Blessed are the Poor for they Enlarge their Imagination

11 December 2012

Haven’t given much thought to the Phantom of the Opera except that it has been a very long-staying and still earning play through generations. That was enough to incense me to investigate what there really is in it.

As you’ve known from the past entries, I could not afford to view the actual play when it was performed in Manila. But nevertheless, I make amends. The benefit of being short of budget would be to have a very expansive imagination. My sister even attests to this, indulging in her fulfilling self-fantasies that subdues her from her too easily agitated bouts of fused temper. Even isolation has caused this much, filling oneself with images of what there could be or of what could happen as practiced by role-playing and a one-person game play. With a copy of the libretto, it wasn’t difficult to imagine at all how the play went on. There’s material to start on.

With a little experience with viewing plays, I found room to improvise with the backdrop and their faces; how Carlotta was and acted and the new owners Fermin and Andre. I deduce Reyer as the musical director and Giry would be the theater caretaker/manager. Since I know not much about the personas needed to run theaters, I conveniently assumed Buquet to be the backdrop/stage effects runner. He would be in charge of the lights, curtains, and other effects to make the scenes a human orchestrated deception of truth portrayal based on ideas.

As Carlotta starts singing in her self-important manner (no wonder she was referred later on as prima donna), from behind, partly in shadows, the phantom looms in his dark ensemble, with a full-face white mask only open at the eye slits and much like Dracula was always shown, covering himself with his black cape as a bat sheaths itself with a pair of membranous wings. The alarm which Lefevre addressed Carlotta with sets the mist of terror associated with the phantom combined with the answer from the startled Buquet as he replied that he was not paying attention and that if ever anyone was there, it must be a ghost. The phantom makes his presence known by an unscripted movement in the stage involving the backdrop and its accessory effects.

Lefevre apparently sold his theater without disclosing the dilemma involving the phantom. Piangi acts more like a loyal puppy to Carlotta, building up in her her misplaced air of conceit. Then after Piangi and Carlotta’s walkout and the message of taxation demanded by the phantom who lost them their star, Lefevre and Andre are welcomed with having to pay back tickets. The phantom is very much comfortable in the place, appearing as he liked, demanding his rights. Even the chance of getting an audience with the theater manager was easy for him. It was as if Giry was also instructed by the phantom to suggest that Christine take Carlotta’s place to save them from having to deal with payoffs.

The power in Christine is her vulnerability. Her susceptibility allowed her access to the lonesome phantom. He in turn used her to express his genius unharnessed for she proved pliant to him not only on the matter of being trained but also for support as she had placed him in a pedestal as the fulfillment of his father’s words to her, which she deemed her inheritance.  Then she sang there, proving her worth to relieve Carlotta, a bit hesitant in countenance at first until she finally owned it without the easy fall into the self-consciousness of delivery but into a falling into role, detaching the persona from the Christine she is. Sung with sincerity and self-forgetfulness, as if all that there was was the emotion of pleading for attention though for her part she was still not into their being separated. It was lovely and poignant as the lyrics suggest of simple remembrance in place for the dying embers of love.

With the setting of a theater within a theater, Raoul from the audience’s seat would remember his childhood friend.

I am trying to decide where to place the famed chandelier. At the prologue, the auction remark from Raoul was that it was exactly as Christine described it. That meant the chandelier must be exclusive for the phantom and his guest in his private holding area.

Where it was entitled Angel of Music, the phantom would be shown in the dark, his mask glinting white as he whispers his line with Christine hearing his voice in her head as Meg talks to her. That would be in the backstage where the two discuss. It is a blur to Christine if the praise she heard from the phantom was from her head or if she really heard it. Her affinity to the phantom enables her to sense him around making her turn cold. It might be paranoia but it might be true too. We don’t know the maze the phantom has created throughout the theater. He is capable of doing so with his salary or maybe he did it himself for his convenience and partly to pass time with both wood-work and indulging in voyeurism. He would always be there, unseen but seeing everything and being everywhere. Then Meg comforts Christine for a while before focus is placed on the men as introduction for Raoul’s meeting up on the Little Lotte Act with Christine. Then he retires offstage to give Christine time by herself to get dressed.

Left alone again, the phantom speaks to Christine in The Mirror. There Christine convinces the phantom to show himself but the phantom answers that Christine’s face in the mirror already reflects how he looks like. Then the shift is to Christine’s frightened reflection as she looks at the mirror.

