Thanks for uploading! I’m a big fan of Norm, but in imo, he was a miscast. You can hear the painful strain when he tries the upper register. Since this wasn’t a physically demanding stage version, I really would’ve loved to see Andrea Bocelli do the part in this production Also, couldn’t they use a decent mask? Like cmon
I know everyone loves Norm, but my issue is, he should have been singing this stuff when he was in theirs vocal prime! 97’ Norm Lewis was fire, but the glottal attack.. ugh. He is too baritone for this
I don't disagree his voice used to be real powerhouse, but I think he's still capable of singing this score. The real problem is for both his original run of Phantom and for this run of LND he artificially darkens his tone, which causes all the glottal strain you correctly identified. But the difference between the way he sings Music of the Night in concert versus how he did in the show I think really demonstrates this.
