RSO adds flair to Phantom of the Opera
The Regina Symphony Orchestra transformed the Conexus Arts Centre into the city’s largest movie theatre Saturday night with a wonderful presentation of The Phantom of the Opera.
The concert, the latest in the Shumiatcher Pop Series, presented the 1925 silent film classic along with an orchestral score by Rick Friend, a pianist and composer who specializes in music for silent movies.
Friend, who appeared with the RSO last season with a similar presentation of the Buster Keaton classic The General, was simply a treat. His work on the piano and organ was above reproach and his scores were amazing.
The first act featured an original score by Friend, based on the 1925 film. The score of the second act was original with influences from Gounod’s Faust and Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre.
The orchestra had its work cut out for it. While some might question how difficult it is to provide a soundtrack to a movie, consider the importance of maintaining the proper place in the score without having opportunities to make up for any timing errors.
In modern films, a click track is used and musicians perform while wearing headphones that count down to when the orchestration begins and the click track clicks the tempo.
“In this one, it’s strictly a visual situation where I have cues to follow in the film that tell me when to start and stop the music,” explained Alan Denike, who served as conductor for the performance, in a recent interview with the Leader-Post.
It’s imperative that the music is perfectly co-ordinated with the action on the screen. Without dialogue, the music plays a larger than normal role in the emotional impact of the film and a timing error could disturb the flow of the movie.
Fortunately, there were none of these errors on this night. The symphony was marvellous throughout, bringing the emotion of the score front and centre. The joy, the tension, the fear, and the anger of the movie was recognizable throughout, leaping out from the score.
The video of the movie was obviously taken from an very old print of the movie and it had a number of instances where the film transfer skipped ever so slighted. Friend’s score, however, took these challenges into account and never missed a beat.
There was a minor distraction early in the first act when the movie screen, hanging above the stage behind the orchestra, included a computer control bar on the bottom. It was two brief instances which I’m sure were quickly forgotten.
During the intermission some fans expressed disappointment in the concert not featuring the music from the more recent Broadway and Hollywood productions. Yes, the music from these modern, big-budget productions is outstanding but Saturday’s performance was like travelling back in time. The silent film has stood the test of time quite well — although the camera work and props can’t match today’s high-tech devices, the story of love and betrayal is still timeless.
Lon Chaney’s portrayal of the maniacal Phantom made him a movie star and 90 years later the quality of his performance is still obvious.
Saturday’s performance was proof that the symphony’s combination of magnificent music with a classic story is a guaranteed recipe for success.