Sweeney Todd LIVE at the NY Philharmonic

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Due to the form and the construct of the show, it can be considered as an opera.



Based on the 19th century legend of Sweeney Todd, and specifically upon the 1973 play by Christopher Bond, it "tells the tale" of Todd, the former Benjamin Barker, who returns from the penal colonies in Australia where he has spent fifteen years on false charges. When he learns from Mrs. Lovett, whose meat pies are the worst in London, that his wife poisoned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin, and his daughter is the ward of Judge Turpin, who imprisoned him, he vows revenge. The two become conspirators in a dastardly plot that results in mass murder, booming business for Lovett's shop, and ultimately tragedy.



Sondheim's score is one of his most complex to date. He relies heavily on counterpoint and rich, angular harmonies in the show. Its compositional style has been compared to those of Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, and Bernard Herrmann. Sondheim also quotes the ancient Dies Irae Gregorian chant, both as part of the eponymous ballad that runs throughout the score, in an inversion later on, and in the accompaniment to "Epiphany." He also relies heavily on leitmotif - at least twenty distinct ones can be identified throughout the score.



The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States, organized during 1842. Based in New York City, the Philharmonic performs most of its concerts at Avery Fisher Hall and has long been considered one of the best symphonies in the world. The orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades and older than all but two European orchestras; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.