THE FUSE

At the end of her “Mayhem Ball” tour, Lady Gaga performs “Bad Romance” as the opera house behind her ignites, the set piece roaring with flames. It’s a commentary, or at least it appeared to be, on the ephemeral nature of pop music: Gaga spends the entire performance celebrating the genre’s artifice by leaning into its flashy tropes, only to burn it all down. As “Bad Romance” concluded, Gaga reemerged for one last song, not as the character she had inhabited for the past two hours, but as herself, beaming at her own creation.