<P> Three months later, a masquerade party ensues in the opera house . At the party, Christine wears her new engagement ring from Raoul . The event is interrupted once again by the Phantom, who is dressed as Red Death . The Phantom brings his own composition, Don Juan Triumphant, and orders the managers to stage the opera . Raoul exits the room and Christine approaches the Phantom . At the sight of the engagement ring, the Phantom rips it from Christine and disappears into a trap on the floor . Raoul tries to follow him but is stopped by Madame Giry, who privately tells him the story of the Phantom's past . When she was a little girl, she went to a freak circus where they featured a deformed child in a cage . The child was beaten while everyone watched and laughed . The ringmaster then removed a burlap sack covering the child's face, revealing his deformity . Only the young Madame Giry pitied him . She was the last to leave and saw the child strangle the ringmaster with a rope . Chased by the police, Madame Giry helped him escape and found shelter for him beneath the opera house, where she has hidden him from the world ever since . </P> <P> Christine takes a carriage to visit her father's grave, but the Phantom secretly takes over the reins . Raoul follows when he realizes she's gone . Christine arrives and laments over her father's death . The Phantom tries to win her back by pretending to be her father's angel, but Raoul arrives and stops him . A sword fight ensues in the cemetery, where Raoul eventually disarms the Phantom and is about to kill him, but Christine pleads for him not to . His rage seemingly augmented, the Phantom watches angrily as Christine and Raoul ride away . </P> <P> Christine admits she is afraid of the Phantom and tells Raoul he will never stop trying to recapture her . Raoul realizes that they can use the Phantom's opera to capture him, as he will surely attend . Don Juan Triumphant is performed, and the Phantom makes his entrance (having secretly replaced the lead) with Christine . Raoul can do nothing but watch from his box as Christine falls for the Phantom yet again . However, she once again removes his mask, revealing his deformities to the entire audience, who scream in fear . He escapes with her by dropping the chandelier and setting the opera house on fire . An angry mob gathers in the opera house to hunt him . </P> <P> The Phantom brings Christine back down to his lair . Madame Giry shows Raoul where the Phantom lives hopeful he can beat the mob and rescue Christine safely . The Phantom forces her to don the wedding dress and once again professes his love, and orders Christine to marry him . Christine tries to convince the Phantom that she does not fear his ugliness, but rather his anger and willingness to kill to get what he wants . Just then, Raoul enters the lair, and the Phantom ties him to a gate and threatens to kill him if Christine refuses to marry him . Christine reflects over the impossible choice before passionately kissing the Phantom to show him he is not alone in the world . The Phantom is shocked from experiencing real human love for the first time in his life . Ashamed of his murderous actions, and hearing the echo of the angry mob approaching his lair, he tells Christine and Raoul to immediately leave and orders them to never return . He finds comfort in a little monkey music box . Christine approaches the Phantom, who tells her that he loves her, and she silently gives him the diamond ring from her finger to remember her by . After Christine and Raoul leave, the Phantom smashes every mirror in his underground lair and disappears through a secret passage behind a velvet curtain just before the mob arrives . Upon entering, Meg finds only the Phantom's white mask . </P>

The phantom of the opera (2004 film cast) songs