Phantom of the Opera

My two favorite operas by far are Les Meserables and Phantom of the Opera. I love the beauty of the them, the complexites and the great mirror into the human heart. I watched Phantom this afternoon and was struck by one artistic element.

The character of phantom is actually quite handsome are the beginning. The visible half of his face is quite nice to look at it and the dark hair is slicked by in an attractive, respectable manner. He moves gracefully and quietly, drawing you into the mystery of this man. But as the story develops he becomes more and more grotesque. Why? Because his character begins to come out and we see the depths of evil within this hurting individual. And as you recoginze all this, you find him more and more loathesome.

At the climax however he lets Christine and Raul go free, and when confronted with the purity of real love he melts. As he smashes the mirrors you see only half his face and somehow there is something attractive about it again. The image reflected in the mirror of the deformed man is distorted and no longer defines him, holds him captive and he escapes into the night.

This reminded me of the attractivness of evil. That evil can be enticing by the mystery of it but also by the presentation and packaging of it. That Satan was created first as an Angel, the most loved and beautiful, therefore I believe, though he is eternally fallen, he retains some of this beauty and uses that to mask the evil. Think about it, sin at first glance does not look utterly evil, no. It is wrapped with a flimsy layer of false promises that look good. But as you delve deeper you begin to see the wrapping fade away and see the true nature of it. Much like in the Phantom of the Opera. As Christine delves deeper into a relationship with the Phantom she sees more of his dark character and we as the audience see this as well. Unlike the Phantom though, there is no restoration possible for Satan and the evil he produces, but for those taken captive by it there is freedom...