Silent Phantom of the Opera with live music by Larry Molinaro

Silent Phantom of the Opera Film with Live Organ Music on Thursday, October 30 at 7 p.m . at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church!

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of this groundbreaking silent film, St. Anne’s organist Larry Molinaro will play his very own special soundtrack live on St. Anne’s amazing Freiburger organ. Using multiple musical sources for his custom track – some classical, pop and event commercial jingles - Mr. Molinaro pulls out all the stops on St. Anne’s amazing organ to create the soundtrack.

Admission for this event is FREE. A basket for a free-will offering will be available.

Larry Molinaro Speaks about the Original Score

This is an improvised performance—there is no score or even notes that I use—with an intent to be as close to “live” as possible. In Richard Taruskin’s terms, this kind of improvisation resembles that of a rock band: ideas honed over many performances yet still alive in the moment. I’ve accompanied this film for years, keeping and refining musical ideas that work while discarding others. Thus the score you hear, while entirely improvised, has evolved through performances over the years.

In an age of hyper-perfection enabled by digital editing and AI correction, this project feels almost radical in its authenticity. The recording was made across two consecutive nights in October 2024. On the first evening, I began with the end of the film, dividing it into three large segments and recording them in reverse order—third, second, then first. On the second night, I played the film straight through from start to finish. The final version draws mostly from the second night for the first two-thirds of the film and from the first night for the last third. Editing was minimal, used only to smooth transitions. Because this was an improvised score, splicing small segments wasn’t possible—different takes often featured entirely new ideas or keys—so edits were limited mostly to the concatenation of larger sections. The result is an honest, if imperfect, performance (including a few out-of-tune notes in the organ).

Click on the link below for a preview of the recorded performance.

Thank you to the community of St. Anne’s who have enthusiastically supported multiple performances of “Phantom of the Opera” over the years.