The Phantom of the Opera
Similar to how I was introduced to The Magic Flute, my mother also loved musicals and would play the soundtrack from The Phantom of the Opera while driving. And for the longest time, I actually thought The Phantom of the Opera was an opera as it literally had the word “opera” in its title, but also because I always associated any sort of singing with accompanying music and a storyline as an opera. It was only recently that I came to learn that operas are focused more on singing whereas musicals are focused more on telling the story and using singing as a way to do so. I still cannot clearly tell the difference between the two, but I enjoy the music to musicals just as much as I do operas.
I think out of all the pieces in The Phantom of the Opera, the one with the same title as the name of this musical is the most famous. And listening to it now with a better understanding of operas, it seems to be a lot of similarities between it and an aria. For example, the way the music follows Christine is definitely a sign of how the singer is the focus rather than the orchestra. I also think that it has a lot of similarities to the queen’s aria from The Magic Flute. Both pieces seem to be showcasing the power of the character such as the extent of the queen’s hatred or the talent that Christine has for singing. And in both pieces, the singers reach unimaginably high notes that really are the highlight of their respective performances.
Another famous piece from The Phantom of the Opera is definitely The Music of the Night. It is sung by the phantom to Christine and talks of his love for her. The music starts off very gentle and with a slow tempo. I suppose if this were an opera, this would be the phantom’s aria as it follows the similar format of one singer and showcasing the singer’s voice. The melody for this piece is quite repetitive as it repeats the same tune a number of times and only the lyrics changing with each repeat.
All I ask of You is similar to The Music of the Night in that they both repeat the same melody, but All I ask of You is a duet between Christine and Raoul rather than it only being sung by one singer. Again this piece uses the same melody a few times but with different lyrics sung. I noticed that both All I ask of You and The Music of the Night follow a similar format of repeating the same melody but then making it more complicated during their last repeats to create a sense of climax to the music but without altering the original melody.