English National Opera, unable to afford much by way of new productions, is imitating some of the London orchestras by running a movie at the Coliseum with live orchestral soundtrack.
The point? To keep the orchestra employed and the house from going dark.
Details here.
Our attention has been drawn to this incident…
A social media activist has circulated a video…
From my monthly essay in the new issue…
Meet Speranza Scappucci, who becomes principal guest at…
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I don’t know about the “… in despair”. It seems a sensible use of resources.
I think I’ll go !
Herrmann’s North by North-West is an excellent score. Hearing it live with the film sounds fantastic. What again was the problem with this idea???
The ENO is desperately trying to raise some revenue by engaging in a musical activity to further fund its priority but expensive musical activities.
The swine! 🙂
Sounds like a great idea to me – good for them!
Should have done it years ago and not wait until the coffers were empty. I bet it will be good.
The ROH Orchestra did something similar in 2006, when they had a dark night, and performed Carl Davis’s orchestral score to the 1925 Lon Chaney silent film, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. Doubly serendipitous, given that ROH were in the middle of a run of Gounod’s ‘Faust’ at the time, the same work being staged by Paris Opera in the film.
Alexander Nevsky is another great film with Prokoviev’s wonderful score which could use live accompaniment at ENO. It has been done here in San Francisco with great success. Other silents (Farrar’s Carmen, Caruso’s “My Cousin”) could also be adapted.
Most major American orchestras do this now to keep the bailiff from the door (especially for films scored by Herrmann, Danny Elfman, John Williams et al). Hardly a sign of the Apocalypse.
Yes, it’s done in San Fransisco