It will not be shown but subtly alluded to that he has set contraptions from upstage to his place beneath. Even Christine’s descent will not be featured. And as Music of the Night is performed by the phantom, along the lines, he will look behind him and usher Christine into his lair where his chandelier hangs as he croons Christine into submission to his genius music.

In the short exchange between Buquet and Giry in the Magic Lasso, it was Buquet again who revealed something about the mysterious phantom. Aside from his hideous appearance behind his mask, Buquet also relates how the phantom could deftly make a kill as he desires while Giry reprimands Buquet for his knowing too much and speaking of it, advising him to be on guard at all times, “Keep your hand at the level of your eye.” I envision Buquet as a comic relief, motioning exaggeratedly in horror how dangerous and deformed the phantom is. I also cannot keep out of mind how the phantom directly corresponds with Giry but not with anyone else. It must be Giry who helps the phantom cover up his tracks so he could reside in the theater and demand pay by sending out his mail and relaying his messages aside from maybe tipping him off on those who have seen him.

Back to Christine and the phantom, Christine speaks of her dream about a man in a boat on the lake. It would appear to her from her strange but existing connivance and frequent exposure to the phantom which she, in its eeriness, no longer distinguishes dreams from actual happenings when it involves the phantom. At first the phantom condemns her in fear that her peeping might lead to her being reviled of him until later he relaxes and speaks of his soft inner yearnings for love. He is shown to ease off the mask from his face but before he takes it off, the lights dim off to darkness. Or instead of darkness in the stage, a camera might focus on the chandelier overhead.

The act Notes take place in the theater office where Firmin holds the paper with the report about Carlotta’s walkout in the front page, motioning to Andre who later on reads from the mail on the desk. Firmin then takes the next letter, being now on top, which they both discuss on after determining it as coming from opera ghost. Enters Raoul looking for Christine and Carlotta coming in after with Piangi tailing. They fuss about another threatening letter which Carlotta suspected to come from the owners but actually was from the phantom.

It is all mashed-up since it seems the phantom spoils plays or rehearsals before demanding anything but Carlotta never actually admitted that the phantom exists even if it must be the phantom who serves as both playwright and composer of the score, earning him his salary. It’s as if the existence of the phantom must be kept secret. Giry enters to inform them of Christine’s return but keeps secret where she stays. This is again suspicious. Giry must have known Raoul’s attentions to Christine would only bring disaster so they keep him off her. He and Meg successfully prevent Raoul from seeing Christine. It was clear in the ensuing dialogue that Giry advocates for the phantom as Andre and Firmin both comically pleads with Carlotta and her echo Piangi to stay. As they appeal to Carlotta, Raoul keeps thinking of Christine, asking what could be the outcome of the rambling together with Meg and Giry before another person, a delivery guy or mailman arrives with something for Christine.

Raoul makes up in his mind to reject the phantom’s demands after piecing up that the angel of music which forbids Christine to meet him is the same as the phantom of the opera who demands favor upon Christine. The three, Fermin, Andre and Carlotta, continue to suspect Raoul was behind the letters for his acquaintance with and apparent affectations for Christine.

The next act shows that Carlotta did give in to the entreaties, and was acting on as part of all other demands from the phantom being denied. As the phantom speaks to Meg about the occupation of his box, Christine immediately sees him and speaks out loud to Carlotta’s dismay. The phantom speaks from nowhere and causes Carlotta to croak through her lines after her sharp retort at Christine. Curtain was drawn down and damage was contained by Fermin and Andre as the cast move backstage with Carlotta rushing out, probably to see a physician. Raoul then approaches Christine as the audience start passing to the exit.

Christine brings Raoul out of the stage and down into the mayhem of the audience area, into a secluded spot where Christine attests that the phantom of the opera is real as Raoul continues to voice his opinion of the phantom as nothing but a fable that has gotten too much into Christine’s mind. On the duet, Christine assents to Raoul’s observation that the phantom has gotten into her mind which though she agrees to, does not dissolve her resolve that the phantom exists. By the end of Raoul, I've Been There..., it was revealed that even there, the phantom has eyes and ears. Then the lovers sing of their promises and their love with the enraged and disillusioned phantom as witness.

Masquerade is one of my more favored songs other than Christine’s first song and the phantom’s Stronger than You Dream It. Masquerade is so vivid, it came to me as Dumbo’s drunken dream of elephants did. As if there was a black screen before me with the images they speak of appearing before it, each line producing a single image repeating itself over and over again in tiles with invisible borders across the dark space.

