On Sunday, October 30 at 4:00 p.m. the Christ Church Concert Series will present the 1925 silent film classic, The Phantom of the Opera. The film, starring Lon Chaney, is well remembered for the actor’s ghastly, self-designed make-up which remained a studio secret until the film’s premiere. The plot is based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l’Opera which begins with a production of Gounod’s Faust as the Paris Opera House opens for a new season. It details the plot of a young woman who suddenly rises to a prominent role in the opera only to be pursued by the legendary phantom who haunts the opera house. Filled with suspense and mystery, this particular silent film is among the preeminent of its genre.
Accompanying the Sunday’s performance will be theater organist, Michael Britt who accompanied Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus at Christ Church earlier this year to a capacity audience. A Baltimore native, Mr. Britt, also a frequent recitalist of classical organ literature, is a performer of theatre organ music and is in demand throughout the country as a silent film accompanist, performing for chapters of the American Theatre Organ Society and most recently, for the Region III-American Guild of Organists Convention in Baltimore. He has been featured on Maryland Public Television and other televised presentations on the theatre pipe organ and Maryland’s Free State Theatre Organ Society. In 1998, he was invited to perform at Baltimore’s Senator Theatre where he accompanied five silent films for the National Film Registry Tour, which was sponsored in part by the Library of Congress. Mr. Britt has also performed at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio; The Paramount Theatre in Anderson, Indiana; The Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia as well as yearly performances at the Capitol Theatre in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 2002, he was invited to perform a series of concerts on the recently restored Aeolian pipe organ installed at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. and in 2005 was invited to Princeton University to accompany the silent film classic, “Phantom of the Opera” at the University Chapel where recently, he completed his tenth performance of this annual event. In May of 2009, Michael gave a recital on the great Cavaille-Coll organ at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris and studied organ at the Conservatory with Marie-Louise Langlais.
The Christ Church Concert Series is supported in part by a grant from the Talbot County and Maryland State Arts Councils. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, and the public is invited to attend. There is no charge, but a free will offering will be received. Christ Church is located at 111 S. Harrison Street in Easton. For more information, call 410-822-2677 or visit www.christchurcheaston.org.
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