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 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 to his lair beneath the Opera Garnier. It is sung as a duet by Christine and the Phantom. In this song Christine hits her highest note in the show when she hits a High E at the end of the song. The High E is the beginning of the whistle register for sopranos and because of the difficult nature of the note parts of the song are prerecorded due to the choreography and the difficulty of the role.

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 vocalisation at the end of the song is slightly different to the original, however, when the song is performed live, the vocalisation is the same.

The song was also covered by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their showtune album, Are A Drag.