Paper faces on parade; white paper cut-outs of the famed masks of the theater - the sad and the happy.

Hiding one’s face behind two hands as a mascot earth with black arms and legs and white 4 fingered hands (much like the appendages were all borrowed from Mickey Mouse. Please don’t sue me Disney for the unregistered citation. Even that one about Dumbo) pass by without noticing the hidden one.

Then there again to those paper faces now replete with singular color with each one being of a different hue from the other. Each face turns around to see another colored paper face behind.

From each square tile, randomly emerges as in a slot machine, in different colors, all that were described next: kings, queens, mauve, fools, etc. All of the faces later ride a carousel with their permanent expressions intact even as the carousel starts running as if in a marathon.

This was followed by a single image as described. Later the word true, being squeezed before the screen by an unseen force on the familiar black background now reads as false as it returns to shape. A curled lip, synchronous swirling of gown edges, again in tiled arrangement, was flashed out by ace of hearts and clown faces later shown to be gulped out of view by numerous colored paper faces, probably the same ones in the carousel. Afterwards, with the images gone, the paper faces lie on their backs and the background turns to white and a different sound from that of the previous manic one prevails.

Again, in tiled formation, come grinning yellow masks replaced by spinning red ones and beige ones in thick granny’s spectacles. A succession proceeded: masks with burning eyes, turning heads which all stop, with the middlemost mask looking out round at the other masks which now surround him in a circle, smiling. These masks then develop red shadows and start breathing brown. Then the shadows jest the masks who laugh in turn while the shadows smirk. All this disappeared and there were leering satyrs followed by peering eyes.

A singular dark paper mask runs on across the dark background, remaining barely perceptible to the right as if hiding then keeps still. At this, the entire background flips from different directions and the once dark screen is now in different colors as each flipped into a paper face of unique color.

Afterwards, the merriment is shown to be in the theater’s office where everyone is hushed by the chilling but modulate manly voice which never fails to be menacing of the phantom singing Why So Silent.

As a change of scene, Raoul catches up on Meg with Madame Giry's Tale/The Fairground. His being an architect then is to account for the contraptions underneath the opera, his personal voyeurism labyrinth. From there it was safe for him to view the world and human relations.

Next was shown Christine taking a cab in Journey to the Cemetery followed by her song for her father before his grave Wishing You were Somehow Here Again. Then bursts in the inauspicious Wandering Child from the phantom followed by the Swordfight as they were followed by Raoul nevertheless.

In the office again happens We Have All Been Blind with the Phantom’s voice booming from afar but it was unknown if he was within earshot or if he ever heard what was plotted against him.

In the midst of Don Juan, Piangi for the title role falls dead and the phantom whispers to Passarino.

The Point of no Return occurs in the phantom’s private hiding, with the chandelier precariously hanging overhead. The next scene proves Giry’s connivance to the phantom duly out of fear of his madness than anything else. Overhearing the pursuer’s voices in Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer, at first the phantom strikes a deal with Christine for Raoul’s life, as Raoul had gone into the right path of the labyrinth that led to them, to manipulate her into submission but decides against it after seeing Christine’s anguish finally, directing their escape.

As the angry mob and marching feet grow closer in sound, the chandelier remains the focus. Then it falls from where it hangs down, crashing loudly and later beneath it is shown the damaged white mask.

That’s how I imagined it. The play’s script remains true. For people remain feeling unloved by their appearances, later transform themselves into something abominable as they wallow in their ugliness which caused their isolation.

All the phantom wanted was love. He only knew of it from a distance since he no longer had any hold in having his needs met if not for mercy or by violence. He was piteous. I cannot blame him from becoming what he became.

The exposition of the story was fast, simply of 7,602 words. With that number of words they were able to tell a story of an orphan girl who loved her father and was sheltered by someone else allowing who she referred to as Angel of Music to dominate her. The phantom who was the angel of music, taught her and found her a vessel of his genius until she became the only firm and hopeful relations he had. With that set-up, it was not impossible for the phantom to accord Christine with love. And with his influence upon her, of course it was only natural that he would use it to manipulate her. Christine also had no one else to depend on other than her angel of music who became so much of who she is. In the end it could be surmised that this bond between Christine and the phantom was lasting as Raoul, who could safely be deduced as her husband then, even bought in an auction lot 666, an apt designation, the chandelier of the forlorn and outcast phantom of the opera.