The restored film score of Abel Gance's legendary epic 1927 film "Napoleon" is being premiered on Thursday and Friday in Paris - under the baton of German conductor Frank Strobel.
Reconstruction of the film's music took 14 years, and resulted in a score that as compiled from 104 separate pieces by 48 composers and which weighs 33 kilograms.
The mammoth work, which is a French national treasure, will celebrate its world premiere in two parts on July 4 and 5 at the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, one of the largest concert halls in France.
Under the direction of Strobel, over 250 musicians will accompany the 7-hour version of the silent film, whose €4.5 million ($4.8 million) reconstruction is itself regarded as an epic achievement.
Strobel is known for his film concerts. He has conducted performances of the restored versions of "Metropolis" and "The Tired Death" by Fritz Lang, among others. The "Napoleon" epic is nevertheless a challenge for the director of the European Film Philharmonic and former chief conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester in Cologne.
"The score is extraordinarily stylistically diverse. It covers around 300 years of music history and ranges from Mozart and Wagner to Beethoven, Liszt, Haydn, Berlioz and Penderecki," he told dpa in Paris. Strobel calls the composition, compiled by Simon Cloquet-Lafollye, a kaleidoscope that is a fully thought-out system.
the conducter is no stranger to the work of Gance, having already provided musical accompaniment for two works by the avant-garde film pioneer.
The epic film is designed as a grand spectacle that portrays Napoleon Bonaparte as a superman. With over 400,000 metres of film, thousands of extras and a wide array of film techniques on display, the film was widely regarded as the work of a megalomaniac at the time it was made.