19

Rarely is a stage musical so fantastic you feel like watching more than once. In my case, I’ve watched The Phantom of the Opera thrice via YouTube for free. Yes, you read that right.

If there’s one thing I realised, it’s that the music wouldn’t be as powerful if it wasn’t for the organ – especially with regards to the titular song. Truly, it would have given out a different effect, assuming the piano was used, for example.

You might want to catch it now if you haven’t… or if you wish to follow in my footsteps and re-watch – before it is taken off the audio-visual streaming service by 2AM Monday MYT.

The version picked for screening has Ramin Karimloo as the mysterious Phantom and Sierra Boggess as the soprano voice Christine. It is the previously recorded 2011 version, taken from the 25^th anniversary celebration, where the audience attended live at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The funny thing is I was quite distracted the first time I went on YouTube to watch it via my laptop. I had to rewind certain songs. Initially, I paid attention to those playing Carlotta and Raoul. Only when my mum stepped in to watch via the desktop much later yesterday night did I begin to see how beautiful and splendid the production was. Oh, did I tell you about the surprise included towards the end of the show? In fact, I would consider them two surprises in total, if you ask me.

When I rewatched Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece for the third time today, my attention shifted to Ramin Karimloo. As he sings in one of the songs, “In your mind, you’ve already succumbed to me – dropped all defences – Completely succumbed to me.”

The only unfortunate part is that my smart TV is not working the way it should. Otherwise, I would have learnt how to pair a smartphone with my smart TV and watched it in a more comfortable position.

Until then, I hope you’ll “let your mind start a journey to a strange new world – Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before.”

Apt to describe the situation now, by the way, don’t you think so?