The Resurrection of Lazarus
The Resurrection of Lazarus is a musical piece that recurs throughout Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera as a sacred, supernatural link between Christine Daae, her dead father, and the mysterious Angel of Music. It first appears as a childhood memory of Daddy Daae's playing, then becomes the phantom Erik's chosen medium for proving his identity as the promised Angel, and finally serves as the auditory bridge that lures Christine into the underground world. The piece functions as a ritual invocation of the dead, a test of faith, and the sonic signature of Erik's claim over Christine's soul.
Origin and Childhood Association
The Resurrection of Lazarus was a piece that Daddy Daae, Christine's father, used to play in his hours of melancholy and of faith. Christine and Raoul de Chagny knew the music from their childhood, having heard it performed by the old fiddler. Daddy Daae told his daughter the legend of the Angel of Music, who visits great artists, and promised that when he died he would send the Angel to her. The piece thus became bound up with the promise of a supernatural visitation from beyond the grave, a pledge that the dead father would return in musical form.
Erik's Use as Proof of the Angel
When Christine, now a young singer at the Paris Opera House, began to hear a mysterious voice giving her lessons in her dressing-room, she believed it was the Angel of Music her father had promised. The voice confirmed this belief. Later, after Christine had fled to Perros-Guirec for the anniversary of her father's death, the voice told her it would be there too and would play The Resurrection of Lazarus on her father's violin at the stroke of midnight on her father's tomb. Raoul, who had followed Christine, witnessed the event: at the last stroke of midnight, he heard the most perfect music, the same air that old Daae used to play, but executed with divine art. The music seemed to come from the invisible, and Raoul remembered all that Christine had told him of the Angel of Music. The performance of this piece was the proof that the voice was indeed the promised Angel.
The Lure into the Underground
After the fall of the chandelier, Christine, terrified for the voice's safety, rushed to her dressing-room. The voice did not reply to her calls, but then she heard a long, beautiful wail that she knew well: the plaint of Lazarus when, at the sound of the Redeemer's voice, he begins to open his eyes and see the light of day. It was the same music she and Raoul had heard at Perros. The voice then began to sing the leading phrase, "Come! And believe in me! Whoso believes in me shall live! Walk! Whoso hath believed in me shall never die!" The music seemed to command her personally to come, and she followed it. As she moved, her dressing-room seemed to lengthen out through an effect of mirrors, and she found herself outside the room without knowing how, beginning her descent into Erik's underground domain. The Resurrection of Lazarus was thus the sonic lure that drew Christine from the ordinary world into the supernatural realm of the phantom.
Thematic Significance
The Resurrection of Lazarus embodies the novel's central tension between faith and deception, the sacred and the profane. For Christine, the piece is a holy relic of her father's love and a proof of divine intervention. For Erik, it is a tool of manipulation, a piece of ventriloquism that exploits Christine's grief and credulity. The music itself is never described as false or inferior; it is genuinely beautiful and moving. The deception lies not in the quality of the performance but in the identity of the performer. The piece thus becomes a symbol of how the most sublime art can be used for the most selfish purposes, and how the line between the angelic and the demonic can be drawn by the same notes.
