the various characters. My colleague Jim Luke is the
one who actually did the work. It’s in between 30 and
40 pieces in the orchestra for this performance.”
At the initial time when these silent films pre-
miered, the amount of instrumentation that was
used to accompany the film varied from one extreme
to the other. Anderson explains further by saying,
“The variety of performance venues and ensembles
that accompany these films was vast. For example,
in the United States there were probably four or five
hundred orchestras in the deluxe theaters and then
you had maybe two or three thousand theaters with
10 to 11 instrumental combos that were a pretty
common group. Only the very smallest theaters had
only an organ or piano.”
It’s true that nowadays people are desensitized to
horror in all it’s genres on film, but back in 1925, Lon
Cheney as the phantom was truly horrifying to see.
Anderson agrees, “I think also because we’ve had so
many versions of the phantom since that time and a
lot of them have kind of changed his character. The
Andrew Lloyd Webber version is a politically correct
version of a disfigured person who is really very lov-
Gillian B. Anderson
able underneath it all. This guy is not lovable at all.
He’s really a creep. It’s hard to separate the stuff that’s
come afterwards and to prevent it from affecting
the way you view this film. He is a total creep. There
is nothing redeeming about him. He’s a control freak,
a homicidal maniac and it would be incorrect to try
and interpret him in any other way.”
even though today we have the highest quality of
practices varied from theatre to pre-recorded sound, the benefits of hearing music
theatre. It isn’t necessarily so hard if live with the silent film is a phenomenal event. An-
you have a score that is in the Library derson shares her enthusiasm for this combination
of Congress or in the Museum of of live music and film, “The energy in the room is
Modern Art’s collection.” completely different then when you have recorded
There are several scores that have music. regardless of how terrific the sound system
been created over time in addition is. There is an element of theatre that is absent when
to the initial 1925 musical score for everything is pre-recorded and you know how it’s
The Phantom of The Opera. In 1996, going to start and you know how it’s going to finish.
Carl Davis created a score for the When it’s live, there is just a different quality. It’s
silent film and its restoration. With more of a theatrical event than it is just a screening.”
nine different composers having Now, the Fox Theatre pipe organ returns with these
their hand at it at one time or the performances as well. “Yes, our reason for choosing
other, which score will be performed The Phantom of the Opera was to call attention to that
by the Winter Pops? “This is an at- organ. I think the theme for the phantom itself is very
tempt to use… of the 1925 version sinister and of course the music from Faust which is
Lon Chaney
there is only a 16 millimeter print left very beautiful. I think it’s all very well chosen for what
that is unshowable so what is shown it illustrates. My hope is that the audience can put
mostly is the 1929 version. This is an themselves back to those days for example when ac-
attempt to use the cue sheet from tress Mary Philbin (Christine) unmasks the phantom,
1925 to fit, which it does so more or less people in the audience fainted and screamed and
the 1929 version. It’s based on pre-existing music carried on… I think that would be great if we could
that was chosen according to mood or as a theme for get them to feel that way once again!”
FEBRUARY 2009 | RAGE monthly 25
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