Art Blog

Based off of this image:

~ Francis Davis Millet, The Widow (1891) (detail)

It makes Christine seem so heartless, even in just that particular moment. I don’t think she’d ever try to deceive Erik like that, much less have the gall to do something so cruel. I think the whole reason she pulls off his mask is because she feels so betrayed, and because she wants to prove, to herself and to the surrounding audience, that this guy is a real human being with real human flaws. He’s proposing to her on stage with that mask on, but she has seen what’s behind it and wants to see it again to prove to herself that it was real. That this guy isn’t her father, isn’t a phantom, isn’t a Don Juan. He’s just this messed up guy with a messed up face. She wants no more pretending. No more trickery or seduction. She needs to know who this guy is and why he’s doing this to her. I think she rips off the mask on an impulse, like “This guy is proposing to me but I need to see that face again, in this moment, because with the mask on, you’re the man who played with my heart and sang in my dreams, but behind that, who are you, really? You’re Erik. You’re flawed. And I need to know what I saw was real.”

Bottom line, I just don’t think she’s doing it to humiliate him, or trap him. It’s just him and her in that moment, both exposed and both hurt, both knowing that they’ve been set up in some way. But Christine is sick of all the lies, and needs the truth. So she pulls off the one thing that allows Erik to live his fantasy life in which he could have Christine, in which he’s smooth and confident and seemingly “normal.” She reveals him for who he is - not to trick him - but for the exact opposite reason: to reveal his true self.

1) The “heartless” interpretation: Christine was ruthlessly planning to trap the Phantom so he could be captured/killed. The fake kiss was just to stall him and keep him on the stage so she could unmask him. (Marni Raab’s Christine can come off this way, as well as Melissa Dye, though in all fairness to the latter, the Canadian Phantoms were more cuckoo than others. Plus, it was Paul Stanley’s Phantom. I’d want payback for his assault on my ears. As for Marni, it looks like she’s stopped doing the fake kiss and has also shown a lot more distress…. which leads to the next part…)

2) The “distressed” interpretation: Christine has just undergone “Phantom Attempt at Hypnosis” Version 2.0 (with optional Italian accent). She’s confused, terrified, and wants badly to get out of the situation but isn’t entirely sure how, since the people she was relying on her to help her (Raoul, managers, police) are shoving her back on to the stage with her stalker. Not knowing what else to do and needing to unmask the Phantom, she tries to get close to him by faking the kiss. (This might be what Marni Raab was going for. I’ve also seen Ana Marina do this.)

3) The “I can go for this no wait abort mission” interpretation: Christine got taken in by his proposal for a few seconds and started to accept. Then the Phantom sang the lines he copied directly from Raoul and she snapped out of it and unmasked him instead. Alternatively, it might also be something like this line I’m going to steal from the Bischoff book, which goes: “For a moment she did love him… she felt the deepest pity for him, wished that by some miracle he might be made happier”, in which Christine feels for him but then realizes she’s going too far and unmasks him instead. (The Hungarian production seems to be going for something like this, particularly from Andrea Maho in the earlier part of her run. Though she’s not kissing him, she’s holding on to him and stroking his head. Which might be worse.)

4) The “actually it’s the Phantom trying to kiss her” interpretation: Fairly self-explanatory. Perusal of my bootlegs have shown that, more often, the Phantom is the one getting close to Christine and she’s just unmasking him because, whoa, get out of her personal space. (This seems to have happened with Trista Moldovan, Sierra Boggess, and Samantha Hill, usually with Hugh “no sense of personal boundaries” Panaro’s Phantom. I also saw Howard McGillin do this, notably by forcing Jennifer Hope Wills into his arms.)