:29:02
copyright and performing rights
clearances on the great operatic works.
:29:08
So they decided, with the exception
of Martha by Von Flotow,
:29:12
they decided to create operas
:29:15
out of symphonic works
that were in public domain.
:29:18
That's why we have Tchaikovsky's
Fourth Symphony as one of the operas,
:29:24
an adaptation by Edward Ward,
the musical director.
:29:31
In the story, the Phantom's masterwork
:29:33
has been composed
around a French lullaby
:29:36
that seems curiously
more Gaelic than Gallic.
:29:44
It's a beautiful tune,
:29:46
but I always think of The Kerry Dance,
that traditional Irish tune.
:29:51
But if you took out the Irish lilt
and played it in a simple melodic line...
:30:07
Ward wrote an unforgettable Romantic
concerto for piano and orchestra.
:30:12
My concerto!
:30:18
Sing, Christine.
:30:23
Sing!
:30:27
In its spectacle, colour,
thrills, music and dramatic intensity,
:30:32
Phantom of the Opera was a popular
entertainment for wartime audiences,
:30:36
the equivalent of any legitimate opera
of the gaslight era.
:30:40
An echo from the past, the original Raoul -
Norman Kerry-visited the set.
:30:45
He seemed pleased to meet
his modern counterpart,
:30:48
but it is likely that he had not forgotten
the bitter agonies of 1925.
:30:54
Free of the anxieties that
had accompanied the silent film,
:30:57
this Phantom was a model
of efficient production.
:30:59
All these people at Universal at that time,
it was a family.