Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Recording information: Abbey Road, London, England.
It's a testament to Andrew Lloyd Webber's crowd-pleasing compositional skills that the original cast recording of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA went on to become the biggest-selling cast album ever. So when the time came to adapt his music for the film version of the monumentally successful theatrical work, Webber enlisted the aid of longtime collaborators Nigel Wright and Simon Lee. They produced an expanded orchestral version of the score, grander and more sumptuous than the original, and assembled a 100-member ensemble to do it justice.
However, the tragic story of the disfigured Phantom and Christine, the beautiful object of his desire, cannot be told without powerful performances of those roles. Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum quickly dispel any concerns regarding the adequacy of their portrayals. Butler's full-blooded renditions of "The Music of the Night" and the title song are tinged with a dark eroticism, while Rossum's account of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" skillfully conveys her character's vulnerability and conflicted feelings. The soundtrack also features a newly penned song by Webber, the poignant "Learn to Be Lonely," sung by Minnie Driver, who appears in the role of Carlotta in the film.
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