The Phantom of the Opera (song)
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"The Phantom of the Opera" is a song from the stage musical of the same The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) name, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics written by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, and additional lyrics by Mike Batt. The song is performed in Act One after the song Angel of Music (The Mirror) and before The Music of the Night. It takes place as the Phantom escorts Christine by boat to his lair beneath the Opera Garnier. It is sung as a duet by Christine and the Phantom. In this song, Christine sings her highest note in the show, an E6, at the end of the song.
What makes this particular song unique is its unusual hard rock style, while most of the songs in the musical have a more operatic style. Early in the musical's production, Andrew Lloyd Webber met with Jim Steinman, who described "The Phantom of the Opera" as a rock song invading an opera house. This is what inspired the hard rock style of the song, which influenced all of the rock-based instruments in the song including drums and electric guitar.
The song "The Phantom of the Opera" was covered in 2002 by the Finnish symphonic power metal quintet Nightwish and released on the album Century Child. This particular version of the song, with Tarja Turunen (soprano) singing Christine's part and Marco Hietala (baritone/tenor) singing the part of The Phantom, is set in a different register to the original version written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. On the recorded version, the female vocalization at the end of the song is slightly different from the original, however, when the song is performed live, the vocalization is the same.
The song was also covered by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their show-tune album, Are A Drag. Also, in Rufus Wainwright's song Between My Legs, from the album Release the Stars, the last 30 seconds plays the main theme from this song. The song was also covered by X Factor finalist, Rhydian Roberts, for which Lord Lloyd Webber wrote a male solo version specially for the artist.
The famous opening pipe organ section is very similar to a section in Rick Wakeman's instrumental "Judas Iscariot" - a track from the album "Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record", released some 9 years before Phantom Of The Opera. Wakeman mentioned this fact during his Grumpy Old Picture Show tour, indicating that Tim Rice may have been the link between the two songs.
Ray Repp sued Andrew Lloyd Webber over the main melody of Phantom, claiming that it was based on his folk song "Till You" which he recorded in 1978. Webber won the case however, with the counter-claim that the section of Phantom in question was actually based on Webber's Close Every Door, which was written before Till You.
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