Steve Barton and Sarah Brightman in the final scene

Act II

Six months later, in the midst of the gala masquerade ball ("Masquerade"), the Phantom makes his first appearance since the chandelier disaster. He announces that he has written an opera entitled Don Juan Triumphant. He demands that it be produced immediately ("Why So Silent?"), with Christine, who is now engaged to Raoul, in the lead role. He then seizes Christine's engagement ring and vanishes. Raoul demands that Madame Giry tell him about the Phantom. She replies that he is a brilliant musician and magician, born with a terrifyingly deformed face, who escaped from captivity in a traveling freak show and disappeared.

Raoul hatches a plan to use Don Juan Triumphant as a trap to capture the Phantom. ("Notes/Twisted Every Way") Christine, torn between her love for Raoul and her reluctance to see the Phantom imprisoned again, visits her father's grave ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again"). The Phantom appears, ("Wandering Child") but Raoul arrives to protect her. ("Bravo, Monsieur!") The Phantom vows to destroy them both.

Don Juan Triumphant debuts, with Christine and Ubaldo Piangi, the Opéra's leading tenor, singing the lead roles. ("The Point of No Return") During their duet, Christine suddenly realizes she is singing not with Piangi, but the Phantom himself. Christine tears off his mask to expose his hideous face to the audience, as Piangi is found strangled to death by the Phantom. The Phantom seizes Christine and flees from the stage. A mob is soon in hot pursuit. Madame Giry tells Raoul about the Phantom's subterranean lair, reminding him to beware the Punjab lasso.

In the lair, Christine is compelled to don a wedding dress. ("Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer") Raoul finds the lair but the Phantom captures him with his lasso. He tells Christine he will free Raoul if she agrees to stay with him forever; if she refuses, Raoul will die. ("Final Lair") Christine, stating the distortion is not with the Phantom's face, but his soul, kisses him. This being the first time the Phantom has been shown any compassion and love, he sets them both free, asking only that they not reveal his hiding place. Christine comes back to return the ring he put on her finger and listens in agony and pity as he tells her he loves her. She then forces herself to turn away and leaves with Raoul. He then sings one last line and sits on his throne and covers himself with his cape. When the mob storms the lair, Meg pulls away the cape to find that the Phantom has vanished, leaving only his mask behind.