Music Reviews: ***^The Phantom of the Opera, Highlights From and **Classic Andrew Lloyd Webber. (to mmboe)

Charity"s high school choir "Phantom"

Music Reviews: The Phantom of the Opera, Highlights From and Classic Andrew Lloyd Webber.

These two CD’s offer a pronounced contrast in the way they are performed.  Some of the songs are in both works.  The Phantom, in the "Highlights", is Michael Heath and Christine is sung by Kira Bronte.  This was released in 1996.  The Classic CD was released in 2004 and has various artists singing with the Orlando Pops Orchestra.  It is a two CD set and is an anthology of several Webber musicals.

The feeling is completely different between the two productions.  The Classics is an operatic style, darker in nature.  The Highlights has a light air to it, and is much more enjoyable to listen to.  Kira Bronte performs as well as any Christine I have heard, and her light music is pleasing to listen to.  On the other hand, I found it difficult to listen to some of the music on the other CD, "Classic".  The soprano parts, instead of being entertaining, were painful to listen to, and sounded very much like a cat screeching.  The low-lights were the section from The Phantom, Memory from Cats and Another suitcase from Evita.  Some of these are my favorite songs, but not in this rendition.  I think the treble tones, which seem sharp at times, triggered my tinnitus.

One of my favorite songs is “Love Changes Everything.”  Love has changed everything for me.  However even this number was difficult to follow with the operatic style of the male singer.  Even so, the lyrics are very meaningful:

Love Changes Everything

Love, love changes everything
Hands and faces, earth and sky
Love, love changes everything
How you live and how you die
Love, love can make the summer fly
Or a night seem like a lifetime
Yes love, love changes everything
Now I tremble at your name
Nothing in the world will ever be the same

Love, love changes everything
Days are longer, words mean more

Love, love changes everything
Pain is deeper than before
Love will turn your world around
And that world will last forever
Yes love, love changes everything
Brings you glory, brings you shame
Nothing in the world will ever be the same

Off into the world we go
Planning futures, shaping years
Love (comes in) and suddenly all our wisdom disappears
Love makes fools of everyone
All the rules we made are broken
Yes love, love changes everyone
Live or perish in its flame
Love will never never let you be the same

Nothing in the world will ever be the same.

Highlights is very enjoyable.  Kira Bronte sings with a light, youthful air which is very pleasing.  Even the super high notes of “Phantom of the Opera” are enjoyable.  Her other songs are also pleasing, "Thing of Me" and "Angel of Music". I enjoy “Masquerade” as my daughter sang in and helped choreograph this for her senior year college at Cupertino High School.  She also sang the solo for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again".

In conclusion I would strongly recommend the “Highlights” CD while suggesting a pass on the anthology of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work by the Orlando Pops Orchestra.  I know there are other anthologies out there which are much better than this one.