Carnegie Carnegie corner: 'On stage' with Melanie Paglia

From the beginning of existence, humans have been dreaming, creating and telling tales that entertain, explain the inexplicable and push our potential beyond imagination. A Jan. 25 music hall performance captures this magic.

In the late 19th century, the invention of the film camera opened a new world of possibilities to dazzle audiences with magical stories. French illusionist Georges Méliès was among the first to explore film’s infinite potential to entertain. He rejected his lot in his family’s shoe-making business for a life onstage as an illusionist. But his early exposure to tinkering with shoe-making machinery allowed him to eventually assemble his own film camera well before they were readily available to consumers.

Film allowed Méliès to surmount limitations of live performance. He created over 500 films between 1888 and 1912, though only 200 remain. His background with performance magic and illusion lent to his pioneering experimental film techniques like double exposure, split screen and dissolve. This early movie magic paved the way for modern cinematography and wowed early 20th-century audiences. His elaborate sets, costumes and narrative were secondary to the optical tricks of figures appearing and disappearing before an audience’s very eyes.

Brian Selznick’s 2007 novel, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” and Scorsese’s 2011 film, “Hugo,” are based on the life of Georges Méliès. Both beautifully shed light into the imaginative mind of the famed film director and his rise, fall and resurrection. And both are available to borrow the next time you visit the library.

Award-winning Pittsburgh based composer Kyle Simpson is the latest contemporary artist to find inspiration in Méliès’ movie magic. Simpson has created original scores for two of Méliès’ most iconic silent films, “A Trip to the Moon (1902)” and “The Kingdom of Fairies (1903)” which will see their regional debut at the Carnegie Carnegie Music Hall on Jan. 25.

Pittsburgh’s Redline String Quartet will join Simpson and his chamber orchestra for a live performance of the scores and film screenings.

Simpson pays homage to Méliès’ early 20th-century cinematography with his own eclectic compositional style with influences of Debussy, Stravinsky and Reich, and inspiration from the cinematic sounds of John Williams and Alexandre Deplat.

We invite you to travel through time with us and rediscover these brilliant films with the uniquely 21st-century concept of marrying contemporary music with classic film.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25, $20 in advance, $15 with a student ID and $5 for age 12 and under. For tickets, visit CarnegieCarnegie.org or call 800-838-3006.

Melanie Paglia is the Carnegie Music Hall director.