Friday, June 22, 2007

The Phantom of the Opera

No, not that one: the 1925 silent movie. Mistressdickens, bloodredglossy and I went to Norwich Cathedral to see it with improvised organ music. David Dunnett (lovely man, I miss him even though he taught the subject which gave me the most pain) gave a wonderfully witty introduction to his old friend David Briggs, who then told us the background and a little history of the film and this project. He opened the gig proper with the good old Toccata in D, which was more fun than usual because the company who provided the kit specialise in making church organ gigs visual as well as auditory. Normally the organist is invisible to the audience, but there he was on a big screen, madly attacking the 5 keyboards and all those stops and with even the twinkletoes passages discernible. Then the film came on. I love that film: Karloff in hyperactorial mode, and the famous make-up (he designed it himself and it was kept secret even from the other actors until the last moment; when the film was shown Ladies Screamed and Fainted).

If one didn't want to concentrate on the film, there was always Guess the Motif. There were some bits of Lloyd Webber tunes, probably more than I recognised as I'm only familiar with the songs arranged for choir and orchestra by David Ruddock, and some Wagner, and Rossini, and... you get the idea.

Much fun.

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