Copeland first had to secure the rights to the film from Warner Bros. As he watched the movie, he realized he had the music to go with the film, but it would take two years to achieve his vision. He had the idea to have an orchestral concert of the score with slides of chariots as visuals, but then discovered the 1920s classic. The composer had to do a lot of adapting on the fly.Įventually the show ran its course and left Copeland owning all the music. I had to rewrite a lot of stuff as the director worked the scenes.”įor instance, although the horse wrangler, who was slated to be the show’s chariot master, had estimated that it would take the chariots 27 seconds to do a lap – and Copeland wrote the music to that timing – when they got to the arena, he discovered that it only took 15 seconds to go around. Of course when we’re actually rehearsing this thing with the music that I had written, changes had to be made. “While I’m doing that, I’m laying down a kind of audio soundscape and building the music in with the narration and dialog elements,” explained Copeland. That’s the scene.”īen HurTo create a template for the show’s timing, Copeland had to enact the scene, record the narration and dialog, and imagine how long it would take for the cavalry to ride onto the set and perform their action. He stated that all he had to work with was the script, “A Roman cavalry troupe comes thundering onto the set. Drummer and film composer Stewart Copeland ( Wall Street, Rumble Fish) – drummer, film composer and founding member of The Police – was commissioned to write the music, which was pre-recorded in Eastern Europe and played back during the show.Īs a film composer, Copeland has created music to go with visuals, but in the case of the live show, he had to write the score before the staging of the scenes. With a tour planned across Europe, a live arena spectacle of Ben Hur, which included the iconic chariot race and pirate battle, was being staged in 2009. Based upon the original Lew Wallace novel, the story has been adapted numerous times in various mediums with the 1959 Charlton Heston film probably being the best know iteration. Stewart Copeland (Photo by Shayne Gray)With its epic visual scope and massive cast and crew, Fred Niblo’s 1925 film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ was the most expensive silent film ever made.
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