THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410230076
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: By MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
It doesn't take blood and guts to spook a movie audience. Grainy black and white'll do just fine.
On Saturday, the Virginia Symphony gave its pops crowd a treat of rare vintage.
The orchestra was in the Chrysler Hall pit for ``Phantom of the Opera,'' the 1925 silent film featuring Lon Chaney.
The score was assembled and conducted by Donald Hunsberger, director of the acclaimed Eastman Wind Ensemble. Hunsberger and the orchestra brought to the familiar tale of opera-house obsession an entertaining mix of sentiment and suspense.
Hunsberger is an accomplished practitioner of a little-known art - that of selecting appropriate film accompaniment. In the silent era, each theater's music director received a synopsis of a film. He then put together a score for the forces he had at hand, from a single piano to a big orchestra.
Likewise, Hunsberger sifts through hundreds of period pieces to find snippets that complement action on the screen.
``Phantom'' takes place at the Paris Opera House, so Hunsberger's score was sprinkled with operatic references. He began the show with an engaging reading of Verdi's ``La forza del destino'' Overture.
Keyboardist Russell Schmidt provided lilting ragtime piano and served ably as the Phantom's organ double.
Chaney's performance in the film is brilliant, with stylized but eloquent gestures. But what most audience members will remember is the Phantom's unmasking - heralded by an enormous noise of orchestra with cymbals.
The crowd screamed, then laughed about screaming. Chaney, Hunsberger and the orchestra did their jobs.
This was the orchestra's first local performance with a silent film, and it should not be the last. Hunsberger and other conductors are expanding the available repertoire, and in doing so are presenting this generation of filmgoers with considerable pleasures from the past. by CNB