Phantom of the Opera
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:28:00
The colour was so beautiful,
the actors were good,

:28:04
and the wonderful camera work,
:28:07
and the Golitzen designs, a great painter.
:28:11
Art director Alexander Golitzen re-dressed
the opera house for Technicolor.

:28:16
Wartime restrictions
on studio construction

:28:19
required ingenious use of existing sets.
:28:23
1925 movie audiences had relied
on their local theatre's music director

:28:28
to supply the sounds of silence.
:28:30
1943 audiences were treated
to a musical score

:28:33
composed and adapted by Edward Ward.
:28:37
And the music's important.
:28:39
It was important in his book.
The music's very important.

:28:44
Eddy was such a simple man.
He was an alcoholic.

:28:48
He had a bag of music, a bag of melodies,
:28:51
that he carried with him,
something for every occasion.

:28:54
Eddy's hands would shake when he'd
conduct but, by God, the music was there.

:28:59
Because of World War Il,
it was very difficult to get

: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...


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