Renowned film music composer Patrick Doyle will conduct a concert with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) next month, showcasing some of highlights from his best-known works in Qatar.
The live event will include excerpts of soundtracks from classic films such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sense and Sensibility and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
It is one of two evenings with the QPO in a new thematic series of movies and music hosted by the Doha Film Institute (DFI).
Titled A Symphony of Films, the five-day event will run from Sept. 22 to 26 at Katara Drama Theater and Opera House and will also include six film screenings, a film master class with Scottish Doyle and a live musical accompaniment of a silent adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The mini-series will conclude on Sept. 26 with Doyle conducting A Symphony of Films Concert at Katara Opera House.
In addition to music from movie classics, the event will mark the 400th anniversary of the death of English playwright William Shakespeare by including compositions from Doyle’s long-term collaboration with British filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.
Compositions from the films Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Henry V will be performed by QPO at the evening event.
Tickets can be bought through QPO’s website and cost from QR75 to QR200 per person.
Doyle will also lead a master class, The Art of Music in Films, at Katara Drama Theater on Sept. 24.
During it, he will discuss the importance of music in film and the power a soundtrack can have over audiences, DFI said in a statement.
This is a free event, but tickets should be reserved in advance through DFI’s website.
Silent horror
The series opens on Sept. 22 with another live musical event and the screening of German director FW Murnau’s expressionist horror film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror).
QPO will provide a live accompaniment of the original score to this silent adaptation of Dracula. Tickets cost QR75 to QR200 per person and can also be bought through QPO’s website.
The event, which is a collaboration between organizations including DFI, QPO, the British Embassy and the British Council, also includes six screenings of classic films.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Sergio Leone; Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest; Nadine Labaki’s debut feature film Caramel, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and Landscape in the Mist by Theo Angelopoulos will be shown at Katara Drama Theater.
DFI is offering a QR100 ticket package that provides entry for one person to each of the screenings at the masterclass. It can be bought online or in person, but does not cover the performances at Katara Opera House.
In addition, there will be a free youth screening of the 3D film Brave by Pixar in the presence of Doyle.
In a statement, he said:
“I’m very much looking forward to my first trip to Qatar. To celebrate Shakespeare, in this 400th year anniversary of his death, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to perform music from a selection of Shakespeare film adaptations that I’ve had the good fortune to work on with my friend Sir Kenneth Branagh.
I am also delighted to present some world premieres from a selection of my films over the past 25 years.”
This latest season of film and music follows previous themed series; ‘Masters of Illusion’, ‘Science Fiction in Film-Spaceships in Cinema’ and ‘Fashion in Film: Costume as Character.’
Fatma Al Remaihi, chief executive officer of DFI, described the event as a “celebration of two of the most powerful artforms – music and film.”
“The unique showcase of accomplished films, live music performance and the master-class will contribute to strengthening a deeper understanding of global film and music trends,” Al Remaihi added.
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