply? Over 80,000,000 people have seen Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. It has played in 25 countries, 124 cities around the world since its first performance. How many more have read the classic story by Gaston Leroux or seen the movie? What is it about this story that moves us so? Is it because we so identify with his pain and wish for his redemption?

Imagine a man who has lived his entire life and never felt the touch of a kiss. Erik, so repulsive he never received a kiss from his mother, and so despised by her that she would not allow him to kiss her in return. His mother’s response was to throw a mask over his head to cover his face. Talk about the formative years in one’s life! Is it no wonder we begin to see this tortured soul develop before us? Beaten, ridiculed, and deprived of human affection. So sets the stage for the Phantom’s first encounter with tenderness, which changes his life.

At the Point of No Return, Christine has a choice. She either chooses to see her lover hanged or spend the rest of her life with the Phantom to buy his freedom. Christine Daae is attracted to two men: one who is the light in her life, the other who is darkness. In a moment of her own realization of the Phantom's pain, she calls him a pitiful creature and wonders about the life he has known. She chooses a lifetime with the Phantom, places the ring upon her finger signifying she will become his wife, and then kisses him. The first kiss is an act of surrender. The second kiss an act of compassion.

Watch closely, you will see the tears as they touch each other's face. Leroux’s stirring original work says, “She had cried with me and mingled her tears with mine!” At that moment, Christine became one with the Phantom. She mingled her compassion with his pain. She not only wept for him, but also wept with him. Compassion, my friend, is the ability to feel the pain of another and to weep with those who weep.

If you have ever shed a tear while reading the book, watching the play, or seeing the movie, you too have shared in the compassion behind the story. You have mingled your tears with his pain.

The Phantom's Student (with tissues on hand)

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Mask

The mask embodies so much symbolism, that I will never be able to touch all aspects of its meaning in one article. You will see that I refer to its existence in others, as well as the agony that we find behind the mask. I know that Erik hates it when someone takes his mask off and reveals his ugliness, however, for this article, we really need to take a peek behind what’s there.

The physical mask was the Phantom’s attempt to make his appearance more appealing and to hide the deformity of his face, which brought him so much rejection. By wearing a mask, he could attempt to become like everyone else. In the original work, the Phantom states, "I have invented a mask that makes me look like anybody." In the movie version, I dare say most women would agree that Gerard Butler played an extremely handsome and attractive Phantom even with a mask. Of course, is that not the point of our masks anyway? To hide what is ugly and painful within us and allow us to play a more loveable and desirable role to find acceptance?

Christine is a curious woman. She wants to know what is behind the mask. She feels the need to see beneath it, to reveal the hidden face. Seeking to see what is there, she removes the Phantom’s mask without asking permission. In doing so, the Phantom cries out in grief and rage as that hideous part of his life is painfully exposed.

As human beings, we all yearn for love and acceptance for who we truly are. We are not transparent human beings. We all have masks on to protect ourselves. Frankly, humanity has been hiding behind masks since the Garden of Eden. Sure, it might have been a fig leaf for Adam, but the concept is the same. We are afraid of our emotional nakedness, so we hide ourselves instead.

We all live behind masks that cover our deepest hurts and darkest thoughts. For someone to pull our mask off uninvited and reveal to others what is underneath, is a painful experience. In grief and anger, we would react just as the Phantom did. Behind our masks, however, lies not a physical deformity. Instead, we hide the painful emotional dimensions of our lives from the world.

I think today’s society the majority of us will continue to wear our masks to protect ourselves in order to be attractive to those around us. It takes great courage to remove your mask and reveal your true self to another person. When you do so, you risk rejection; and once rejected, like the Phantom, we tend to pick the mask up, place it back on our face, and continue with our lives none the better. Nobody really wants to risk removal at the price of rejection. Right?

If we lived in a world where we could find love and acceptance for who we truly are without the fear of rejection, there would be no need for stories like The Phantom of the Opera that so deeply touch our souls. Millions relate to his pain. Sadly, human nature is cruel and superficial, and perhaps it takes a divine nature to love and accept us unconditionally.

Do you think if the Phantom lived in the 21st century, would we have given him love and acceptance? I don’t. I have the vision that he removes his mask and the first thing we do is take him to a plastic surgeon to fix it. Then after the operation, when his deformity is not as repulsive, we give him the love and acceptance he seeks.

Do I wear a mask? Of course, I do. It hides my deepest hurts and the rejection I have experienced throughout life. I dare say it will take some doing to remove it, and I kindly request that you not to remove it without my permission.

The Phantom's Student - With Her Mask On

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Mirrors

Throughout the stage rendition and the original novel, the symbolic use of mirrors abound. I think much deeper it is dealt with in the original book by Gaston Leroux, and somewhat alluded to in different terms in the movie. Nevertheless, let us look at the reflection in the mirror and see what is there.

A mirror is any smooth shiny surface that forms an image by reflection. When we gaze into a mirror, our reflection returns to us, and we see ourselves through our own eyes. What reflection we see in our own mind can be either reality or distortion. Psychiatry research has actually termed a body image distortion disorder for those who look in the mirror and see themselves as something they are not. The image reflected in the mirror can have a profound effect upon us.

Christine faces the mirror in her dressing room. The mirror calls to her to explore the depths of the Phantom and the one who has forged her inner self through his music. Through the mirror, he calls to her and bids her to look at her own image in the mirror. What she discovers in the mirror is the reflection of the Phantom, who has become part of her, dwelling inside her mind, and now bids her into his world to know him as he truly is. She succumbs, and in a trace like state follows him through the mirror to his domain.

In the book, the Phantom’s torture chamber is a room of mirrors representing the true torture of his own life, which is the reflection of him and the agony he feels. In the movie, we see all the mirrors hidden and covered, until Christine removes his mask and uncovers his true appearance. In reaction, he pulls down the coverings over the mirror that reveals the ugliness and agony of his soul.

Yet the mirrors have deeper meanings behind them. As humans, we are visually driven and attracted toward outward beauty, which we highly value in others and in ourselves. We often fail to understand that who we are as human beings goes far beyond our outward appearance. Beauty is also an inward quality. In astonishment, the Phantom hears Christine say she sees the distortion in his soul, not on his face.

How often have you looked in the reflection of the mirror and found displeasure in what you saw? I dare say most of us have. It is the mirror to our souls, our self-image, and our self-worth. It can either torture us or please us. However, your image as a human being goes far beyond the reflection of the mirror; it goes to the depth of your soul, which is eternal. Your body will waste away in the grave, but your soul and its essence will continue throughout eternity. Would it not be a better to focus on that which is eternal within us, rather than that which is temporal and wasting away?

Go to a mirror and tell me what you see. Let the reflection come back into your eyes through the window of your soul. If you see some distortion within, perhaps it’s time to acknowledge it, pick up the candlestick, break the mirrors before you as the Phantom did, and leave the ugliness of your distorted soul behind and walk through to a new life.

The Phantom's Student


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