Those who saw the Vancouver Bach Choir’s performance of Andrew Downing’s score of the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera at the Orpheum in 2013 praised it highly.
“I’ve never had a performance where I had so many people ask me when we are doing it again,” says VBC’s music director, Leslie Dala.
Rave reviews, along with showcasing the choir’s diverse music, were two major reasons Dala wanted to revisit Downing’s piece.
“This is our big 85th anniversary year... and I wanted to balance out a season, which already has two of the great classical masterpieces [Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion]... [and]do something much more contemporary and also a bit more lightweight in terms of subject matter.”
Dala’s musical partnership with Downing goes back to when the two were performing on tour together and discussing silent movies.
“[I] realized that we had this shared passion and then he told me that he scored some films so I got it into my head that I wanted him to write a piece for the Bach Choir.”
In order to bring the film and music together, Dala rehearsed with the choir weekly. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks before the premiere that the choir rehearsed alongside the film. Downing also sent a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file to guide Dala in lining up the score with the film, which proved challenging.
“I have to accompany a film that is not flexible, that is not going to move… Our performance has to line up with what is completely determined. The singer needs to breathe and you need to work with that. So the challenge becomes one of performing the score to the best of our abilities and to just hit all the landmarks in the piece to make sure it lines up perfectly.”
Another challenge for Dala was setting the right mood and expression of the film. The 1925 silent horror film, which starred Lon Chaney, is an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel.
“[The score] is at times very moody and dark like the film and it is a love story, and there is music which is very romantic and full of yearning and passion and, of course, the piece is incredibly dramatic so there are elements of that as well.”
But Dala is confident that he will overcome these challenges. He is also confident that success will strike twice with Phantom of the Opera.
“Downing writes with the assurance of somebody who has done this many times before. He is a very skilled composer who knows exactly what he is doing.”
kattra@shaw.ca
@katrinatrask
