'Love Never Dies' premieres at The South Bank Show Awards

2nd February 2010

'Love Never Dies' premieres at The South Bank Show Awards

On Sunday 31st January, the last South Bank Show Awards included the first live performance of the Love Never Dies title song as Sierra Boggess (Christine) performed ‘Love Never Dies’ accompanied by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Louise Hunt on two grand pianos.

View the full performance here – with thanks to ITV.

Andrew writes about the song in the CD booklet:

“When at last I had a story, I made a decision. It would be daft not to occasionally have a flavour of the original show. But only very occasionally. I decided that none of the main melodies of The Phantom of the Opera would appear in Love Never Dies. After all the story is set roughly ten years on and, with one short exception, I have stuck firmly to my rule.

However there is one of the new melodies whose history I should explain before someone else does. It is ‘Love Never Dies’ itself. This was the only tune I wrote at the time when I first thought of continuing the Phantom and Christine’s story.

It was recorded by Kiri Te Kanawa under the title ‘The Heart is Slow to Learn’. Even though I had given up on the new Phantom, some second sense told me not to release the Kiri Te Kanawa recording, although it did subsequently appear on a limited edition compilation.

But with the Phantom sequel definitely abandoned in my mind, I used the chorus of the melody in The Beautiful Game, the musical I wrote with Ben Elton. Frankly I felt it stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the score, and it was eventually cut and replaced by ‘The Boys in the Photograph’, now the title of the show when it is revived. However the dramatic situation in the story of Love Never Dies is exactly the same as the one that I had originally composed the melody for and I was always proud of the moment. Once I had the new plot, I restored it to what I hope is its rightful home.”

Comments [2]

Hey Andrew you know how you made the movie version of The Phantom of The Opera. I was wondering if you could make the movie version of Love Never Dies to becuase there is a lot of people that don’t have the money to go watch it like me.. Im only 14 and cant get enough money to go see it and for airfare. I really want to see it.

Posted by Juilliard_Girl_4ever on 22nd November 2010 at 18:13

I have a similar question, but not for the same reasons. I am an 18-year-old lyric coloratura soprano who is looking for oportunities in opera, musical theatre, and cinema that are open to people who are not well-known names and are starting out. I was wondering if you have any suggestions. I know that you have been open to young performers in the past provied that they had necessary capability.

Posted by Christine_Marie on 29th May 2011 at 12:19

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'Love Never Dies' premieres at The South Bank Show Awards

Comments [2]