The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (25th Anniversary)

The Night the Hall Trembled

On October 2, 2011, London’s Royal Albert Hall was packed to the rafters — over five thousand seats filled. Cinemas around the world were carrying the live broadcast: London, New York, Tokyo, Taipei. Hundreds of thousands of people, in the same evening, watching the same chandelier rise.

It was the twenty-fifth birthday of The Phantom of the Opera. On October 9, 1986, the musical had premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. No one has been able to take that chandelier out of our hearts since.

The Phantom Speaks

When Ramin Karimloo walked onto the stage as the Phantom, there wasn’t a sound in the hall.

Before he sang a single note, he just stood there — the white half-mask hiding his face. That silence was enough to remind everyone: standing on this stage was one of the youngest Phantoms in the show’s twenty-five-year history.

Then he opened his mouth.

“In sleep he sang to me… in dreams he came…”

Christine’s High E-Flat

When Sierra Boggess sang the first line of “Think of Me,” that ascending E-flat — it sounded cleaner than anything that had a right to come out of a human throat.

I’ve watched this Blu-ray many times since. Every time, I rewind that note.

I don’t know how to describe it. It doesn’t sound like singing. It sounds like something very bright falling from a great height and landing exactly where it was supposed to.

This Christine is among the finest the production has seen in twenty-five years. That’s not just my opinion — it’s what the critics said, and it’s what everyone who buys this Blu-ray discovers.

The Finale — Sarah Arrives

A hundred and fifty minutes later, the musical ended. The audience rose to its feet.

Then Andrew Lloyd Webber walked on stage. He said a few words — about gratitude, about how fast time flies — and then he called out a name. The hall erupted.

Sarah Brightman — the original Christine from twenty-five years earlier, Webber’s then-wife — walked out in a red dress.

She sang “The Phantom of the Opera.” And four former Phantoms — Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow, John Owen-Jones, Peter Jöback — took turns singing with her: “Sing once again with me our strange duet…”

Michael Crawford was on stage too. The first Phantom, 1986. He didn’t sing. He just stood there and smiled.

Those thirty seconds might have been the quietest of the entire night. No one singing. No one clapping. Just five men in black suits and one woman in red, standing there, letting time flow backwards.

Why Buy the Blu-ray

If you’ve never seen Phantom in the West End, this Blu-ray is the second-best option — actually, no, in some ways it’s better.

The cameras take you where no theatre seat can. The Royal Albert Hall’s acoustics on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track make that chandelier fall right over your head (metaphorically, at least). And you can pause at 2 AM, get a glass of water, and come back.

But the real reason is this: it’s a night that will never happen again.

The original Christine and four Phantoms, all on the same stage, at the same time — it’s only happened once.

The disc includes a 17-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. I’ve never watched it. Not because I don’t want to — but because every time the main feature ends, I just want to start it over.

Comparative Versions

The 2004 film adaptation (directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum) offers a different visual interpretation of Phantom. The 1986 original cast recording (Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman) preserves the definitive original sound. The Love Never Dies original cast recording provides a natural extension for those wanting more of the story.