In October 2025 Carl Davis’ score for Rupert Julian’s film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera made two appearances in the United States – at a sold-out Dothan Opera House, Alabama, on 24 October, with Tri-State Community Orchestra and conductor Ron Branning, and at the Sorg Opera Theatre (Middletown, Ohio) on 11 October with the Butler Philharmonic and Scott Woodward.
The 1925 silent movie, based on Gaston Leroux’s 1911 novel, tells the story of a disfigured, obsessive musical genius who haunts the Paris opera, mesmerised by young soprano Christine. The 93-minute score for large orchestra encourages a sympathetic understanding of the enigmatic Phantom, refusing to paint him as wholly evil, with Davis’ music underlining the complex nuances of Lon Chaney’s commanding performance. Davis’ score is interwoven with excerpts from Gounod’s Faust, the opera at the centre of the tale, to create the effect of overhearing the opera as if from a dressing room or backstage, following the movements of the camera around the theatre. The transcription of the famous ‘Jewel Song’ scene – during which the chandelier fatally crashes onto the prima donna – is ominously overlaid with percussion and climactically interrupted with a dissonant chord from the Phantom’s organ.
The acclaimed score premiered at the 1996 Edinburgh Film Festival and has since been performed over fifty times, including by the Hallé, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, with Davis frequently conducting; in March 2024 it was presented by the Belgian National Orchestra and Frank Strobel at BOZAR. The story of the Phantom would be the subject of Davis’ final stage work – in 2023 he reimagined the story as a ballet for Le Fantôme et Christine, choreographed by Derek Deane for Shanghai Ballet, with his score drawing on the various musical styles of the Belle Époque: French revolutionary songs, folk dances (the Farandole) and a riotous Can-Can.
The film’s centenary year has also seen it performed in Turin with the Orchestra Sinfonica RAI (1 October) and by the Nürnberger Symphoniker and Adrian Prabava in January. Davis’ score for Fred Niblo’s Ben-Hur, comparable in epic sweep and scale and also celebrating its centenary, has also seen performances this year at Postdam’s Nikolaisaal from Filmorchester Babelsberg conducted by Gottfried Rabl, and from Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Kraemer on 18 October. The 141-minute score to the film, which celebrates its centenary in 2025, uses a vast orchestral palette with a Wagnerian sweep appropriate to the film’s sea battle and grand historical narrative.