The Phantom of the Opera is my new favorite play/movie. In English recently, we’ve been studying the lyrics to Phantom of the Opera, and I like it a lot. It has some slow songs, some fast songs; it has some soft songs and some loud songs. This play has EVERYTHING! Since we’re done with it, I want to give a run-down of what I think of some of the songs. So sit back, relax, and get ready to read.
“Think of Me”
In this song, Christine, the main girl, is trying out for the part of an opera that someone else was originally the lead in, but quit at the last minute. Christine’s voice is beautiful, and everyone’s wondering who her ‘mysterious tutor’ is. The song begins in the audition, and moves to the night of the performance where she has the role. I love this song because it starts off with just a soft piano, but when it goes to the night of the performance, there’s a full orchestra that’s loud and beautiful. During the performance, Raoul, Christine’s childhood friend, sees her and is totally amazed. The song ends with a fantastic ‘of’ (kind of hard to explain what I mean. Let’s just say it’ll be the longest ‘of’ you’ve ever heard).
“Angel of Music/Little Lotte (not one we studied)/The Mirror”
In these songs, it is after the performance and Christine is in her dressing room when her friend, Meg, comes to talk to her. In “Angel of Music,” Meg asks Christine who her tutor is. Christine tells her about an angel her now-dead father told her about, the Angel of Music, and how it’s visiting her. Christine eventually becomes in a trance, and Meg leaves her after the song slightly frightened. In “Little Lotte” (a song we didn’t study), Raoul comes in and invites Christine out to dinner. Christine refuses saying the Angel of Music won’t allow it. Raoul calls her out as silly and tells her to get ready as the song ends. We then move on into “The Mirror,” where the Phantom is talking to Christine about how annoying Raoul is to be asking her to dinner and about how Christine shouldn’t have accepted. Christine, thinking it’s the Angel of Music, apologizes and asks the Angel to enter. When he does, the Phantom pulls her into a trance and literally pulls her down to his liar. While this is happening, Raoul is freaking out behind the locked door.
“The Phantom of the Opera”
Ok, first of all, best song EVER! Oh, I’ve had this song stuck in my head for weeks! Anyway, in this song, the Phantom is taking Christine down to his liar. Christine and the Phantom are both singing, and not only is this song lyrically strong, but the music is FANTASTIC! At the end, Christine hits a fabulous note. Christine is still in a trance during this song. I feel like I’ve said enough, there’s not much I can say… so, ya.
Other Songs In The Order That I Don’t Want To Explain:
“The Music of the Night”
“All I Ask of You”
“Masquerade”
“Wishing You Were Here Again”
During this song, Christine is asking for guidance from her father in a graveyard. However, it seems as though she’s speaking to both the Phantom and her dad. This song is really beautiful. She’s singing lovely, the music is awesome, the lyrics are strong, and the set-up in just phenomenal.
Ok, I don’t want to go through the last three songs because I’m trying to keep this relatively short, so I’ll just summarize. Christine gets kidnapped once again and taken to the liar of the Phantom. The Phantom takes off his mask and tells Christine how abused he was a child. Raoul comes to save her and the Phantom makes Christine chose: Does she want to spend forever with the Phantom down below the Opera House and have Raoul’s life spared, or does she want to return to the world above, but have Raoul killed. Eventually she decides…
…what did you think I was going to tell you the ending? No! Go watch it for yourself. There are more songs than just the ones I mentioned, we only studied nine. Enjoy the play or movie and I hope you enjoyed this blog post.
I think it is great how much you’ve gotten into the songs of this play. There are many more plays/operas that we can explore!
I think you did a wonderful job peaking curiosity of others to listen/watch Phantom. Thanks for sharing your point of view!
Kendall, I’m glad you are enjoying this musical! Three of the most amazing experiences I’ve had were related to the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA:
1. I got to watch an understudy rehearsal in the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. This is where the understudies run through the whole show, without costumes and with only a piano accompanist instead of the full orchestra, to make sure they’re very sure of their lines and staging in case one of the principals gets sick or goes on vacation. There were only four people in the theatre besides the actors and the pianist – the stage director, the music director, the choreographer, and me!
2. That night, I got to sit in the orchestra pit during the performance on Broadway. My friend, Kristin Blodgette, has been the conductor of the show since it opened 26 years ago! I couldn’t see anything happening on the stage, but it was amazing just to be right in the middle of all that glorious music!
3. I also met the conductor of the national tour of PHANTOM when it came to Austin, and later he moved to Las Vegas to be the assistant conductor of the production there. He invited me to come to Las Vegas to train to be a substitute keyboard player in the orchestra. (Uncle Mike went with me — we stayed for 2 or 3 days). I got a chance to put on headphones and play through some of the music before the show started. One of the things I got to play was the scary organ music when the chandelier comes crashing down. It was just about the coolest thing I have ever done!
That is so cool! I loved the music that was played when the chandelier was falling; it’s really neat that you got to play that at one point! We might see the play or movie in class, but I think it would have been awesome to see the play in person (especially if I was one of the only people in the audience!).