Friday, April 5, 2013

And Do I Dream Again...

I will be blunt in saying that I was raised in a musical home. For as long as I can remember my Mom had some form of music playing somewhere in the house. At the age of seven I picked up this habit, and have yet to drop it (I doubt I ever will). In theory this lead to me liking movie musicals. My favorite of these is Les Miserables (the music, there are no words to describe it), but we already have too many posts about that particular film. Therefore I shall blog about one of my runner up favorites, "The Phantom of the Opera".

I was first introduced to this movie probably around the time I turned thirteen. Story wise I had no patience for the romantic plot, but I loved anything and everything that had to do with the Phantom. I found his character utterly fascinating. He desired to create beauty to spite his physical ugliness, so he wrote music, played music, composed operas, and he even gave Christine singing lessons (admittedly he was obsessed with her, but he didn't have to help her with her singing career).  But his darker aspects were just terrifying once you think about them long enough.

He was a murderer, it's hinted at in act 1 of the movie and by act 2 you see him choke someone to death. He was also obsessed with Christine Diaae, and the more he was denied his obsession (or when he saw other competitors for he attention) he caused chaos (holding the state opera hostage, vocally poisoning the Prima Donna, ect).

But aside from the awesome character of the Phantom, it was the music that made me love this movie. While it doesn't have the emotional umph of Les Mis, certain songs captivate the imagination. The first among these is "The Phantom of the Opera", which is where you really get a feel for the relationship between Christine and the Phantom. Another is probably "Wishing you Were Somehow Here Again". Which is basically the emotions of everyone who has lost a loved one put to words.

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