Today 34 years ago, the Phantom of the Opera was performed for the first time on stage at Her Majesty’s Theatre New York. Now after more than three decades, this opera remains the most popular and well known performance of our time with box office revenue higher than any other film or stage show. So how has opera impacted our culture and our history? Why did it become so popular? We were joined by Dr Rick Chew from Federation University Australia Ballarat where he is the Director of the Arts Academy and is an internationally recognised composer of opera, music theatre, solo vocal and choral music.