Benedict Mason Benedict Mason

ChaplinOperas

[Music]

Asked by the Ensemble Modern to compose a score for the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s birth in 1989, Benedict Mason came up with an « invisible » opera. His challenge was to combine music and cinema in a way that would make three of Chaplin’s silent films from 1917 compelling to modern audiences. His recipe calls for sung (or musically rendered) snippets of text from the films, proverbs, and a creative use of percussion instruments.