The Phantom of the Opera - The Kiss From God
The first time I ever heard ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ in an audio CD, I 21 years old and I thought that I had to see the actual theatre play someday in my life. And that day happened to be last Saturday in Houston, and I thank God that at 26, my wish at 21 got fulfilled. Watching the actual play probably by one of the best performing Broadway groups in America was like being taken in rapture into another world of dazzling sets and supernatural sounds.
It was when I saw this play, I realized that the beauty of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ wasn’t just about the sets and sounds but about the profound insights into the deeply hurt and reclusive soul of a musical genius who of all things in the world, wants the ‘tender affection’ of a fellow human being.
The Phantom of the Opera, the mystery man, is a musical genius who is has retreated to live in the underground dungeons of the magnificent Paris Opera house. The humankind outside has rejected him because of his grotesquely disfigured face. The only human contact he has is with a chorus girl Christine Daae, whom he secretly trains in his dungeons to be a singer whom the world would marvel at.
Right from the beginning of the play, I was never sure of impetus for the Phantom to train Christine Daae.
Does he want to bring the best music out of her and thereby worship and glorify music?
Or does he want to use her to show the world that rejected him that is seeing the disfigurement in his face, it has missed the genius in him?
Or does he want her to be impressed by his genius and see him in the different light of the 'music of the night' and fall in love him?
The first need belies a need to worship music, the second belies a need to worship one’s own self the third belies a need for affection and companionship.
Though the Phantom is sometimes depicted as a self-obsessed monster of a man who thinks not twice to murder people, the reason why his character is strangely appealing is because the animal-like nature of his is caused by the universal human condition of tension among the three basic psychological needs - need to worship a higher ideal, need to garner the worship of self and need for affection and companionship of fellow human beings.
With regard to wanting to fulfill these three basic human needs, the Phantom of the Opera is a normal man. But as he tries to go about fulfilling his needs, it is his obsessive need for the 'mask' to cover-up his feelings of insecurity and hurt about his disfigured face that complicates his life and makes him into the mysterious Phantom of the Opera.
As the play goes on, there are some glimpses into the Phantom’s soul the first glimpse is when he is first unmasked by Christine. He goes into a fit of rage because his vulnerability had been exposed. Without the mask, his sense of security has been destroyed – he is no longer the admirable genius musician, he is a loathsome ugly man. The deep old wounds of his heart, that even his mother did not like to look at him or touch his face and that the earliest memory of clothing he ever had was that of the mask, get reopened.
The second glimpse is angst he expresses when he sees the cute, handsome, rich, young, untalented Roul sweep Christine off her feet in a way that he could never do. The Phantom’s training helps Christine win over the crowd in the song ‘Think of Me’. Just as the phantom thinks that he was close to getting Christine where he wanted her to be (on the stage as the star performer and closer to his heart), all his genius not withstanding, she and Roul fall in love. The only human being with whom he could share his genius and world of music with is about to get stolen from him. The formidable Phantom of the Opera is in a helpless anguish.
Third glimpse is when he tries to manipulate Christine Diane into falling back into a adulation for him by trying to appeal to her sub-conscious sentiment of his being her special 'teacher' of music and also especially of his being her beloved father’s 'Angel of Music'. He wants her to love him, but is not direct about his need for love. He rather manipulates the relationship to appear to be platonic when his intent was to make the relationship romantic.
Fourth glimpse into his heart is in the last scene in the underground kingdom of the Phantom where he tries to forcibly marry Christine. This time, he gets real, he starts off trying to appeal to her sense of pity by speaking of his need to find a way out of inexorable solitude. His need is real - to have someone to share his world of music with. She does pity the deep anguish of this helpless genius, but there is a disconnect when he tries to use this need of his to justify marrying her. She does not relent, enraged, he then puts Roul on the noose and asks her to decide between Roul and him. He puts her in a position where she either had to marry him or see Roul die, there was hardly any room for her to make a decision. Looking at it the other way around, it was he who was the ‘cornered beast’, he did not have any other trick he could pull, he had taken the greatest risk of being ‘real’ about his need, but that does not help his cause.
It is at this point as Christine is in great turmoil, she calls on God for help and tells him, "God give me courage to show you, You are not alone...". In a moment of divine wisdom from God, she realizes that the last thing he needed at the moment was a wife, what his reclusive frigid being needed was the ‘tender touch’ of a fellow human being. Then she gathers up all her God-given courage, takes his disfigured face in her tender hands and kisses him, full on his lips. So genuine is the kiss that it strangely brings about a healing to his soul. Perhaps, it was God that apparently wronged him by giving him a disfigured face albiet with an astounding musical genius to compensate the disfigurement, and it took the ‘kiss from God’ to heal him.
In the very last scene of the play, the Phantom disappears forever away from his reclusive life, and I would presume, completely healed, leaving behind only his glowing mask. Looking back, I couldn’t help but wonder how many times normal human beings, their genius and goodness not withstanding, would act like the phantom of the opera in trying to address their genuine needs which get marred because of their deeper insecurity causing them to conceal a part of themselves under a mask. The more one holds on to the mask the greater is the complexity and ‘collective hurt’ involved in the unmasking process, and consequently the longer the tenure of the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in one’s life.
