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The Phantom of the Opera: Collector's Edition

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - CD

The Phantom of the Opera: Collector's Edition Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD
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  • 1. Prologue
  • 2. Overture/Hannibal
  • 3. Think of Me
  • 4. Angel of Music
  • 5. Little Lotte/The Mirror (Angel of Music)
  • 6. The Phantom of the Opera
  • 7. The Music of the Night
  • 8. Magical Lasso
  • 9. I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It
  • 10. Notes/Prima Donna
  • 11. Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh/Il Muto
  • 12. Why Have You Brought Me Here/Raoul I've Been There
  • 13. All I Ask of You
  • 14. All I Ask of You (Reprise)
  • 1. Masquerade/Why So Silent
  • 2. Madame Giry's Tale/The Fairground
  • 3. Journey to the Cemetery
  • 4. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
  • 5. Wandering Child
  • 6. The Swordfight
  • 7. We Have All Been Blind
  • 8. Don Juan
  • 9. The Point of No Return/Chandelier Crash
  • 10. Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer
  • 11. Learn to Be Lonely
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The Phantom of the Opera: Collector's Edition by Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on CD


Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1911 gothic mystery novel The Phantom of the Opera proved to be at least the composer's second-most successful project, behind only Cats, and with the potential to outdo even that blockbuster. The musical opened in London in October 1986 and in New York in January 1988, and both productions were still running (along with many others around the world) when the film version finally premiered in December 2004. Because the same starring performers, Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, moved from the West End to Broadway, there was no original Broadway cast recording, the original London cast album serving to represent both stagings. In line with the success of the show, that album, a double-disc set, was also a hit, selling four-million copies in the U.S. alone by 1996, with another four-million copies of a single-disc highlights version as well. Although there was also an original Canadian cast album (not to mention foreign language versions from such countries as Japan and Austria), the movie soundtrack represents the first major re-recording of the score since 1986. Again, Lloyd Webber has opted to issue it in two versions, but this time, the 63-minute single CD is considered the standard release, with the double-disc set (housed, for a limited time, in a cardboard booklet with numerous photographs) billed as the "special edition" version. Even fans of the show and the film may want to stick with the shorter one, however. The two-hour special edition is that rarity, a soundtrack album which actually contains the complete, unedited film soundtrack, including dialogue, incidental background music, and sound effects. This, of course, makes it something of an odd listening experience, especially because there doesn't seem to be any reason why some dialogue is spoken and some is rendered in sing-song recitative. Lloyd Webber has written some extra background music here and there, as well as one new song, and that's an oddity, too. Minnie Driver, who plays the prima donna Carlotta, had her singing dubbed by Margaret Preece, but she turns up at the end and, over the closing credits, sings "Learn to Be Lonely," an irrelevant and musically out-of-place song clearly composed just to have a new tune that would be Academy Award-eligible. The film's other singers are adequate but no competition to Crawford, Brightman, and their colleagues, and the initial recording remains the one to buy. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
  • Label: Really Useful/Sony Classical
  • Genre: Stage & Screen, Classical
  • Style: Show Tunes, Cast Recordings, Musicals, Soundtracks, Original Score, Show/Musical, Film Score, Contemporary
  • Album Time: 120:12

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  • The Phantom of the Opera: Collector's Edition Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD
The Phantom of the Opera: Collector's Edition Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD

Editorial Reviews

Again proving himself game for any genre, Joel Schumacher takes the helm of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, a musical whose long delay to the screen represents a rare failure of Hollywood to strike when the iron is hot. No doubt thinking it could be his Chicago, Schumacher was probably as surprised as anyone to see his grandiose production shut out of the major Oscar categories. The film is an incredibly faithful rendering of the popular show. But with Webber's fingerprints all over it, it's never precisely more than that, and that's what separates it from Chicago. Coming only two years on the heels of that film, there's an unjust tendency to judge Phantom according to Chicago's success, and true enough, it doesn't measure up to either that or the stage phenomenon that inspired it. One real difference from the stage: it's unavoidable that the phantom (Gerard Butler) will lose some of his crucial mystery when brought up close and personal with the audience. Seen at a distance, lurking in the shadows, he's a more remote and effective figure. Emmy Rossum fares better as Christine Daae, projecting a disarming mixture of beauty and innocence, and Patrick Wilson is a dashing Raoul. All three leads -- not to mention a funny Minnie Driver as the opera's resident diva -- come off pretty impressively in terms of their singing, which sounds enough like the original Broadway recordings to please ardent fans of the material. In fact, the exquisite sets, lush costumes, and sweeping camerawork -- even the black-and-white frame story -- all compliment the performances well enough. The result is a costume drama that's at times genuinely rousing. It's just not an Oscar winner. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide