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Hey there I'm James Barbour thank you for tuning into my channel
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you know today I'm gonna talk about something that I'm asked all the time.
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You know I'm asked all the time what was it like to play the Phantom on Broadway
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in the longest-running and most successful Broadway show of all time the
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Phantom of the Opera? So Phantom has been running for over 30 years.
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Again the longest-running show on Broadway and more importantly people ask
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me what's it like to sing "Music of the Night"?
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Now Andrew Lloyd Webber, for those of you who don't know, wrote The Phantom of the
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Opera. I mean undoubtedly everybody in the
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world knows of it. I mean they may have heard of it somewhere, I'm sure there are
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people that haven't and in certain parts of the world. But it is the most famous
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show of all time and when you say the Phantom of the Opera chances are people know
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it. And chances are people know the music or they've heard some of it so Music of
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the Night is undoubtedly one of the most famous Tunes in all of theatrical
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history and it was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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So I'm asked all the time what's it like to sing that music? What's it like to
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sing the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber? What's it like to be around him? What's
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it like to be there? So the awesome thing about being in Phantom is that it's it's
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filled with so much history and so much amazing stuff. So you know there's the
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makeup that I had to go through, the phantom sits for an hour,
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there's the costumes, there's the set, there's the cast, the creative team, Hal
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Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gillian Lynne, all of whom you
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know are very much a part of the show today. They're very much involved and
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they're there on a continual basis. But number one question what is it like to
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sing Music of the Night. Well, I'm gonna tell you...it's incredible! And what I
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thought was incredible when I started the show has just grown and grown and
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grown and grown because I have so much more knowledge about the song and about
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where it came from. So here's a little tidbit I recorded
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Music of the Night on a CD called Bring Me Giants. This is it right here.
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Sorry for the flashy paper it's still in its plastic. Bring Me Giant you can get
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it on iTunes. It has Music Of The Night on it and a lot of other great tunes. So
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when I recorded that song I took it out of context cause I wasn't doing the full
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show. And normally when I do a concert or I'll do you know a couple of songs at an
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event. You know you take them out of context and you sing them
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as standalone pieces. So that's what I did. And I made it my own. And I
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interpreted it the way I wanted to interpret it. So when I started rehearsal
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that's how I was used to singing it. Right? And I knew this song because I'd
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sung it before. And I started rehearsal and I got through music and then a
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couple of times. I'm like okay great here's the difference; that's not how
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it's written and here's why. I was given restrictions on this is how you have to
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sing it this is what you need to do and I and I started saying you know I guys I
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feel I feel restricted. I feel like I don't have freedom as a performer to
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sing the song. And these were just conversations that you have in rehearsal
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right like help me figure this out. So David Caddick who's the musical
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supervisor incredible guy goes "the freedom is in the music" I'm like what do
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you mean? "The freedom is in the music. "If you trust the music, if you trust what
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Andrew wrote literally wrote and stick to that you'll find it incredible amount
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of freedom." And I was like hmm, okay. Now I usually approach things as an actor I
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start to interpret I start to you know pull lines out and put emphasis on
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on different things. Well with music and if you're gonna stick directly to the
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music that's hard to do because each note has a specific length it has a
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specific strength it has a specific pitch all of that kind of stuff so
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initially I was reticent I was like I was I was backing off against that or
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rigging on it and as I started rehearsing and as we started going
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through it and as I started learning now you have to think about this too when is
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when a song is written for a show it's written to take the characters journey
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right from point A to point B to Point C and ultimately through the end of the
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show. When you take it out of context it's just a standalone right. So Andrew
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wrote the music to take this character The Phantom on his journey just like he
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did all of the other characters so Christine has her music Raoul has his
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music you know the Managers have their music
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there's ensemble music. When you put it all together it creates this amazing
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journey. so inserting Music Of Th eNight where it is it's the Phantom's first song is
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very impactful right it's the first thing really that the Phantom does on a
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large scale in the show so I took it and put it back into context
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well that opened up huge range of options and as I started
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trusting the music and I started trusting what Andrew had written now why
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would anybody not trust what andrew has written? He's brilliant. but it was just
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that mindset of having not sung it that way before it did create freedom now
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here's the thing I want you to think about the Phantom is written as a tenor
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role right I'm a baritone tenor is a higher-pitched role a higher time a
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higher pitched voice you know Michael Crawford the original Phantom was a
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tenor I'm one of only a handful I mean less probably less than five baritones
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that have ever sung this role specifically on Broadway. so it creates a
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different different aspects so notes that are very very very easy to sing for
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a tenor they might be at the top of my range right and notes that are hard to
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sing for a tenor might be in the mid of my range so I had to think about it that
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way and and figure out how my voice was going to attack this role and attack
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this song eight times a week you know six days a week one day off a week and
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be able to recover and do all this kind of stuff that's the fun part now I also
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want you to think about this picture yourself walking down the street and
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then all of a sudden somebody says run and sprint and you're sprinting down the
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street and it's hot the sun's beating and then they're like okay stop crawl
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and you start to crawl okay now run it's almost like an aerobic exercise right so
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you have to think about Music of the Night in the same way there's the
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emotional content of the scene where the Phantom is focusing on Christine that's
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the other direction we were given as Phantoms is like you're focused on
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Christine you're trying you're watching what her reactions are focused on her if
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you notice in the show The Phantom rarely ever in that scene takes his eyes
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off of Christine doesn't happen always looking at her always focusing on her
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always seeing what's happening what his words are doing Hal Prince is very
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focused on the words night time sharpens heightens each sensation darkness stirs
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right you're you're watching what she's doing and how she's reacting to this
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environment in which she's never been in right
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all the while having to focus on singing this incredible song and starting off
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very very powerful loud You have come here right and then into nighttime sharpens
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then into powerful music then into soft falsetto
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and then powerful powerful but where you long to be right really powerful and
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then bringing it down again so that's what I'm talking about in terms of an
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aerobic exercise my heart is pounding you're pounding the emotions are going
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and you have to control your breath so that you can get that final falsetto note
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out and hold it right unbelievably difficult right eight times a week and
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it wasn't until my last six months oh my gosh I'm finally understanding I'm sort
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of starting to get an understanding of what this song really means you know it
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it was ingrained in me it was part of my body and then that's when the freedom
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happened that's when you know the David Caddick note you know allow the music to
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carry you allow the freedom to be in the music it's written there Andrew has
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written everything into the music that you need so that's my quick story about
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Phantom of the Opera and Music of the Night I know you guys are really really
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interested in it if you have any more questions about you know what it's like
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to sing Music at Night or my experience I'm sure it's different for all the
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different guys John Owen Jones, Norm Lewis you know all those people you know
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who have done the roles over years Howard McGillin, Hugh Panaro everybody
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approaches it differently but we all have been given the same structure
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that's what's kind of cool about it and I also think that's why Phantom has run
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so long no matter who's doing the role there is a structure in which we have to
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fit and we bring ourselves to that structure so it's always going to be
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different because each performer is different but the structure is gonna be
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the same you'll see the same movements basically you'll see the same blocking
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you know it's worked all these years and as Hal Prince says you know what why not
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keep it why change it it works right so that's my story of Music in the Night
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guys oh just a reminder you can grab the CD Bring Me Giants on iTunes Music the
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Right is right on there on the back along with some other great tunes if you
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have any questions about Music of the Night put it down in there please
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subscribe there's gonna be some more great videos coming out but I wanted to
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hit this because it's the number one question I am asked so that's my brief
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story on Music of the Night I hope you enjoyed it I'll talk to you real soon