After the group 2Cellos finished its farewell tour last year, half the duo is pushing forward with a solo career. HAUSER (stylized in capital letters) is kicking off his own Rebel with a Cello tour this year, adding a new song to his repertoire: the overture from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” He debuted the video and single today.
The impetus of the idea was to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the long-running Broadway show. But, as HAUSER told us in an interview, it was not known at the time that the show would be making its final run and closing in 2023.
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The cellist has made a career out of these types of high energy arrangements. He says the melody of this tune is “perfect” for the cello. “It’s so beautiful,” says HAUSER. “And it gets more and more intense and dramatic, and it grows. The combination in the end—it’s perfect.”
The video was recorded on stage at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, reportedly the first time a music video has been filmed there. It stars HAUSER as the Phantom, playing a moody, dark grey carbon fiber cello in the iconic mask from the show. The music was recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, with HAUSER playing a wooden cello, not the instrument featured in the video.