🎬🎹 THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA – SILENT FILM WITH LIVE ORGAN IMPROVISATION
📍 Zadar Puppet Theatre
🗓️ 24 September at 8 PM
- admission with a voluntary donation
After the very first edition of the Zadar Organ Festival and the many concerts that have taken place across Zadar and beyond in the years since, we are returning to the Zadar Puppet Theatre for the finale of this year’s festival, with a programme that brings the organ back to one of its most fascinating historical roles.
Silent films were, in fact, almost never completely “silent”. Screenings were accompanied by pianists, orchestras and, in larger cinemas, theatre organs, whose wide range of stops could evoke an entire orchestra and create a variety of sound effects.
The organist would shape the tension, highlight characters and emotions, and respond to the rhythm of the images. Improvisation was therefore one of the essential skills of cinema organists, allowing each screening to receive its own unique and unrepeatable musical interpretation.
On 24 September, we will revive this tradition with one of the great classics of silent cinema, The Phantom of the Opera from 1925, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux and starring the legendary Lon Chaney as the Phantom.
The music will be created entirely live by Jeremy Joseph, organist of the Vienna Court Chapel and Professor of Organ and Improvisation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
A winner of the Gottfried Silbermann International Organ Competition, Joseph has performed at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, and throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.
There will be no pre-written score that evening. The music will be created in front of the audience, from the very first frame to the last.
One hundred years after the film was made, The Phantom of the Opera will once again receive its own living sound world.
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