Lon Chaney lives again and is coming to the Pantages with the help of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, music director Harvey Felder, film composer/accompanist Rick Friend — and a large movie screen. This season’s spring pops concert on Sunday, March 30 is titled “An Afternoon of Music and Film,” and is being devoted to a screening of Lon Chaney’s 1925 film portrayal of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. The movie will be shown in its entirety.



“We chose Phantom because it’s a good one to start with, being very recognizable and well known” says symphony executive director Andrew Buelow, of the new pops concert format.



The film’s original music score (also performed live of course) has long since disappeared, but California-based composer Rick Friend has written a new orchestral piece for the film, drawing on a variety of styles and works designed to suit the film and its portrayed era. (The film takes place within — and beneath — the Paris Opera House during the 19th century.) Friend’s musical inspirations included music by Schuman, Prokofiev and Gounoud, which the composer blended with melodies of his own composition.



The result, according to a review in the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal, is a musical work that is “exceptionally effective, conveying the emotional content displayed by the actors and giving life to the action scenes.”



Friend has also scored music for other silent classics, including The Thief of Bagdad, Nosferatu, and Buster Keaton’s The General, among others. And for the Tacoma screening of Phantom, composer Friend is joining the symphony as a guest pianist and keyboardist.



“If people like the format,” Buelow says, “we’ll bring Rick Friend back for more silent movies in the future.”



[Pantages Theater, 2:30 p.m., $10-$75, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.272.7264, www.tacomasymphony.org]