The Phantom of the Opera (song)
"The Phantom of the Opera" is a song from the 1986 stage musical of the same name. It was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics written by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, and additional lyrics by Mike Batt.[1] The song was originally recorded by Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley, which became a UK hit single in 1986, prior to the musical. In its theatrical debut, it was sung by Brightman and Michael Crawford in their roles as Christine Daaé and the Phantom.
For other uses, see The Phantom of the Opera (disambiguation).Background[edit]
The song is performed in Act I after the song "Angel of Music" (The Mirror) and before "The Music of the Night" (and is reprised in Act Two at the end of the song "Notes/Twisted Every Way"). 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. At the end of the song, Christine sings her highest note in the show, an E6. In different shows, Sarah Brightman sings this song in different duets with other performers, Antonio Banderas, Chris Thompson, Alessandro Safina, Mario Frangoulis, Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow, John Owen-Jones, Peter Jöback and Erkan Aki.
"The Phantom of the Opera"
"Overture – The Phantom of the Opera"
3 January 1986
4:38
Andrew Lloyd Webber (music)
Richard Stilgoe (lyrics)
Charles Hart (lyrics)
Mike Batt (additional lyrics)
Mike Batt (producer)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (executive producer)
Plagiarism allegations[edit]
In 1990, the songwriter Ray Repp sued Lloyd Webber, saying he had plagiarised the "Phantom of the Opera" melody from his 1978 song "Till You".[35] Lloyd Webber denied this, saying he had taken parts from his own earlier work, "Close Every Door", and that both songs included elements of compositions by Bach, Grieg and Holst. The judge ruled in Lloyd Webber's favour in 1994.[35]
In 1992, the former Pink Floyd songwriter Roger Waters asserted that Lloyd Webber had plagiarised "The Phantom of the Opera" from a sequence of the 1971 Pink Floyd song "Echoes". He said: "It's the same time signature – it's 12/8 – and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber."[36]