Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair!
Down we plunge to the prison of my mind!
Down that path into darkness deep as hell!

I noticed a few days ago that the 25th anniversary concert of Phantom of the Opera at Royal Albert Hall is finally out as a soundtrack and the entire video on dvd/bluray! I went to see a movie theater rebroadcast of the whole show back a few months ago with Karen and it was spectacular. I of course snagged copies of both and have been listening to the soundtrack. I'm planning to get to the video after that.

Oh, and before someone mentions it...Yes, I know the video clip up there is of the movie and not the 25th anniversary concert. I could only find an audiofile of that part of the concert on youtube and the douchenozzle who uploaded it disabled embedding. Here's a link to it on youtube.

I never really liked Phantom when I first heard it, but since then it's grown on me over time and I appreciate it more and more. It's one of the most common musicals I find myself humming or singing to myself nowadays. It especially helped after seeing the show in Chicago years ago. I fully believe Phantom is one of those musicals you really have to see in order to appreciate and the music alone doesn't convey all of the story that the full production does.



One of the best part of these anniversary concerts are the little bonuses like the above. It's just amazing to see all these luminaries from the show and even better that they're willing to perform together to give the fans a thrill. I <3 Colm Wilkinson and John Owen Jones big time and I wish I had a chance to see either of them live. It's amazingly enough just to see the video or hear the recordings....but if only. Oh well.