fantasma de la opera phantom of the opera gaston leroux

Lloyd Webber, by then an undeniably successful composer, had poured all his expertise into it. In January 1986, the result began to be shown in London (the final version would be released in October) with Brightman leading the cast. That year, Lloyd Webber married Brightman and started to write.

It was tragic, historical (it takes place in 1870) and timeless. At that time, he had asked his producers to find him the most romantic story imaginable, and they came upon a 1910 novel by French writer Gaston Leroux about a physically disfigured but highly sensitive composer who, hiding behind a mask in the passageways below the Paris Opera House, tortures the building’s patrons and writes arias for a young and promising soprano with whom he fell in love. One of the backup singers of his latest production, Cats, had developed a tremendous voice as a soprano: it was none other than Sarah Brightman, a future star of melodic song and operatic pop. Thus ends the most impressive chapter of a story that, in the end, as often is the case, is a love story. And for New Yorkers, The Phantom of the Opera is, now, a part of history. Almost 35 years (or 1,790 weeks) passed since a total of 13,891 performances.įor posterity, it is the longest-running musical in American history for Lloyd Webber, it is the clearest example of his creative vision, the one with a special place in his heart the “most successful theatrical entertainment ever engineered,” as the British author wrote in his autobiography. His most successful play had been staged there since January 26, 1988, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House - in other words, seven presidencies and three recessions ago.

The author of the scores for Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1976) and Cats (1981) was seen on Sunday, April 16, visibly distraught, on the stage of the Majestic Theater in New York City, at the last Broadway performance of his favorite musical, The Phantom of the Opera. But the goodbyes did not stop there, as he has just laid another child to rest - albeit, this time, in the figurative sense. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the most commercially successful European composer of the 20th century, recently buried his son: on March 25, Nick Lloyd Webber died at the age of 43 at the Basingstoke Hospital in Hampshire, England, 18 months after being diagnosed with gastric cancer.

Fantasma de la opera phantom of the opera gaston leroux