Jphineas

Andrew Lloyd Webber Accusations of plagiarism

• 2010.0807

A neutral verifiable fact (complete with exact reference including page number from a respected expert publication (published by the San Francisco Opera)) regarding the "strong resemblance" of music from Puccini's "Girl of the Golden West" in Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" was removed by 193.82.164.132 on 2010.0703. To my understanding this text (which I added on 2010.0703) meets the criteria for Biographies of Living Persons), so if it was removed by an official editor, why was it removed? Since the removal came from an unidentified user (just an IP address was recorded), I restored the deleted text. The reason that I originally added this text was that I personally saw a performance of "Girl of the Golden West" at the San Francisco Opera and was shocked (as were many of the audience) by hearing music that I thought was written by Lloyd Webber but actually was written by Puccini over 70 years earlier in 1910. Looking through the official program guide confirmed this. I then checked on Wikipedia and found that the article on "Girl of the Golden West" did mention this, but with a different reference; however, there was no reference to this on the Andrew Lloyd Webber page, so I added it. If this was not as per Wikipedia policy, then please explain why it is not. Thank you. Jphineas (talk) 00:13, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

The text in question is:

In the Program Guide for the San Francisco Opera's performance (2009-2010 season) of Puccini's Girl of the Golden West, on page 42, it states:

"The climactic phrase in Dick Johnson'a aria, "Quello che taceta," bears a strong resemblance to a similar phrase in the Phantom's song, "Music of the Night," in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera. Following the musical's success, the Puccini estate filed suit against Webber accusing him of plagiarism and the suit was settled out of court."

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