The PHANTOM of the OPERA is HERE!

The PHANTOM of the OPERA is HERE!

I thought I had outgrown Phantom and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much (considering that tonight’s performance was my THIRD!). Phantom’s splendid sets had never ceased to amaze me. The last time I watched it was in London. However, tonight’s show was a strong reminder of its grandeur,the elaborate costumes and emotion evoking songs.

I had the greatest urge to insert my Phantom CD while I was in my car. But, as usual, my stuff was all over the place and it was definitely unreachable at that point of time. Well, the actor who played Phantom was fantastic, as usual. I don’t remember having heard a lousy phantom before. Christine was good as well. However, 3 words appeared in my mind for Raoul – a weak voice. A very weak imitation of Michael Ball.

To me, I have always preferred Les Miserables to Phantom. I find Les Miserables more rousing and Phantom is, a love story. I have never been much of a romance junkie. I do read trashy romance novels now and then for stress relief and as an intermission for heavy duty reading. I even thought that the plot for Sleepless in Seattle was illogical (how could they possibly have recognised each other at the top of the empire state building?! DUH!), only to have my friend accuse me of being UN-romantic.

However, this time, at the final installment, where Phantom gave up Christine so that she could find her own happiness with Raoul, strangely, it felt like something was stuck in my throat. I am becoming a softie as i age. Sigh… Or it might very well, be that my seat was so good that I could see the anguished look on his face!

Phantom to me is more than a world-renowned musical. It brought back fond memories of the MAGXXM, scenes of us rolling around on Seow’s bed, listening to musical CDs, her prancing around in her Phantom T-shirt and all the silly antics (which included making prank calls to the guys in our French class and making them say dumb-ass things). Life was so much simpler and idealistic then. I’m wondering if these are being remembered. I had the urge to call Seow and discuss about Phantom. But, now, everyone has her own life to lead, husband to pander to and children to fuss over. Nothing much, just a very strong sense of loss…

Anyway, it was great that I had been there, done that. It certainly beats not even having such memories at all.

So if you ask me, will I watch Phantom a 4th time? I’ll tell you, “oh yes!” Not only that, I will prepare my Phantom cds on hand so that I will not be suffering from withdrawal after the musical ends.

Well, life goes on…. Back to reality now!

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