The Phantom of The Opera - DPops

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The Phantom of The Opera
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Arr. Michael Wang '17
Conducted by Sayda Martinez-Alvarado '23 (DPops Debut)
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~Program Notes~
The most financially successful musical of all time and the longest-running show on Broadway, The Phantom of The Opera has been viewed by over 131 million people. A non-traditional love story, The Phantom of The Opera was born out of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s desire to write a piece of romance.
We begin in the first movement with a lone violin playing the “Angel of Music” theme and the “Masquerade” theme being played on the music box. It’s lyrical and enchanting, but things quickly turn dark, for the Phantom is more demon than angel (“The Phantom of the Opera”). After the title track, we introduce Christine and Carlotta on their operatic solos - “Think of Me” and “Prima Donna.” With all but one of the main characters appearing in the first movement, the second movement opens with Raoul, whose love for Christine catalyzes the plot of the deadly love triangle (“All I Ask of You”).
We receive one final light-hearted respite in the form of a “Masquerade” party, but the Phantom crashes it - and later steals Christine! The bass drum panics, the violins hasten, and then the Phantom plunges into his lair (“The Point of No Return”). He sings Christine and Raoul’s refrain, only to poison it with a sinister end. When the orchestra plays next, Christine longs for her deceased father, either for the gladder times of the past or for the wisdom to resolve her plight (“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”). Without warning, this ode swells into a climactic anthem, and “The Music of the Night” ends this arrangement, as it does the original, with love, pain, beauty, and nighttime all at once.
Phantom is the most wholehearted celebration of melody that I know - melodies that are subtle, unforgettable, and enchantingly orchestrated. I had fun figuring out how to arrange the leitmotif puzzle pieces into a cohesive work, and I hope you become as captivated by Webber’s musical genius as I am.
-Michael Wang '17 and Sayda Martinez-Alvarado '23