RUSSIAN CLASSIC REVIVED

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the American Film Institute will be the beneficiaries of a unique revival of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 classic film “Alexander Nevsky” on Nov. 3, it was announced Monday.

The presentation, sponsored by AT&T; in the Pavilion of the Music Center, will feature a new print of the film, electronically enhanced dialogue and sound effects from the sound track, subtitles projected beneath the picture and a live performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s original symphonic score (the film sound track used a small orchestra) by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Andre Previn, joined by the Scottish mezzo-soprano Christine Cairns and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

The event will be the first of three showings of the newly restored film in the United States. On Nov. 22, the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, will perform at a screening in Cleveland, and Mstislav Rostropovich will conduct the National Symphony at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., next spring.

Proceeds from each of the three performances will benefit both the presenting orchestra and the American Film Institute, which has earmarked its portion for the National Center for Film and Video Preservation, established three years ago by the institute and the National Endowment for the Arts.

“This is the first time that film audiences will hear the film and music audiences will see the music,” said John Goberman, the Emmy-award winning producer of the “Live From Lincoln Center” series on PBS, who is producing the events, which are costing an estimated $300,000.

Long familiar as a popular concert-piece, Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky,” a cantata for orchestra, mixed chorus and contralto soloist, has not had wide distribution in its original film context. The subject of the film is a crucial event in Russian history: the bloody battle, in the winter of 1242, between an army of peasants, led by Prince Alexander, and Teutonic invaders.

Prince Alexander of Novgorod was given the name Nevsky when he was victorious in a battle repelling the invading army of Sweden at the river Neva in the year 1240. His subsequent victory, and the one dealt with in the film, was achieved with the help of peasants, and drove back the advance of Teutonic knights into Russian territory.

When the film was made in 1938, Nevsky’s victories represented to many Russians a symbolic heroism at a time when their country was again threatened with invasion by neighboring states.

Goberman supervised the adaptation of the 40-minute cantata for use with the film. The original film score, he said, was lost.

“Basically, all Prokofiev did when he wrote the cantata for concert performance was to tighten up the film score, and with brilliant orchestrations for the concert hall--the film score having been performed for microphones,” Goberman told The Times on Monday. William D. Brohn made the adaptation.

At the Pavilion performance, Goberman said, the Philharmonic “will be placed on, rather than in, the orchestra pit, just below the screen, which will take up most of the proscenium space.” Newly translated subtitles will also be placed below the screen, “like operatic super-titles, but at the bottom, rather than at the top,” he said.

Calling Prokofiev’s score for “Nevsky” “the best film score ever written,”conductor Previn noted that the Philharmonic performance in November “will be my first venture as a conductor for films in over 20 years.”

Having seen the 107-minute film (which contains 60 minutes of music) again recently, Previn said Monday that “the only element which does not work is the original musical sound track, which resembles six players recorded in a phone booth.”

Commenting on the revival of the historic Eisenstein/Prokofiev collaboration, R. Z. Manna, manager of corporate advertising for AT&T; said, “Now, for the first time, audiences will experience the full impact of this collaboration.”