hi! i've been doing some digging on '3 long years' and i can't find when it stared in west end. operafantomet says 1999 or 2000 with charlotte page or deborah dutcher (with claire moore doing it in '94). do you have a more precise time and which christine did it first when it was incorporated into the west end? (for literally 3 long years!) thanks! :D
Yeah, I actually went through my audios before to see when it started, but it's nice to check again.
Basically, it began somewhere between 1988-1990. I can't say more precisely because there's a gap in my audios during that time; all I can say is that in my last audio from 1988, Christine (Claire Moore) was still singing, "Passing bells and sculpted angels" but in my only audio from 1990, "Three long years" was being used (by Jill Washington).
But to be clear, I don't know if Jill Washington is the first ever to use it, as there is a gap in recordings. I will also say that in the 1st studio recording, the Christine in there ("Kira Bronte", actually the pseudonym for former West End Christine Iren Bartok) also uses the "Three long years" line, and since Bartok was Christine from 1989-1991, there's the possibility that she was using it sometime during her run, which could place the date as early as 1989. But it could just as easily be that she was told to use that line because that was what was being done on the West End at the time. I also have no idea when the 1st studio recording was released; sites say 1996, but for all I know they're mixing it up with the 2nd and 3rd studio recordings.
As for when it ended, it appears to have sometime in mid-2002. In an audio from March 2002, Christine is still singing "Three long years" but by May 2002, the line was back to "Passing bells".
Hope that helps!
