Once upon a time, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera", which, sadly, was based on the face-palm plot and character-bashing of the appalling "Phantom of Manhattan". Despite this embarrassment, much of the music for LND is actually very good, and in particular, the Christine/Phantom duet originally titled "Beneath A Moonless Sky". This tune was in fact written much earlier, for the 2004 POTO film, where it accompanied Christine's journey to the cemetery. In context, the piece was about mourning the loss of her dream of the Angel of Music.
I wanted to restore this original meaning of this piece, and I felt that the lyrics for the LND duet had some promise: it's just that they are singing about the wrong betrayal.
With this in mind, here is my effort, which I partially used/adapted in my WIP, "A Solo for the Living".
DISCLAIMER: No money made, no harm done. Technically this is a fanfic based on a musical based on a fanfic, based on a musical, based on a novel. I think.
BENEATH A PAINTED SKY
CHRISTINE
Once there was a place beneath a painted sky,
A chapel where I prayed, a lost and lonely child,
I whispered my hopes to cold unfeeling stone
But then I heard a voice as lonely as my own
And I called you...
ERIK
...And I heard you
CHRISTINE
And the walls around me sighed in pain:
An angel's burning tears
ERIK
A candle's burning flame;
And I whispered...
CHRISTINE
...And I heard you
ERIK
And pretended...
CHRISTINE
...And I let you
BOTH
And with every breath and every sigh
CHRISTINE
I felt no longer lost
ERIK
I felt no longer shy
BOTH
At last our voices heard
Beneath the painted sky
CHRISTINE
And blind in the dark, as song poured into song
I opened up my heart, and thought you pure and whole
ERIK
Cloaked under the night with all my fears suppressed,
I sang an angel's part...
CHRISTINE
I thought I had been blessed.
And I called you...
ERIK
...And I answered
BOTH
And the walls around us fell away
We sang things in the dark
We never dared by day
CHRISTINE
And I whispered...
ERIK
...And I heard you
BOTH
And I sang
because you listened
To the secret music of the night
And nothing mattered then
Except for you and I
We sang and sang again
Beneath a painted sky.
ERIK
But when all the world had heard your angel voice
Ashamed of what I was, tormented by my hopes
I reached for your hand to lead you down below...
CHRISTINE
I could not see your face, but trembled even so.
And I loved you
Yes, I loved you
I'd have followed anywhere you led
I came towards the light
And found the Ghost instead.
ERIK
And I loved you...
CHRISTINE
How I loved you...
And I left you
ERIK
How I loved you...
CHRISTINE
And I had to, both of us knew why
ERIK
We both knew why
CHRISTINE
And yet I won't regret
From now until I die
BOTH
The years of our duet
Beneath a painted sky.
ERIK
And now? What is there left?
CHRISTINE
A woman and a man, no more — and yet no less.