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Re: [ARSCLIST] Oscar Levant-William Kernell Opera 'Carnival'
It's Warner Oland , please. Not Werner.
Not to be nit picky.
Is this one on DVD?
BH
>>> mrichter@xxxxxxx 11/14/2005 2:03 PM >>>
Thomas Stern wrote:
> This 'opera' composed for the film CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA.
> Can anyone identify who the actual singers in the film are? Thanks.
> Best wishes, Thomas.
>
Boris Karloff plays an opera baritone (singing dubbed by Rico Ricardi)
suffering from amnesia and a desire for revenge. He is suspected of a
murdering a woman onstage but detective Charlie Chan (Werner Oland) has
his doubts. This was one of the best of the low-budget Chan films based
around the Honolulu detective created by Earl Derr Biggers. Oscar
Levant
composed an imaginary opera called Carnival for this film including
overture and arias. The libretto by William Kernell was created around
a
Mephistopheles costume used by Lawrence Tibbett in Metropolitan. It was
given to the Chan picture to be worn on-stage by Chaney in the stabbing
scene. Levant discusses this opera in his autobiography A Smattering of
Ignorance and there is an analysis of it by Irene Hahn Atkins in Source
Music in Motion Pictures. H. Bruce Humberstone directed for 20th
Century
Fox. Black and white. 66 minutes.
Copyright @ 1997 by Ken Wlaschin. All rights reserved.
Mike
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http://www.mrichter.com/