Name: James Barbour talks "Music Of The Night" in Phantom Of The Opera
Uploaded: 2019-04-28T00:52:37.000Z
Duration: 8 min 43 s
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Gerund

Hey there I'm James Barbour thank you for tuning into my channel

Present continuous

you know today I'm gonna talk about something that I'm asked all the time.

To-infinitive

You know I'm asked all the time what was it like to play the Phantom on Broadway

in the longest-running and most successful Broadway show of all time the

Phantom of the Opera? So Phantom has been running for over 30 years.

Again the longest-running show on Broadway and more importantly people ask

me what's it like to sing "Music of the Night"?

Now Andrew Lloyd Webber, for those of you who don't know, wrote The Phantom of the

Opera. I mean undoubtedly everybody in the

world knows of it. I mean they may have heard of it somewhere, I'm sure there are

people that haven't and in certain parts of the world. But it is the most famous

show of all time and when you say the Phantom of the Opera chances are people know

it. And chances are people know the music or they've heard some of it so Music of

the Night is undoubtedly one of the most famous Tunes in all of theatrical

history and it was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

So I'm asked all the time what's it like to sing that music? What's it like to

sing the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber? What's it like to be around him?  What's

it like to be there? So the awesome thing about being in Phantom is that it's it's

filled with so much history and so much amazing stuff. So you know there's the

makeup that I had to go through, the phantom sits for an hour,

there's the costumes, there's the set, there's the cast, the creative team, Hal

Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gillian Lynne, all of whom you

know are very much a part of the show today. They're very much involved and

they're there on a continual basis. But number one question what is it like to

sing Music of the Night.  Well, I'm gonna tell you...it's incredible!  And what I

thought was incredible when I started the show has just grown and grown and

grown and grown because I have so much more knowledge about the song and about

where it came from. So here's a little tidbit I recorded

Music of the Night on a CD called Bring Me Giants. This is it right here.

Sorry for the flashy paper it's still in its plastic.  Bring Me Giant you can get

it on iTunes. It has Music Of The Night on it and a lot of other great tunes. So

when I recorded that song I took it out of context cause I wasn't doing the full

show. And normally when I do a concert or I'll do you know a couple of songs at an

event. You know you take them out of context and you sing them

as standalone pieces. So that's what I did. And I made it my own.  And I

interpreted it the way I wanted to interpret it. So when I started rehearsal

that's how I was used to singing it. Right? And I knew this song because I'd

sung it before. And I started rehearsal and I got through music and then a

couple of times. I'm like okay great here's the difference; that's not how

it's written and here's why. I was given restrictions on this is how you have to

sing it this is what you need to do and I and I started saying you know I guys I

feel I feel restricted. I feel like I don't have freedom as a performer to

sing the song. And these were just conversations that you have in rehearsal

right like help me figure this out. So David Caddick who's the musical

supervisor incredible guy goes "the freedom is in the music" I'm like what do

you mean?  "The freedom is in the music. "If you trust the music, if you trust what

Andrew wrote literally wrote and stick to that you'll find it incredible amount

of freedom." And I was like hmm, okay. Now I usually approach things as an actor I

start to interpret I start to you know pull lines out and put emphasis on

on different things. Well with music and if you're gonna stick directly to the

music that's hard to do because each note has a specific length it has a

specific strength it has a specific pitch all of that kind of stuff so

initially I was reticent I was like I was I was backing off against that or

rigging on it and as I started rehearsing and as we started going

through it and as I started learning now you have to think about this too when is

when a song is written for a show it's written to take the characters journey

right from point A to point B to Point C and ultimately through the end of the

show. When you take it out of context it's just a standalone right. So Andrew

wrote the music to take this character The Phantom on his journey just like he

did all of the other characters so Christine has her music Raoul has his

music you know the Managers have their music

there's ensemble music. When you put it all together it creates this amazing

journey. so inserting Music Of Th eNight where it is it's the Phantom's first song is

very impactful right it's the first thing really that the Phantom does on a

large scale in the show so I took it and put it back into context

well that opened up huge range of options and as I started

trusting the music and I started trusting what Andrew had written now why

would anybody not trust what andrew has written? He's brilliant. but it was just

that mindset of having not sung it that way before it did create freedom now

here's the thing I want you to think about the Phantom is written as a tenor

role right I'm a baritone tenor is a higher-pitched role a higher time a

higher pitched voice you know Michael Crawford the original Phantom was a

tenor I'm one of only a handful I mean less probably less than five baritones

that have ever sung this role specifically on Broadway. so it creates a

different different aspects so notes that are very very very easy to sing for

a tenor they might be at the top of my range right and notes that are hard to

sing for a tenor might be in the mid of my range so I had to think about it that

way and and figure out how my voice was going to attack this role and attack

this song eight times a week you know six days a week one day off a week and

be able to recover and do all this kind of stuff that's the fun part now I also

want you to think about this picture yourself walking down the street and

then all of a sudden somebody says run and sprint and you're sprinting down the

street and it's hot the sun's beating and then they're like okay stop crawl

and you start to crawl okay now run it's almost like an aerobic exercise right so

you have to think about Music of the Night in the same way there's the

emotional content of the scene where the Phantom is focusing on Christine that's

the other direction we were given as Phantoms is like you're focused on

Christine you're trying you're watching what her reactions are focused on her if

you notice in the show The Phantom rarely ever in that scene takes his eyes

off of Christine doesn't happen always looking at her always focusing on her

always seeing what's happening what his words are doing Hal Prince is very

focused on the words night time sharpens heightens each sensation darkness stirs

right you're you're watching what she's doing and how she's reacting to this

environment in which she's never been in right

all the while having to focus on singing this incredible song and starting off

very very powerful loud You have come here right and then into nighttime sharpens

then into powerful music then into soft falsetto

and then powerful powerful but where you long to be right really powerful and

then bringing it down again so that's what I'm talking about in terms of an

aerobic exercise my heart is pounding you're pounding the emotions are going