How did you approach “Titus”?
I had already composed a theatre score for it on stage. For that, it was very difficult to have simultaneous music because the actors weren’t miked, so most of the music was transitional. For the film, there are many diverse elements reflecting the diversity of the setting in 20th-century Rome. You just have to spend five minutes [in Rome] and you can see buildings that are operatic in scope that go back to early antiquity next to Mussolini’s buildings and modern Fiats and motorcycles and Renaissance art. You see it all and hear it all. Opera could be coming out of one window and rap out of the other. There is a lot of humor in the play; I had to balance it with a sense of capriciousness and the human dilemma.
How did you decide which characters or ideas have their own themes?
Every film has its own challenge. There are certain keys that can give you a start – the cadence in an actor’s voice, the lighting, the art direction. So many things can trigger a musical reaction. The film opens in a giant coliseum, and for that I used percussion and a large male chorus to give a large panorama feel. But when we see the boy [Lucius] with carved hands, I wanted something really small – a viola to show the fragility of it all.
Some of the score is reminiscent of Nino Rota’s music for Fellini’s films. Is that coincidental?
When the clown delivers the heads [to Titus], the music is very circusy. At that point Rota and I are drinking from the same well. Julie [Taymor] and Fellini have a similar background. Fellini was a caricaturist before he was a filmmaker and Julie was a mask-maker.
How do you divide your time between film and theatre?
I would say that one-third of my time is spent on theatre, one-third on film, and one-third on concerts and other stage work. I tend not to do one film after another. I am currently working on a comedia, with singing, of Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird on Broadway.
Is film music fulfilling for you?
Yes. Film is such a young art. A film composer is at the same stage as Monteverdi was with opera. When he was writing opera, opera had been around for less than a century. The art is in its infancy. There is so much that could developed in that. Just as in “Titus”, you can embrace eons.
How different is it scoring big studio pictures like “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin”?
It was great fun working on “Batman Forever” especially. You cannot walk out saying that the experience is under-the-top. All film work is very intensive: you do not have more than a month to complete the score.
You often work with the same directors. Is this rewarding?
I’ve done four films with Neil Jordan. We work closely and talk and talk and come up with the same concept. I was going to do “The End of the Affair” but I was already committed to “Titus”. I’ve done three films with Joel Schumacher.
What film do you regret most?
“Heat” was my biggest mistake. I shouldn’t have done the score. It was maddening working on that movie because there was a lot of acquired music and songs and Michael Mann was very particular, so that spoilt what should have been a collaboration between Brian Eno and me.
You recorded “Titus” at Abbey Road Studios in London. Why?
I like recording certain types of music at Abbey Road. I’m on a first-name basis with many of the musicians and there are no union re-use situations, so you just pay them on a fee basis. I’ve done three scores there. I also like the Manhattan Center in New York City which has a beautiful sound, and the New York Philharmonic is great.