Lloyd Webber at the Opera

Synopsis

"Everybody knows the Paris Opéra," the French composer Claude Debussy once wrote. "For the sake of the passer-by who hasn't been warned," Debussy continued, "let me say that it looks like a railway station. But once you're inside, you'll be more likely to mistake it for a Turkish bath."

In its hey-day, this vast and imposing building had over 1500 employees and boasted its own stable of ballerinas and white horses, who were occasionally called on to dance or prance across its vast stage as needed. The stage itself could be raised or lowered by means of a huge pool of water that acted as ballast—a pool located some seven stories under the stage. A visit to this spooky underground lake inspired a French journalist named Gaston Leroux to write a sensational novel entitled "The Phantom of the Opera," whose title character kidnaps an attractive Paris Opéra diva, conveying her to his deep, underground lair across that very same subterranean pool.

On today's date in 1986, the premiere performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Leroux's "Phantom of the Opera" brought the lake, the diva, and stage machinery depicting the Paris Opéra to the stage of Her Majesty's Theater in London. Lloyd-Webber's "Phantom" soon proved to be one of the hottest musical tickets of the 20th century, and helped make Lloyd-Webber one of the wealthiest composers of our time.

Music Played in Today's Program

Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948) The Phantom of the Opera Royal Philharmonic Pops; Paul Gemignani, cond. MCA 6230

On This Day

Births

• 1585 - Baptismal date of German composer Heinrich Schütz, in Bad Löstritz;

• 1835 - French composer, conductor and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns, in Paris;

• 1914 - American composer Roger Goeb, in Cherokee, Iowa;

• 1938 - Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, in Helsinki;

• 1940 - John Lennon (of the Beatles), in Liverpool, England;

Deaths

• 1999 - Jazz vibraphone virtuoso, Milt Jackson, age 76, in New York City; He was a member of the famous Modern Jazz Quartet;

Premieres

• 1826 - Rossini: opera, "The Siege of Corinth," at the Paris Opéra;

• 1891 - Dvorák: "Requiem," Op. 89, in Birmingham, England;

• 1896 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 13 in G, Op. 106, in Prague, by the Bohemian Quartet;

• 1921 - Janácek: "Taras Bulba" (after Gogol), in Brno;

• 1955 - Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, with David Oistrakh the soloist;

• 1963 - Henze: Symphony No. 4 in Berlin, with the composer conducting;

• 1980 - Jon Deak: Concerto for Oboe d'amore and Orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta with Thomas Stacy as soloist;

• 1985 - Anthony Davis: opera "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X," in Philadelphia; The opera's New York City Opera premiere occurred the following year on September 28, 1986;

• 1986 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical "Phantom of the Opera," at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; The musical opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theater on January 26, 1988;

• 1987 - Corigliano: "Campane di Ravello" (Bells of Ravello) for orchestra (a birthday tribute to Sir Georg Solti), in Chicago, with Kenneth Jean conducting;

• 1992 - David Ott: Symphony No. 3, by the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Symphony, Catherine Comet conducting;

• 1997 - Robert X. Rodriguez: "Il Lamento di Tristano," by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis;

• 1999 - Bolcom: opera "A View From the Bridge," by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dennis Russell Davies, cond.

• 1999 - Michael Torke: symphonic oratorio "Four Seasons," at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, by soloists, chorus, and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting;

Others

• 1973 - Leonard Bernstein gives the first of six lectures entitled "The Unanswered Question," as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University.