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Finally managed to 'win' an eBay auction for a 99p copy of "Love Never Dies" (plus postage of course), after failing to win three because someone else bid more than I was prepared to pay or topped my bid by 10p in the last second. Fortunately there are a large number of copies of this CD set being sold off and another one was generally along in a few days...
I hold by my verdict from the freebie highlights: this is actually an extremely good (and hummable) score, very recognisably Lloyd-Webber and yet not Lloyd-Webber parodying himself or mining past hits -- it's new material and it's excellent. ( Summary of good and bad points )
But what Lloyd-Webber has done with "Love Never Dies" is essentially to write a modern opera; he is writing tunes after the manner of Verdi (whose songs could be whistled in the street) with the lush orchestration of Puccini. It's certainly not musical comedy; it's not even a 'musical' any more, sung through almost entirely with themed orchestration and with vocal lines extending to the trained limits of the human voice. There is one heavy rock number which sticks out rather (although it is reprised minus the pounding accompaniment to considerable effect in the final scene), but more or less all the songs are worth hearing in context, and some of them -- like the beautiful but sinister waltz which is far more the theme tune of the story than the title number -- are really good.
I hold by my verdict from the freebie highlights: this is actually an extremely good (and hummable) score, very recognisably Lloyd-Webber and yet not Lloyd-Webber parodying himself or mining past hits -- it's new material and it's excellent. ( Summary of good and bad points )
But what Lloyd-Webber has done with "Love Never Dies" is essentially to write a modern opera; he is writing tunes after the manner of Verdi (whose songs could be whistled in the street) with the lush orchestration of Puccini. It's certainly not musical comedy; it's not even a 'musical' any more, sung through almost entirely with themed orchestration and with vocal lines extending to the trained limits of the human voice. There is one heavy rock number which sticks out rather (although it is reprised minus the pounding accompaniment to considerable effect in the final scene), but more or less all the songs are worth hearing in context, and some of them -- like the beautiful but sinister waltz which is far more the theme tune of the story than the title number -- are really good.