WEP Oct 2023 – The Phantom of the Opera
October WEP stories are often the hardest for me to write. In the North American parlance, October, the month of Halloween, is often associated with horror, and I neither read nor write in that genre. But the musical The Phantom of the Opera and the movie of the same name are an exception because of the superb music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is not really a horror story, either. Love, hypnotism, obsession, and music seem to be the prevalent threads of the tale. Plus, the tragedy of the protagonist, the deformed ‘phantom’. In my sci-fi flash below – my entry for the Oct WEB challenge – the members of the anivid and dessert club on Mars watch the animated remake of this show and then discuss its complex ideas while applying their own unique interpretation. They are Martians, living in the 24th century. Of course, they would have a unique perspective on this classic tale from Earth.
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“Am I too late? No, I’m not too late. Marvelous!” Serena swept into the room. “I’m sorry, girls. I got held up in the recording studio.”
“What did you record today?” Yrvina asked. Serena was a musician, and in the last several years, her songs had become pretty popular in their dome.
“A new song.” Serena’s grin illuminated the whole room. “I have a new contract, girls. I didn’t say anything before, but we have been negotiating. I just signed it. I’m going to perform live in two other domes. My first out-dome tour.”
“Congratulations!” the club members chorused and applauded. Serena’s exuberance was catchy.
“When?” Yrvina asked.
“Next year.” Serena plopped down on her place on a sofa. Her eyes glowed. “What are we watching tonight? What movie from Earth had your animators fixed for us, Martians, this time?”
“Something you might find extremely interesting,” Yrvina said.
“Oh? Tell more,” Serena demanded.
“It’s a musical. The story is sort-of wacky, but the music and songs are amazing, very dramatic and emotional. We found another recording of the same story in the archives, a live show on stage, with much better musical performances – the voices and the orchestra – and used the soundtracks of that show in our anivid. It was a challenge for us, animators, I can tell you, to match all our characters’ lip movements with the songs already recorded. Our music director is ecstatic.”
“Do I know it?” Serena mused aloud. “I know most famous musical shows from Earth and Mars, starting as early as the earthen 18th century.”
“Not sure.” Yrvina shook her head. “It is called The Phantom of the Opera. Let’s watch it.”
“No, I haven’t heard it before, at least, I don’t remember. Yes, let’s watch it,” Serena echoed.
“Silly story, but the music was astounding,” Verise said after the show closed.
“Incredible music,” Kaley agreed. “But why did this poor musician wear a mask. Couldn’t they have fixed his deformity when he was a baby? The cosmetic surgery wouldn’t be that complicated.”
Yrvina snorted. “They didn’t do cosmetic surgery at that time on Earth. Not for poor people anyway, and there were no health benefits for every citizen either. Besides, if it had been done, his psyche wouldn’t have been so twisted, so there would be no story.”
“True,” Kaley said. “I keep forgetting that it all happened so long ago. It is such a tragic story.” Her violet eyes shined with compassion. “I loved the costumes though. And the dance of colors in tune with the music. That was your doing, Yrvina? Very pretty.”
“Yes. Thank you.” Yrvina nodded, warmed by the compliment.
“Did they really have an underground lake beneath that music building?” Nima wondered. “How come the building itself didn’t collapse?”
“It was all fantasy, from beginning to end,” Verise said dismissively. “None of that was even remotely possible. But the music … It was superb.” Her usually severe expression softened.
“Yeah,” Yrvina agreed. She loaded the slices of crostata Verise had brought for dessert into plates and sent the plates around the room. Everyone got busy chewing.
Everyone but Serena. Serena looked lost, as if she was wandering in a universe far away, her lips moving, and not because she was eating. The crostata sat forgotten in her lap, while her hands waved faintly, as if conducting an invisible orchestra. She was listening to the music again, Yrvina realized as she watched her friend. Reliving the experience. And singing the songs in her head without producing a single note.
“Serena?” Yrvina crossed the room and took the plate with the crostata off Serena’s lap, before the jam ended up on the floor. She had never seen Serena so fully absorbed in her creative groove. That was why she was such a good musician. She gave herself fully to the music.
“Sublime,” Serena breathed. A tremor went through her body, as if she needed a physical shock to wake up from the music that had enspelled her. Her gaze traveled around the room and sharpened. She was here and now again, on the sofa with her friends.
She frowned. “Where is my crostata?”
Everybody laughed.
“Here it is,” Yrvina gave her back the plate. “I was afraid you would knock it down.”
Serena dived in, but after two mouthfuls, she lifted her head. “I want the score of that show. Who do I contact, Yrvina? I want to put it on. I want to sing Christina’s part.”
“Talk to our music director. I’ll send his net address to your comm.”
“Thank you,” Serena said. “But I don’t like Erik. He doesn’t make sense. I think I’ll replace him with a twisted AI. A damaged robot maybe.”
“Yes, that would make more sense,” Kaley said. “A defective AI could do all that if it was inside a cyborg. Maybe the cyborg had lost some of its parts.”
“Exactly,” Serena exclaimed. “Or maybe a clone? Could there be a glitch in cloning to produce the same effect, Kaley?”
“Mm, maybe,” Kaley said doubtfully. She was a clone herself, so considered a specialist on all things cloning. “But the factory technicians would’ve terminated such a defective clone before it came out of the vat. No, a cyborg is a better idea.”
“Maybe the vat was lost after a space station hostile takeover?” Serena muttered.
The two of them launched into a heated discussion on the comparative merits of a cyborg versus a clone versus an AI residing in a building’s maintenance comm unit for the part of Erik. Erik the human wasn’t even in the running.
Yrvina listened in fascination. “I hope you invite me to that show, Serena,” she said finally.
“Of course,” Serena responded. “The entire club is invited. I want all you, girls, there.”
Tagline: Music on Mars sounds just as beautiful as it did on Earth.
