By Taylor Landau
Ramin Karimloo (left) and Sierre Boggess (right) as the Phantom and Christine respectively in The Phantom of the Opera performed live at Royal Albert Hall in 2011.
Ever since Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera premiered in 1986, there's been one debate that's been a point of contention for musical theater fans around the globe: should Christine have ended up with the Phantom or Raoul? The love triangle between these three characters lays the foundation for the majority of the show, and there's been lots of back and forth about how it should've ended. I'm going to take a look at both characters and why each "side" has made their stance that way.
For the sake of sticking to the main plot, the later sequel Love Never Dies doesn't apply to my analysis (nor have I ever thought it applied to the canon of POTO based on how basically every character was completely butchered, but I digress). I'll only be focusing on the musical adaptation as opposed to the book and the movie, and I'll be taking a look at how the events played out in the 25th Anniversary version of the show since that's the one I'm the most familiar with.
Spoiler warning for The Phantom of the Opera!
To very briefly summarize the story, we begin at the Paris Opera House where the performers have been experiencing weird ongoings for years on end supposedly caused by "the Opera ghost." Christine Daaé, a young ballerina, takes on a leading role after the resident prima donna quits, and she's been taught to sing by a mysterious teacher whom she refers to as her "angel of music." She reunites with her childhood friend, Raoul Vicomte de Chagny, before being whisked away by the titular character, the Phantom, to his home in the sewers under the opera house. A fierce competition forms between Raoul and the Phantom as they essentially fight for Christine's affection, and it ends with Christine tearfully deciding to stand by Raoul, thus leaving the Phantom alone as an angry mob comes to find him. He disappears, and the only trace he was ever there is his white mask.
The Phantom
Ramin Karimloo as The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera performed live at Royal Albert Hall in 2011.
For most fans of Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom's pitiable nature and backstory are what wins them over. The Phantom is a somewhat sympathetic character with a tragic backstory, which is often the deciding factor for many fans when choosing between him and Raoul. He's disfigured and escaped from a circus. Essentially, he's "a physical monstrosity with a brilliant mind." He went unloved his entire life and longs for the affection of Christine so he can finally understand what love is.
The Phantom teaches Christine how to sing and often does whatever he can in his power to help her full potential as an opera singer. When he brings her to his "lair" the first time, he sings "The Music of the Night," which is essentially the Phantom's love song to Christine. He clearly paints her as his muse and the one who spreads his music with lyrics like, "You alone can make my song take flight. Help me make the music of the night." At the end of the show, he realizes the angry mob is coming for him and shows a brief moment of compassion by letting Christine and Raoul leave before the crowd arrives despite his original agreement with the ballerina. It's clear throughout the show that he cares for her.
While it's obvious the Phantom has strong feelings for Christine, he doesn't exactly go about them the right way. The first time the audience sees the Phantom, he's basically kidnapping her from the opera house and bringing her to his lair where he tries to seduce her before later screaming at her when she removes his mask. When the opera house managers ignore his requests and put Carlotta, the resident prima donna, into the leading role of the opera over Christine, he causes Carlotta to sing like a frog and kills a stagehand in front of the entire audience. Immediately following that, he drops the opera house's chandelier onto the stage when Christine and Raoul decide to run away together at the end of Act 1.
The Phantom's monstrosities don't end there. He also kills another actor, Piangi, kidnaps Christine again, and repeatedly tries to kill Raoul. Not only that but he frequently poses as Christine's deceased father in an attempt to lure her into his embrace. The Phantom's final transgression brings the show to its climax. He gives Christine a nearly impossible ultimatum: if she chooses to break Raoul's heart and stay with the Phantom, Raoul will live. If she denies the Phantom, Raoul will die. The Phantom's affections are more than obvious, but his actions throughout the show make him a very difficult character for many to root for.
Raoul
Hadley Fraser as Raoul, Vicomte de Changy, in The Phantom of the Opera performed at Royal Albert Hall in 2011.
