The Shostakovich Centenary reconstruction of Dmitri Shostakovich, Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg’s New Babylon will receive its UK premiere at Opera North’s newly restored Howard Assembly Room at the Victorian Grand Theatre, Leeds (N. England) on Saturday and Sunday, 16/17 May 2009.

THE 1929 ORIGINAL LENINGRAD
SYNCHRONISED RESTORATION PRINT

The full length 2,580-metre reconstruction of New Babylon: Dmitri Shostakovich’s first work for cinema and the USSR’s first great unrecorded sound film, will be made available for a 24fps large-screen digital projection to accompany live performances of DSCH Edition’s full corrected score of the composer’s ‘Music for the Film New Babylon: Opus 18’.

A Realityfilm restoration, realised by Marek Pytel and conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald, the reconstruction of the FEKS-produced film by Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg, this ‘new’ New Babylon features 25% (510 metres) more original footage than any print previously available and is the original version for which Shostakovich’s full score was written.

"ONE OF THE HIGHPOINTS OF SOVIET CINEMA, OF SHOSTAKOVICH'S CAREER AND OF DRAMATIC MUSIC IN GENERAL"

New Babylon
The Factory of The Eccentric Actor

Directors - Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg
Camera - Andrei Moskvin
Design - Yevgeni Enei
Music - Dmitri Shostakovich
Production - Leningradkino Film Factory USSR 1929

Restoration
Produced & Directed by Marek Pytel

Conductor
Mark Fitz-Gerald

Act 1 - General Sale
Act 2 - Head Over Heels
Act 3 - The Siege Of Paris
Act 4 - 18 March 1871
Act 5 - Versailles against Paris
Act 6 - The Barricade
Act 7 - To the Firing Squad
Act 8 - Death

DISTRIBUTION:
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www.contemporaryfilms.com
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