Bach Choir to give sound to silent 'Phantom'
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The Man of a Thousand Faces is best remembered for one that was hidden beneath a mask -- the one worn by "The Phantom of the Opera."
Lon Chaney was that monstrous title character in Rupert Julian's 1925 silent film rendering, and he's baaack, as part of the Three Rivers Film Festival this weekend, for two extraordinary performances that are musically, not digitally, enhanced in a phenomenal collaboration with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh.
With: Bach Choir of Pittsburgh
Where: Regent Square Theater, 1035 Braddock Ave., Edgewood.
When: 2 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $25-$50; 412-394-3353 or Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 477 Melwood Ave.
The landmark film, based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, opens with a creepy figure in shadow beneath that "sanctuary of song-lovers, the Paris Opera House -- rising nobly over medieval torture chambers long forgotten." Upstairs in the executive suite, the proprietors wink knowingly to each other as they close a deal unloading this old albatross of a theater to new owners: "By the way, you may hear of a ghost ...."
They'll be hearing a lot more of him.
Enter the leading diva's battle-ax mother, brandishing a note from the Phantom to her daughter Carlotta: She's to be replaced (as Marguerite in "Faust") by her winsome understudy Christine -- and Carlotta had better not interfere. Thenceforth, the Phantom is a busy Mephisto, mesmerizing Christine with a Faustian takeover of her heart and career, while making a homicidal nuisance of himself on her behalf.
The histrionic silent-acting style can generate giggles and take a while to adjust to in 2010. But the first close-up of Mary Philbin as Christine -- subtler and more gorgeous than peers like Mary Pickford -- should do it: the erotic thrill and absence of fear in her smile-response to the Master's "I have come for you."
Carlotta bucks the Phantom and brings down the house in the famous chandelier drop scene. While pandemonium reigns above, the Phantom leads his love down to the underground black lagoon and his (rather elegant) bachelor pad, "hidden from man and sun" -- the model for all subsequent film and stage settings, including the 1986 Webber mega-musical and the better but lesser-known one by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit.
First Published November 4, 2010 12:00 am
