Chorus Niagara and Artistic Director Robert Cooper present PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the original 1925 silent version featuring Lon Chaney with a LIVE CHORAL SOUNDTRACK performed by the 100-voices of Chorus Niagara and organist extraordinaire Lynne Honsberger.
Following three sold out performances earlier this year, Chorus Niagara and Artistic Director Robert Cooper present PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the original 1925 silent version featuring Lon Chaney with a LIVE CHORAL SOUNDTRACK performed by the 100-voices of Chorus Niagara and organist extraordinaire Lynne Honsberger. The score is specially crafted by Robert Cooper for this performance. Phantom of the Opera plays for one screening only Wednesday May 3rd, 7:30pm on the huge screen in Partridge Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul Street in downtown St.Catharines. An informative and entertaining pre-concert chat introducing this historic film by former film, media and pop culture professor Joan Nicks, M.A., (Brock University) is complimentary prior to the concert for ticket holders.
Set in the magnificent Palais Garnier, Paris' grandiloquent opera house, Phantom of the Opera opens with the debut of the new season at the Paris Opera with a production of Gounod's Faust. Immediately we are taken through the splendor of the grand staircase and into the Chagall festooned Theatre with its full house, large pit orchestra and busy stage action and thrust into the romantic world of French opera.
The world of French opera and some of its greatest composers, Gluck, Gounod, Bizet, Saint-Saens and Poulenc along with Tchaikovsky (Russia) and Morricone (Italy) are the sources for complementary background music. Additional works by more traditional choral composers act as specific mood enhancers as the scenic design shifts quickly from comedy to intimate tenderness.
Long revered by film experts, the 1925 Phantom of the Opera silent film classic has been deemed 'culturally significant' by the U.S. Library on Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Chorus Niagara breathes new life into this macabre film marvel, complemented by organist Lynne Honsberger's inspired improvisations.
Tickets are available from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre BOX OFFICE
This concert is sponsored by Ken Rempel and Canadian Tire Financial Services.
For more information contact Diana McAdorey, Managing Director cnadmin@becon.org or 905-934-5575
www.chorusniagara.ca
