I went to Phantom of the Opera last night. Now there will be people out there who don’t enjoy musicals or who don’t like this particular musical or who think musicals are silly because everyone is singing at each other why can’t they just speak to each other he’s right in front of your face for goodness sake.
But I really enjoy the Phantom. I think it has great music and singing, usually great acting, and great production. I can really identify with the character of Raoul who is suave, debonair, has a great singing voice and a rather fetching hairdo. I would happily go watch it again if someone wants to buy me another ticket.
It’s with a pang of regret that I appluad the performers as they come out for their bows at the end of the show. My mum makes the comment that goes along the lines of ‘imagine doing this everyday as your job’. Yes imagine that. Taking in the gratitude and adulation of the audience instead of staring at a computer screen (whilst deep in thought obviously, not daydreaming). But I guess it may be hard at times, performing the same role everyday or even every other day. It could really be quite tiresome if you, as the performer, don’t really put your heart and soul into it, or buy into the character, or infuse your role with personality, or really live the role. The character will become quite lifeless I think.
I was reading something just this morning in the NZ Catholic which I thought I could find on the website (to no avail). It had a quote from a Bishop (don’t think it was a NZ bishop) saying that the problem facing the Church was that people were not really living their faith in between Sunday services. Now without the paper in front of me, I can’t actually remember if that’s what was said but it was something along those lines…. (if anyone can actually quote said Bishop it would be much appreciated).
Whatever was said, it was enough to inspire me this morning to really think about how much more we could live out our faith during the week between going to Sunday Mass. If I don’t really live it, or make it my own, or put my being into it, then how can I bring my faith to life and be a good Catholic/Christian.
Something to ponder as I stare at my computer screen and relive the highlights of the Phantom.
I like your connection between the Phantom and the Bishop’s comment
. I agree, The Phantom of the Opera is captivating due to the dedication of the performers who put their heart and soul into it. What a great witness it would be to non believers and believers alike if Catholics immersed themselves at Mass, and lived out God’s word. I have a lot of respect for people who are strong in their convictions and the living out of them – even if they are different from my own. Putting your heart and soul into how you live your life is so much better than the mediocre alternative..
On a slightly different note, does anyone know if Andrew Lloyd Weber is Christian, or what his background is?? It would be helpful in shedding some light on the meaning behind the plot in the Phantom.
Phantom of the Opera is based off a book written by Gaston Leroux. ALW just adapted it
(the book is excellent by the way)
The well sourced Wikipeadia (citation needed haha) states that according to Leroux
“The Phantom of The Opera is a gothic novel, combining romance, horror, mystery and tragedy, which is, according to Leroux, based on a true story.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera
I think one of the most important ways that we ‘live out our faith’ is in the daily choice to be merciful. In rechoosing mercy – in rechoosing another person, beyond their hurtful or disappointing actions, beyond their present actuality in love, in light of their infinite potentiality in love – is I think one of the best ways to “Follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”
Our environment is so often one of simply justice – and a petty type of measured justice that is really a revelling in the injustice that we think has occured against us. So easily it can become a culture of utu, of petty and subtle revenge. But the person who constantly seeks to get up after a fall and who constantly seeks to put out the hand to another to help them get up after a fall is the one who really bears witness to the Lamb, the one who really takes up his daily cross and follows, the one who really is capable of bringing the face of christ to someone else and thus evangelising.
The only effective proclamation of Christ is a witness to how he has transformed our lives. And that witness begins silently, from the capacity to be in solidarity with all that is good and noble and true, and from the capacity to understand another, to accept them and to patiently choose them time and time again in a gentleness that is not that of a jellyfish, but that of the Lamb who was slain and is now alive – that is, the gentleness of one who is so determined in love and so abandoned in love that they will not relinquish love even in the face of annihilation.