Sarah Brightman lip synching at Phantom 25th Anniversary in London?

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 9:37pm

So my grandparents and I are watching the Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall 25th Anniversary Performance on Netflix. At the end Sarah Brightman and 5 past Phantoms sing the tile song, and we are all convinced that she is lip synching. Anyone know if this is true?

EDIT: Nana is now saying that all the Phantoms are lip synching as well. Updated On: 2/8/13 at 09:37 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 9:54pm

Say it ain't so!

Actually, a lot of parts in Phantom are pre-recorded including the Phantom's "Notes" and Christine's high notes at the end of the title song. Sarah was probably lip syncing too.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 10:11pm

I knew about Christine's high notes, I was just wondering about Sarah's particular performance.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 10:27pm

Everyone knows that Sarah Brightman can't sing and she lip syncs to a pre-record of Emmy Rossum.

[Dave19]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 12:54pm

The whole title song is pre-recorded in every production of the Phantom around the world. From the first to the last line.
They have all the separated vocal tracks, so if (for example)the understudy Christine is performing with the main Phantom that day, they just put in her vocal track, together with the Phantom's track and the clicktrack, as the orchestra plays along.

It has happened that one of the vocal tracks would not play because of technical issues, and then after the first 2 lines of the song, you could see the Christine realizing there is no sound, so she starts singing the song live. It happened in London and she looked scared. The first verses we kind of ok, but she started modulating halfway through the cadenza. It was awful.

There is 29 minutes and 31 seconds of singing pre-recorded in the first act of Phantom.

I know Ramin and Sierra sang the song live at some Japanese concert, and it sounded nothing like the pre-recorded 25th version. Which is only logical. I can see why Andrew decided this for all the productions.

About the concert ending with Sarah, I don't know if that was pre-recorded but perhaps Andrew only allows her to do it because she is his "muse"? She did sound very sloppy though, it sounded live to me. But she lip synched the song in all the actual performances back in the day, just like any other Christine.



Updated On: 2/9/13 at 12:54 PM

[MusicalBoy]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 1:02pm

^ This is true, and mostly for logistical reasons due to the Phantom and Christine being offstage.

With regards to Sarah Brightman From 'sing for me' onwards is quite obviously pre recorded but the phantoms are all singing live.

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 3:30pm

I was there and it sounded and looked live to me, and I was pretty near the front...except the big note for Sarah as has been said. The Phantoms definately were live

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 4:50pm

^The Phantoms were definitely singing live. Didn't Colm Wilkinson mess up the first night and come in too early or too late or something?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 9:25pm

Obama should step down immediately.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 9:59pm

One of the reason's I am not a huge POTO fan. There is no reason to have 30 minutes of music recorded.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 10:53pm

^I'm not convinced of the accuracy of that number. I've always been told that the Phantom switches over to live vocals once he starts his "sing my angel of music" stuff. So the entire title song is not pre-recorded.

The only other pre-recorded bits in the first act, as far as I know, are the Phantom's notes, his laughs, the dialogue before "Il Muto" and the dialogue before Christine and Raoul find their way to the roof. I don't see how that could all add up to 29 minutes and 31 seconds.

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 10:57pm

I believe it's not nearly half an hour of recorded VOCALS but half an hour total of recorded SOUND. Guitar tracks, pipe organ, additional synths, dummy vocals, etc.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/9/13 at 11:37pm

That makes more sense.

[beensince1987]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 12:26am

I thought I heard "Why So Silent..." scene in the beginning of aAct II was recorded that it is impossible for Phantom to sing wearing death's head mask.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 1:52am

^That is true. I didn't mention the act two bits. Most of "why so silent" is pre-recorded, but starting with "your chains are still mine" it switches to being live.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 2:12am

Yes, the Mask of the Red Death mask renders the Phantom unable to sing and partially blind.

[MusicalBoy]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 4:34am

^ In which case, they really should have tackled him to the ground then and spared themselves a lot of hassle.

[choitoy]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 4:42am

I was too busy watching Sarah's weird mannerisms and facial expressions (or lack thereof) to notice if she was actually singing live or not when I saw it in the movie theaters.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:59am

I adore Sarah Brightman, she's a goddess but that was not her best performance. If they were to use a pre-recorded track they would've gotten a better one. Here you could clearly hear her breathing.