Champaign, IL — The Virginia Theatre has announced two screenings of the silent classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925) on Saturday, September 6, at 1pm and 7pm to celebrate the film’s 100th anniversary. Maestro Steven Ball will accompany the film on the theatre’s historic Hope Jones Wurlitzer Pipe Organ.
General Admission tickets are $10 with a per ticket fee of $2 and can be purchased at the Virginia Theatre Box Office, online at thevirginia.org, or charge by phone at 217-356-9063.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) screening is part of the 2025 News-Gazette Film Series.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)
Horror/Fantasy
92 Min
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House. Aspiring young opera singer, Christine Daaé, discovers that she has a mysterious admirer intent on helping her become a lead performer. This enigmatic masked presence is Erik, also known as the Phantom, a horribly disfigured recluse who lives underneath the opera house. When the Phantom takes Christine prisoner and demands her devotion and affection, her suitor, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, sets out to rescue her.
Dr. Steven Ball
Steven Ball is an organist, carillonneur, improviser, composer, conductor, campanologist, organ consultant and specialist in silent film accompaniment.
A native of Michigan originally, Dr. Ball studied at the University of Michigan and received his DMA in 2007. He later went on to serve as University Carillonneur and teach as a faculty member of the Organ Department and has since served in several prominent churches and public institutions across the country over the years including as Organist and Director of Outreach (now Emeritus) for the world’s largest pipe organ in Atlantic City, as well as the Cathedrals of Detroit and Philadelphia.
He is currently Artist in Residence at the Tampa Theatre in Tampa FL and maintains an active schedule traveling extensively as a consultant and concert artist.
A former Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands, he has traveled and performed extensively in both the United States and abroad including concerts in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Ireland, England, Switzerland, Italy and Mexico.
For more, visit stevenball.com.