Raoul is the third protagonist of the show as well as Christine's childhood friend and new patron of the opera house. One of the main things about Raoul that has won audiences over is his protectiveness and care for Christine. Once he sees her perform at the beginning of the show, he's immediately infatuated and showers her with compliments. He quickly grows concerned when she disappears without a trace after their reunion, and he insists that "Christine must be protected" during the song "Prima Donna." When Christine confides her fears about the Phantom to him, Raoul becomes even more protective and vows to love her and stand by her side in the duet "All I Ask of You."
The Vicomte proposes before the events of Act 2 and decides that he will put an end to the Phantom's antics for her sake and the sake of the opera house. After the Phantom whisks Christine away the second time, Raoul swims through the lake under the opera house to retrieve her, and when Christine is put in a difficult position to choose between the two, he begs for her forgiveness and laments his own errors: "Christine, forgive me, please forgive me. I did it all for you, and all for nothing." Christine chooses to stay with the Phantom to save Raoul's life, but eventually, the two lovers leave together.
One of the main problems fans of the show tend to have with Raoul is his arrogance. He often dismisses Christine's concerns and unilaterally makes decisions based on his own opinions. For example, he insists that Christine will be going out with him even when she tells him she can't. Later on, he originally tells Christine that she doesn't have to sing the leading role in the Phantom's opera if she's too frightened before quickly changing his mind and forcing her into the role in an effort to capture the titular character. He puts a lot of pressure on her saying, "every hope and every prayer rests on you now" if they want to catch the Phantom.
For a major portion of the show, he dismisses the idea that the Phantom even exists and tells Christine he's a figment of her imagination ("This Phantom is a fable, believe me, there is no Phantom of the Opera"). He also gets mad at her for wanting to hide their engagement despite her fears of the Phantom. Lots of fans also have a gripe with his smarts since he either ignores or forgets Madame Giry's instructions to keep his hand "at the level of [his] eye" and ends up getting caught in the Phantom's trap. Raoul can be rough around the edges and doesn't always seem to consider Christine's wants when making decisions which is often what turns fans of the musical away from the character.
My Thoughts
Hadley Fraser (left) and Sierra Boggess (right) as Raoul and Christine respectively in The Phantom of the Opera performed at Royal Albert Hall in 2011.
Before I watched Phantom for the first time, I knew the general consensus among most fans I knew was that Raoul was the worse option for the Phantom and that Christine should've stayed behind with him instead. So you can imagine my confusion when I began watching the show and found myself rooting for Raoul over the Phantom through the entirety of Act 1. I figured there must be some kind of turning point during the show where Raoul makes a costly error or the Phantom does something to win the audience over. Well, neither of those things really happened, in my opinion anyway.
Throughout the musical, I felt that Raoul was something of a rock for Christine. He was what kept her grounded in the world above the Phantom's lair, and he was often set on protecting her from the Phantom. His love for Christine was pure; he always vowed to love and protect her and risked his life to save her in the finale. There were several times in the show when Raoul doesn't quite believe that Christine's version of events is true, but he still vows to love her and protect her. Also, can you really blame him for not entirely believing her? If your significant other told you an "angel of music" was singing songs in their head, how do you think you would react? His motivations throughout were to protect Christine and make her feel safe; there are very few times in the show where I would describe his behavior as self-indulgent or selfish.
The Phantom, on the other hand, is probably the definition of a toxic boyfriend. His tragic backstory is what wins so many people over, but I simply can't get past the fact that he killed two people out of anger and longing for Christine. Not to mention that Christine is constantly living in fear of the Phantom. She often turns to Raoul when she's frightened. She begs him during "Twisted Every Way" to not make her sing because she's terrified of the Phantom, and she pleads with Raoul not to take her back to the opera at the end of Act 1 after the Phantom kills the stagehand. Admittedly, when she's around the Phantom, Christine finds a way to love him and show compassion, but forcing oneself to love another isn't really love, is it?
What are your thoughts on this? Should Christine have ended up with the Phantom, or do you think Christine running off with Raoul was the best choice?
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