Abstract

The Phantom of the Opera is English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most well-known musical. In the melodrama, plots are mostly driven by conversational arias. Lyrics of these arias are full of sophisticated rhetoric devices which can be easily understood by audience. Rhetoric repetition, Personification, Imperative sentence, concessive mood, Rhetoric question and plenty of other rhetoric devices are accurately used in characters arias in The Phantom of the Opera. Overall, arias like All I Ask of You, Phantom of the Opera, Music of the Night, Think of Me are on a quite high literature level.
The musical is based on the whodunit by French novelist Gaston Leroux. It tells a story of talented musician Phantom’s over-possessive admiration for young soprano Christine and brave save of Christine by her love Raoul when her life was threatened. The abnormal admiration and possession desire from Phantom for Christine are vividly depicted in the musical, as well as solid love between Christine and Raoul.
This paper consists of three parts. It firstly deals with background information and general connotation of the musical. Then, it analyzes the literary characteristics of main arias in The Phantom of the Opera, covering the lyrics presentation and particular rhetoric devices in the aria lyrics. Finally, the paper concludes that the rhetoric devices in the arias must be accurately used and take on special artistic appeals.

Key words: aria lyrics; literary characteristics; rhetoric devices; The Phantom of the Opera

摘  要

《歌剧魅影》是英国作曲家安德鲁•劳埃德•韦伯最为著名的音乐剧作品。在这部音乐剧中，大部分情节的发展都是由对话式的咏叹调唱段所推动。这些咏叹调歌词被巧妙的修辞手法所修饰，观众们也能很容易就感受到它们的精巧之处。修辞性重复、拟人、祈使句、让步语气、反问句等等修辞手法都被准确而精妙的运用于这部音乐剧的咏叹调中。总体观之，咏叹调如《唯我独求》、《歌剧院魅影》、《夜之乐章》、《思念我》等具有相当高的文学艺术水准。
这部音乐剧改编自法国作家加斯顿•勒鲁的同名惊悚小说。它主要讲述了天才音乐家魅影对女高音歌唱家克里斯汀过于强势的占有欲望和爱慕之情，以及在克里斯汀的生命受到威胁时她的爱人劳尔的勇敢营救之举。魅影对克里斯汀畸形的爱慕和占有欲，以及克里斯汀和爱人劳尔之间无所畏惧的坚固爱情在本剧中得到了生动而细致的呈现。
本论文主要由三部分构成。第一部分主要介绍该剧的创作背景和剧情概要。第二部分主要分析《歌剧魅影》中主要咏叹调唱段歌词的文学特征，其中包括歌词原文的引用分析和修辞手法的运用研究。第三部分综合论述了作者精确运用的修辞手法和这些手法所达到的艺术效果。

关键词：咏叹调歌词；文学特征；修辞手法；《歌剧魅影》