Perhaps in all of our lives, there is lurking in the dark recesses of our hearts, a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ who gets resurrected whenever a genuine need marred by deeper insecurities needs to be addressed. Sometimes, it take a 'kiss from God' to heal such 'wounds of a life time'.
It was when I saw this play, I realized that the beauty of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ wasn’t just about the sets and sounds but about the profound insights into the deeply hurt and reclusive soul of a musical genius who of all things in the world, wants the ‘tender affection’ of a fellow human being.
The Phantom of the Opera, the mystery man, is a musical genius who is has retreated to live in the underground dungeons of the magnificent Paris Opera house. The humankind outside has rejected him because of his grotesquely disfigured face. The only human contact he has is with a chorus girl Christine Daae, whom he secretly trains in his dungeons to be a singer whom the world would marvel at.
Right from the beginning of the play, I was never sure of impetus for the Phantom to train Christine Daae.
Does he want to bring the best music out of her and thereby worship and glorify music?
Or does he want to use her to show the world that rejected him that is seeing the disfigurement in his face, it has missed the genius in him?
Or does he want her to be impressed by his genius and see him in the different light of the 'music of the night' and fall in love him?
The first need belies a need to worship music, the second belies a need to worship one’s own self the third belies a need for affection and companionship.
Though the Phantom is sometimes depicted as a self-obsessed monster of a man who thinks not twice to murder people, the reason why his character is strangely appealing is because the animal-like nature of his is caused by the universal human condition of tension among the three basic psychological needs - need to worship a higher ideal, need to garner the worship of self and need for affection and companionship of fellow human beings.
With regard to wanting to fulfill these three basic human needs, the Phantom of the Opera is a normal man. But as he tries to go about fulfilling his needs, it is his obsessive need for the 'mask' to cover-up his feelings of insecurity and hurt about his disfigured face that complicates his life and makes him into the mysterious Phantom of the Opera.
As the play goes on, there are some glimpses into the Phantom’s soul the first glimpse is when he is first unmasked by Christine. He goes into a fit of rage because his vulnerability had been exposed. Without the mask, his sense of security has been destroyed – he is no longer the admirable genius musician, he is a loathsome ugly man. The deep old wounds of his heart, that even his mother did not like to look at him or touch his face and that the earliest memory of clothing he ever had was that of the mask, get reopened.
The second glimpse is angst he expresses when he sees the cute, handsome, rich, young, untalented Roul sweep Christine off her feet in a way that he could never do. The Phantom’s training helps Christine win over the crowd in the song ‘Think of Me’. Just as the phantom thinks that he was close to getting Christine where he wanted her to be (on the stage as the star performer and closer to his heart), all his genius not withstanding, she and Roul fall in love. The only human being with whom he could share his genius and world of music with is about to get stolen from him. The formidable Phantom of the Opera is in a helpless anguish.
Third glimpse is when he tries to manipulate Christine Diane into falling back into a adulation for him by trying to appeal to her sub-conscious sentiment of his being her special 'teacher' of music and also especially of his being her beloved father’s 'Angel of Music'. He wants her to love him, but is not direct about his need for love. He rather manipulates the relationship to appear to be platonic when his intent was to make the relationship romantic.
Fourth glimpse into his heart is in the last scene in the underground kingdom of the Phantom where he tries to forcibly marry Christine. This time, he gets real, he starts off trying to appeal to her sense of pity by speaking of his need to find a way out of inexorable solitude. His need is real - to have someone to share his world of music with. She does pity the deep anguish of this helpless genius, but there is a disconnect when he tries to use this need of his to justify marrying her. She does not relent, enraged, he then puts Roul on the noose and asks her to decide between Roul and him. He puts her in a position where she either had to marry him or see Roul die, there was hardly any room for her to make a decision. Looking at it the other way around, it was he who was the ‘cornered beast’, he did not have any other trick he could pull, he had taken the greatest risk of being ‘real’ about his need, but that does not help his cause.
It is at this point as Christine is in great turmoil, she calls on God for help and tells him, "God give me courage to show you, You are not alone...". In a moment of divine wisdom from God, she realizes that the last thing he needed at the moment was a wife, what his reclusive frigid being needed was the ‘tender touch’ of a fellow human being. Then she gathers up all her God-given courage, takes his disfigured face in her tender hands and kisses him, full on his lips. So genuine is the kiss that it strangely brings about a healing to his soul. Perhaps, it was God that apparently wronged him by giving him a disfigured face albiet with an astounding musical genius to compensate the disfigurement, and it took the ‘kiss from God’ to heal him.
In the very last scene of the play, the Phantom disappears forever away from his reclusive life, and I would presume, completely healed, leaving behind only his glowing mask. Looking back, I couldn’t help but wonder how many times normal human beings, their genius and goodness not withstanding, would act like the phantom of the opera in trying to address their genuine needs which get marred because of their deeper insecurity causing them to conceal a part of themselves under a mask. The more one holds on to the mask the greater is the complexity and ‘collective hurt’ involved in the unmasking process, and consequently the longer the tenure of the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in one’s life.
Perhaps in all of our lives, there is lurking in the dark recesses of our hearts, a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ who gets resurrected whenever a genuine need marred by deeper insecurities needs to be addressed. Sometimes, it take a 'kiss from God' to heal such 'wounds of a life time'.