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igenlodeFinally 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. The 'vaudeville pastiche' which many fans dislike is a perfect evocation of cheesy, slightly sleazy entertainment, especially with the tinny rehearsal piano; interestingly, when the same tune is given full orchestration in the Entr'acte, it also turns out to have considerable musical potential, and it is perhaps regrettable that it isn't deployed in this form as a background theme anywhere else in the score!
And I hold by my distaste for the plot devices and assumptions: as others have pointed out, there is a major and almost audible lacuna where the Phantom accuses Raoul of kidnapping in one breath and then both he and (less understandably) Christine totally forget about his existence for the remainder of the running time, and another when he tries to 'talk Meg down' from suicidal jealousy only to conclude with the unforgiveable advice that not everyone can "be like Christine". And it really grates to hear Christine reduced to begging the Phantom's pardon for his supposed wrongs -- this from a woman who even according to this latest plot was abandoned with an illegitimate child and then manipulated and seduced back against her will. It does lead one to wonder if Lloyd-Webber was indeed, as has been hinted, consciously or subconsciously projecting changes in his own relationship with his own star soprano back onto the characters of his former hit.
However I managed to reconcile with this my tendencies towards 'sympathy with the devil' in an unanticipated but ironically apt way: by finding myself in instant sympathy with the unfortunate Raoul, clearly intended as the villain of the piece. He resents the tabloid prurience of the New York press; he is too proud to endure the role of "Mr Christine Daae"; he is unsurprisingly livid at the manipulation of the Phantom who has tried to ruin Christine's life and to kill him; and he has to put up with the sort of child who repeats incessantly "Daddy, play with me, please, Daddy, Daddy, please, Daddy, Daddy..." Raoul is the character here who is bitter with self-destructive loathing and who resolves to reform: the Phantom simply gloats and rages alternately. (In the scene after Christine chooses to 'fulfil herself' by staying with the Phantom, he launches into such an insane rage within such a short period -- despite supposedly having just had his heart's desire -- that any sensible woman would surely have seen a few warning signals?)
So basically, plot-wise, it doesn't work any better in the full version - although there are some very good moments, such as when Meg Giry comes into the pier-end "Suicides Bar" all fresh from an early-morning swim, with her music brightening up the atmosphere appropriately... and then the same music is quoted back as her despair when she returns to the same location with the intention of drowning herself and Christine's son. There are also two accomplished quartets, in which multiple melodic lines are woven together -- almost unparalleled I think in popular music, although a similar group number appears as a finale in "Les Miserables".
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. The 'vaudeville pastiche' which many fans dislike is a perfect evocation of cheesy, slightly sleazy entertainment, especially with the tinny rehearsal piano; interestingly, when the same tune is given full orchestration in the Entr'acte, it also turns out to have considerable musical potential, and it is perhaps regrettable that it isn't deployed in this form as a background theme anywhere else in the score!
And I hold by my distaste for the plot devices and assumptions: as others have pointed out, there is a major and almost audible lacuna where the Phantom accuses Raoul of kidnapping in one breath and then both he and (less understandably) Christine totally forget about his existence for the remainder of the running time, and another when he tries to 'talk Meg down' from suicidal jealousy only to conclude with the unforgiveable advice that not everyone can "be like Christine". And it really grates to hear Christine reduced to begging the Phantom's pardon for his supposed wrongs -- this from a woman who even according to this latest plot was abandoned with an illegitimate child and then manipulated and seduced back against her will. It does lead one to wonder if Lloyd-Webber was indeed, as has been hinted, consciously or subconsciously projecting changes in his own relationship with his own star soprano back onto the characters of his former hit.
However I managed to reconcile with this my tendencies towards 'sympathy with the devil' in an unanticipated but ironically apt way: by finding myself in instant sympathy with the unfortunate Raoul, clearly intended as the villain of the piece. He resents the tabloid prurience of the New York press; he is too proud to endure the role of "Mr Christine Daae"; he is unsurprisingly livid at the manipulation of the Phantom who has tried to ruin Christine's life and to kill him; and he has to put up with the sort of child who repeats incessantly "Daddy, play with me, please, Daddy, Daddy, please, Daddy, Daddy..." Raoul is the character here who is bitter with self-destructive loathing and who resolves to reform: the Phantom simply gloats and rages alternately. (In the scene after Christine chooses to 'fulfil herself' by staying with the Phantom, he launches into such an insane rage within such a short period -- despite supposedly having just had his heart's desire -- that any sensible woman would surely have seen a few warning signals?)
So basically, plot-wise, it doesn't work any better in the full version - although there are some very good moments, such as when Meg Giry comes into the pier-end "Suicides Bar" all fresh from an early-morning swim, with her music brightening up the atmosphere appropriately... and then the same music is quoted back as her despair when she returns to the same location with the intention of drowning herself and Christine's son. There are also two accomplished quartets, in which multiple melodic lines are woven together -- almost unparalleled I think in popular music, although a similar group number appears as a finale in "Les Miserables".
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.