Next up: doing music for a screening of 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1925) at the Falmouth Public Library in Falmouth, Mass. The show is Saturday, March 14 at 3 p.m.
It seems somehow fitting to accompany a screening of the cape-wearing 'Phantom' on Cape Cod!
A press release with more info about the film and the screening is pasted in below.
Before pushing ahead, however, I'd like to report that this weekend's screening were well-received and quite successful.
At the West Springfield Public Library in West Springfield, Mass., about 50 people enjoyed 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916) on Saturday, March 7, including members of the "Monadnock Sherlockians," a group of Holmes buffs who came down from New Hampshire to take in the screening.
And on Sunday, March 8, not sure if the first nice weather we've had in months helped, but a sizeable crowd cheered the exploits of canine stars Thunder and Klondike in a pair of dog-centric thrillers I accompanied at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.
Okay, next up (after a private gig at a retirement community this week in Concord, N.H.), it's 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1925) on Saturday, March 14 at 3 p.m. at the Falmouth Public Library in Falmouth, Mass.
See you on the Cape—and at the movies!
* * *
Lon Chaney in the title role of 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1925).
'Phantom of the Opera' starring Lon Chaney at Falmouth Library on Saturday, March 14
Free to the public! Pioneer classic silent thriller to be shown with live musical accompaniment
The
show will enable audience members to experience the original silent 'Phantom' the
way it was intended to be seen: on the big screen, with live music, and
with an audience.
'The Phantom of the Opera,' starring
legendary actor Lon Chaney in the title role, remains a landmark work of
the cinematic horror genre. To modern viewers, the passage of time has
made this unusual film seem even more strange and otherworldly.
It's
an atmosphere that silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis will enhance by
improvising live music on the spot for the screening.
"The
original 'Phantom' is a film that seems to get creepier as more time
passes," said Rapsis, who accompanies films at venues around the
nation. "It's a great way to experience the power of
silent film to transport audiences to strange and unusual places."
'The
Phantom of the Opera,' adapted from a 19th century novel by French
author Gaston Leroux, featured Chaney as the deformed Phantom who haunts
the opera house. The Phantom, seen only in the shadows, causes murder
and mayhem in an attempt to force the opera's management to make the
woman he loves into a star.
The film is most famous for Lon
Chaney's intentionally horrific, self-applied make-up, which was kept a
studio secret until the film's premiere.
Chaney transformed his
face by painting his eye sockets black, creating a cadaverous skull-like
visage. He also pulled the tip of his nose up and pinned it in place
with wire, enlarged his nostrils with black paint, and put a set of
jagged false teeth into his mouth to complete the ghastly deformed look
of the Phantom.
Chaney's disfigured face is kept covered in the
film until the now-famous unmasking scene, which prompted gasps of
terror from the film's original audiences.
"No one had ever seen
anything like this before," Rapsis said. "Chaney, with his portrayal of
'The Phantom,' really pushed the boundaries of what movies could do."
Chaney,
known as the "Man of a Thousand Faces" due to his versatility with
make-up, also played Quasimodo in the silent 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'
(1923) and circus performer 'Alonzo the Armless' in Tod Browning's 'The
Unknown' (1927).
The large cast of 'Phantom of the Opera'
includes Mary Philbin as Christine Daaé, as the Phantom's love interest;
character actor Snitz Edwards; and many other stars of the silent
period.
'The Phantom of the Opera' proved so popular in its
original release and again in a 1930 reissue that it led Universal
Studios to launch a series of horror films, many of which are also
regarded as true classics of the genre, including 'Dracula' (1931),
'Frankenstein' (1931), and 'The Mummy' (1932).
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