Silent movies come to Music on the Hill

Charlie Chaplin and classical music aren’t often found in the same place, but one of the Little Tramp’s silent comedies will be accompanied by music from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen at two performances in East Greenwich this week.

It makes sense once you learn that the film is A Burlesque on Carmen, an early (1916) parody of two Carmen films that had been released the year before, both based on Bizet’s opera. The original is about a soldier named Don José who falls hard for the Romani title character, a loose woman with a lot of attitude. In Chaplin’s much sillier version, the soldier’s name is Don Hosiery.

The silent movie event kicks off the 17th annual season of the Music on the Hill festival, featuring two weeks of classical concerts in East Greenwich, Warwick, and Cranston. The film runs about 44 minutes and is one of four silent shorts presented by Music on the Hill at two concerts on Wednesday, May 28. In recent years it’s become common for live musicians to perform improvised sets to silent classics, but this one is different.

“It’s not improvised,” says Emily Atkinson, executive director of Music on the Hill. “The program is curated from existing music that gets matched to each of the four films. There’s also talking in between each one, to give the audience context about the movies and the music and why they were paired.”

“It’s a big year for Bizet,” Atkinson says. This year is the sesquicentennial of the Romantic composer’s death, which happened rather abruptly just a few months after Carmen premiered in 1875.

The music will be performed by a string duo, violinist Anton Miller and violist Rita Porfiris, who selected the four films and the concert program. It takes place at Crafted Hope Brewing (1485 South County Trail, East Greenwich). There’s a matinee performance on Wednesday at 2:00pm and an evening screening at 8:00pm.

“This event will be cool for the history buffs. And there’s beer,” laughs Atkinson. “Beer is always good. We decided to do the program twice because the last time we did something in the space it was super packed, and we thought maybe some folks would prefer a less packed concert on a Wednesday afternoon.”

Other highlights include Appalachian Spring at Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston on June 8. That program is centered around the Shaker spiritual “Simple Gifts”. Most of the concerts feature small ensembles of performers, but this concert will feature thirteen instrumentalists on stage under the direction of well-known local conductor Edward Markward, who has led the Rhode Island Civic Chorale Orchestra, the Rhode Island College orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Barrington at St. John’s.

“People know Aaron Copland,” Atkinson says, “or people think they know Copland because they’ve heard bits and pieces in commercials and things.” (The beef industry famously used Copland’s work to great effect in commercials in the 1990s.) “So we decided to do Appalachian Spring to introduce people to his work.”

John Williams used a variation of the spiritual for his piece “Air and Simple Gifts,” composed for performance at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. That marked the first time that a classical quartet was performed at a presidential inauguration.

Other works fitting the theme include Mark O’Connor’s “Appalachia Waltz” (1996) and a solo violin and loop pedal improvisation from violinist Sarah Whitney. There will also be a brief Prokofiev solo piano piece performed byJack Paiva, a junior at The Prout School who won first prize this year in the festival’s annual student music competition.

In addition to seven public concerts, the festival includes a number of private performances for elementary school students and residents of elder care facilities. One such resident is Carol Pellegrino, a violinist who will join a string quartet for a short Mozart piece, her first performance in many years. Pellegrino was the music teacher for many years at Toll Gate High School, where she created the strings and orchestra program. A musical family, the Pellegrinos were integral to the founding of Music on the Hill’s festival in 2007. Carol’s nephew John Pellegrino is the festival’s Artistic Director.

“I’m always excited to bring home Rhode Island-born musicians, and friends whose devotion to Music on the Hill has made Rhode Island their home-away-from-home,” John Pellegrino said in a statement. “This year I’m especially excited to bring home trumpeter Rod MacDonald. Rod and I played in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra senior ensemble, along with oboist Anne Gabriele, in the 1980-81 school year. In our finale concert on June 10, Anne and Rod are the featured soloists, performing a concerto for oboe and trumpet. They soloed in the Youth Orchestra’s performance of Copland’s “Quiet City”, long ago.”

For those wondering about the name Music on the Hill, the Hill in question is the one in downtown East Greenwich. The organization got its start at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and still performs there today.

Tickets are just $30 in advance with Eventbrite or at the door (cash/check only), and free for students with I.D. For information, visit www.musiconthehillri.org.