[Prospero]

I might be alone in this, but I much prefer the Glass opera to the original Auric score: the Glass music seems to be more faithful to the tone of the Beaumont source material, whereas Auric's music seems rather unremarkable to me, with interpretations that sometimes come out of left field. (See the scene in what must be near the end of chapter 5 or beginning of chapter 6 on the disc, when Belle's father is leaving the Beast's castle: Auric's sudden crescendos don't make any sense to me there.)

Glass also has an excellent use of leitmotifs (recurring bits of music that are attached to specific characters, themes, etc.) My favorite part for this is the overture, where he carefully lays out all the major musical themes and has them slowly segue into one another. There's also that nice synth-marimba loop that appears whenever a character is exploring the castle (there are three major variations that I remember: the first when Belle's father enters; the second when Belle herself enters; and the third when Ludovico and Avenant break in to the Beast's treasure-house near the end). It's the same melody, but the arrangement, tempo, etc., perfectly capture the mood of what's going on.