The Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra is bringing back its Halloween tradition this Saturday: the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney in the title role, screened in the sanctuary of Plymouth Church on Orange Street with the score played live underneath it.

There are two showings on Saturday, October 24, at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tickets start at $40, and the orchestra says costumes are welcome.

How the music works

Silent films were never meant to be watched in silence. In 1925 a theater would have had a pianist, an organist or a pit orchestra playing along, and that is what this screening recreates. The performance uses a chamber orchestra, a piano and the church's pipe organ, with the music building from quiet suspense to full orchestra and organ as the story turns.

Rodney Sauer conducts from the piano, and Gregory D'Agostino plays the organ. The film runs 93 minutes.

The film was directed by Rupert Julian, with Chaney as the masked figure who haunts the Paris Opera and fixes his attention on a young singer.

More from the orchestra this fall

The Phantom is the first of three Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra dates in the neighborhood over the next month.

Mozart for Munchkins: Spooktacular follows on Halloween morning, Saturday, October 31, with performances at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church. It is a concert built for children up to age 8, with jazz, classical, bluegrass and rock players, and time for kids to sing and dance. Afterward, an Orchestra Petting Zoo lets children get close to the instruments and find out how they work. Children get in free with an adult ticket.

Then on Sunday, November 22, at 4 p.m., the orchestra marks its 25th anniversary at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity with a program of Ravel, Liszt, Strauss and Beethoven. Pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski and bass Mikhail Svetlov are the guest soloists, and Philip Nuzzo, who founded the orchestra and is still its artistic director, conducts.

Getting there

Plymouth Church is at 57 Orange Street in Brooklyn Heights. The 2 and 3 trains stop at Clark Street, about two blocks away, and the A and C stop at High Street. The 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. showings are ticketed separately through the orchestra's website, so pick the time when you buy.

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