Live performances of original scores by the Club Foot Orchestra to classic silent films.
World Financial Center Winter Garden
Legong - Wednesday, January 19th at 7PM (Performance not being taped by WNYC)
Battleship Potemkin - Thursday, January 20th at 7PM
The Phantom Of The Opera - Friday, January 21st at 7PM
220 Vesey Street
Battery Park City Directions
Admission FREE
» New Sounds Live 2004-2005 Concert Season
Directed by Henri de la Falaise, 1935
Score by Richard Marriott and I Made Subandi
One of Hollywood’s last silent movies, Legong was shot on location in “exotic” Bali in 1933, released in 1935, and immediately hacked to pieces by censors who objected to scenes of bare-breasted dancers and cockfights. Today, the newly restored film emerges as a fascinating historical document rich with ethnographic detail and the pleasures of a simpler time in film entertainment. The film’s score combines Western string quartet, clarinet and trumpet with Balinese gamelan. Following the film screening, the traditional “Legong” dance will be performed by Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati Saptanyna and Nasha Lubis, accompanied by the gamelan.
Battleship Potemkin
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, 1925
World Premiere Score by Richard Marriott
Based on the events of the Potemkin mutiny in 1905, which began as an uprising over rancid meat, Battleship Potemkin is one of the most renowned films of the century and contains one of the best-known sequences in cinema’s entire history – the harrowing fall of a baby carriage down the Odessa steps. Eisenstein’s depiction of political oppression and violence portrayed the Russian revolution in microcosm and was banned worldwide for years after its premiere.
The Phantom of the Opera
Directed by Rupert Julian, 1925
World Premiere Score by Richard Marriott
At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom lives deep within the catacombs below. Mad with love for the ingénue Christine Daae, he furthers her career by removing the theatre’s star actress, with a conveniently placed (or dropped) chandelier. When she meets this mysterious masked man, Christine is naturally intrigued, but little does she know what lies behind his elegant camouflage. Using chemicals to dilate his pupils, celluloid discs to heighten his cheekbones and wires to pull his nose upward, Lon Chaney’s phantom is the quintessential horror film demon – both touching and terrifying.
Club Foot Orchestra
Club Foot Orchestra's origins date back to 1981, when Richard Marriott, a classically trained aspiring musician from Minneapolis, moved into the apartment above Club Foot, a meeting ground for an eclectic collection of musicians and artists. Since its inception in 1983, the San Francisco-based ensemble has become a cultural oddity that still intrigues its audiences today, setting brand-new scores to classic films from cinema's silent age, including: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Sherlock Holmes Jr. and Pandora's Box, with the group playing live for audiences as the images flicker behind them.
Richard Marriott
is a composer for film, television, theater, dance, video games, interactive museum installations and contemporary opera. He is the founder and artistic director of the Club Foot Orchestra, an ensemble renowned for composing and performing innovative new scores for classic silent movies. Marriott is also a member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. He is a performer on a wide variety of instruments, including woodwinds (Western & Asian), brass and electronics.
His recent compositions are especially noteworthy in their innovative synthesis of Asian and Western elements. A current collaboration with Beijing-based libretist Xu Ying, entitled "Prince Lan Ling", is scored for Chinese percusssion, pipa, erhu, Western instruments, Peking Opera Actor and Balinese gamelan and dancers.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya
is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to the study and presentation of traditional and contemporary Balinese performing arts. This living tradition is presented with integrity and excellence, and is part of a learning community accessible to the public through workshops, lectures, and outreach activities. The members come from diverse backgrounds, and their artistic contributions are encouraged alongside those of Balinese guest artists. There are also collaborations with world renowned artists from other cultures as well.
Additional Resources:
» Club Foot Orchestra's website
» Richard Marriott's website
» Gamelan Sekar Jaya's website
» New Sounds Live 2004-2005 Concert Season
» World Financial Center