LLOYD WEBBER – Motives from ‘Phantom of the Opera’ – FOUR CELLOS

Other Identification:
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House.
The musical opened in London’s West End in 1986 (David Johnstone was a deputy cello at the beginning!) and on Broadway in New York in 1988. The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running show in Broadway history, and celebrated its 10,000th performance on 11th February 2012, becoming the first Broadway production in history to do so. The original West End production at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, concluded in March 2020 due to the shutdown of theatres resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Phantom opened once again in a second West End production on 27th July 2021 at the same theatre, but with notable refrains – for example, 14 musicians in an orchestra that used to have 27.
Lloyd Webber’s score is sometimes operatic in style but maintains the form and structure of a musical throughout. In the musical’s title song, the signature, chromatic five-note descending eighth-note run is very similar to a riff created by Pink Floyd in their 1971 album ‘Meddle’.