A MASTERPIECE of silent cinema, set in one of the world’s greatest cathedrals, will be screened in another – Salisbury Cathedral, on Saturday 15th November, when The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be shown, with a live organ score.
Jonathan Hope, one of the most dynamic organists of his generation, will improvise a live organ soundtrack to the 1923 silent movie, which stars Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, and was the first film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 classic gothic novel.
Jonathan Hope studied in Guildford and at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers included Margaret Phillips and Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin (improvisation).
Since 2014, he has been assistant director of music at Gloucester Cathedral, where he serves as principal organist, directs the Cathedral youth choir, and is artistic director of the Saint Cecilia Singers. He is also festival organist for the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival.
Previously Organ Scholar at Winchester and Southwark Cathedrals, he has played at major national events including the 2012 London Olympics, the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the funeral of Sir John Tavener.
His solo recital career spans the UK, Europe, USA, and Australia. Known for his improvisations to silent films and orchestral transcriptions, he also regularly collaborates with leading orchestras and choirs. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2023, performing Holst’s The Planets with BBCNOW.
Nowadays, most people know Victor Hugo from the musical version of his magnificent novel Les Miserables, but The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a novel of astonishing power and melodrama. The 1923 film, directed by Wallace Worsley, and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg, was the most successful silent movie produced by Universal Pictures. It is particularly notable for the grand sets that recall 15th century Paris as well as for Chaney’s performance and make-up as the tortured hunchback bellringer Quasimodo. The film elevated Lon Chaney, who was already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood.
The story is set in Paris in 1482. Quasimodo is a deaf, half-blind, hunchbacked bell-ringer of the famous Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. His master is a man named Jehan, the evil brother of Notre Dame’s saintly archdeacon Dom Claude. One night, Jehan prevails upon Quasimodo to kidnap the fair Esmeralda, a dancing Roma girl (and the adopted daughter of Clopin, the king of the oppressed beggars of Paris’ underworld).
While there is a happy ending, the film’s enduring image follows the murder of Quasimodo, who rings his own death toll and the screen goes dark on the great bell swinging silently above Quasimodo’s corpse.