The Phantom of the Opera
Chill with a Friend at an Evening with the 1925 Silent Film, Piano, and Organ
Grab a pew after dark at Kilworth Memorial Chapel, 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31
TACOMA, Wash. – In 1910 French horror writer Gaston Leroux created a literary monster when he published The Phantom of the Opera. The gothic novel, featuring a young Swedish opera singer and a wretched phantom, survived through the next 100 years, transforming from magazine serial, to book, to film, to stage musical. Today, the story still haunts theaters in London and New York.
On Friday, Oct. 31, South Sound residents looking for an alternative Halloween can view the original 1925 black and white silent film, starring the “man of a thousand faces” Lon Chaney, to the sound of piano and organ—much as cinema fans did nearly a century ago.
The 8 p.m. Jacobsen Series performance in Kilworth Memorial Chapel at University of Puget Sound, will have limited seating, and audiences are advised to book tickets early. More ticket information is below.
Duane Hulbert, head of the piano department at the School of Music, will provide the musical score for the film from a repertoire he created by going through the film scene by scene. Music student Sarah Stone ’15 will accompany some scenes on the chapel’s pipe organ.
“I tried to bring out all the sad or dramatic or exciting moments by matching them with music, Hulbert said. “Sometimes I used humor. For instance when the phantom wakes up in his lair, I play Grieg’s Morning Mood.”
Synchronizing the music with the film scenes live on stage, he added, is “all split-second timing.” The performance will include works from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Grieg, J.S. Bach, and Léon Boëllmann.
Hulbert first played piano live to The Phantom of the Opera at the Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma in the 1990s. The performance was so popular that when the Grammy-nominated pianist concluded and came outside, about 50 people were standing waiting. Hulbert turned around, went back in, and did it again.
The Phantom of the Opera is a love story, often remembered for its scenes of a grand chandelier plummeting into the audience, the kidnapping of the singer and unmasking of the phantom, the jealous torture of her lover, a wild stagecoach ride, and the phantom’s heartbreaking contrition.
Part of the funds raised from the performance will be donated to University of Puget Sound’s Kids Can Do! program, which pairs college students with Tacoma youth as their mentors, role models, and friends.
The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.
Duane Hulbert is a distinguished professor of music at University of Puget Sound. He has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Sinfonietta, and Seattle Symphony. He performed as a recitalist at Merkin Concert Hall in New York; Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He also has been a guest at the Eastman School of Music Summer Piano Festival and the Music Studies Abroad festival in France. In 1980 Hulbert, a native of Minnesota, captured the grand prize in the prestigious Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City. Numerous other awards followed, including first prize in the 1985 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. Hulbert's first CD of piano works by Alexander Glazunov was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2002. His new 4-CD collection, Glazunov: Complete Works for Piano, has just been released. Copies are available in the University Bookstore and will be available on Amazon. Hulbert received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and his doctorate from Manhattan School of Music.
FOR TICKETS: order online at tickets.pugetsound.edu, or call Wheelock Information Center to purchase with a credit card at 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty, staff. The event is free for Puget Sound students. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.