The lawsuit was settled out of the court and the terms never made public. The estate of Puccini accused Lloyd Webber of plagiarizing several musical motifs from “La Fanciulla Del West” (The Girl of the Golden West) for “Music of the Night”. The extreme success of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ has lead to accusations of plagiarism. ‘Aspects of Love’ opened in 1989 at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre with no traces of the “Married Man” song or lyrics.
Gone were the words of Nunn and replaced by those of Richard Stilgoe and Charles Hart who further revised the Sydmonton version into the present one heard in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ when it finally premiered at London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1986 and sung by Michael Crawford. However Brightman has recorded “Music of the Night” and performs the number in her concerts.Īs sung by the Phantom, “Music of the Night” had much different lyrics when it was performed at Sydmonton by Colm Wilkinson in 1985. The melody resurfaced when Lloyd Webber was creating ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and the song was no longer for Brightman who would play Christine in the musical but given to the Phantom. (Lloyd Webber was married to Sarah Hugill from 1972-1983 and then to Brightman in 1984 until their divorce in 1990.) So the song went into the drawer as it awaited rebirth along with the whole of ‘Aspects of Love’. This was even though Brightman sang it later in a concert at London’s Barbican Centre. Though “Married Man” was recorded, it could not be released because Lloyd Webber’s lawyers felt that a song with that title sung by Brightman while he was still married to his first wife and with whom he was in the midst of difficult divorce negotiations could not be made public. The song was intended as an opening number for the musical ‘Aspects of Love’ for the character of Giulietta, an Italian sculptress who in the novella by David Garnett is the mistress of the character named George and later the wife of his nephew Alex.
This version which premiered in 1983 at his Sydmonton summer arts festival had lyrics by Trevor Nunn. “Music of the Night” from 'The Phantom of the Opera' was first called “Married Man” and composed by Lloyd Webber for Sarah Brightman.
Sometimes a tune is withdrawn from the bank only to be returned for use later. He composes tunes and deposits them until they can be used in a musical. Musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is reputed to keep a musical bank. The slip cover for a vinyl 7" release featuring "Music of the Night"
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