These Fans Love ‘Pride & Prejudice' a Billion Times Over
'Ladies and gentlemen,' a voice announced over speakers, 'please welcome world-renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet!'
A roar erupted from hundreds of people dressed in their Regency-inspired finest: tailcoats and dresses with puffed shoulders, costume jewelry and ringlet-curled hair. They crowded around a small Steinway piano to the side of a makeshift stage, whose backdrop was like a billboard: a purple expanse with the image of Keira Knightley in a bonnet and the text 'Pride & Prejudice: Twentieth Anniversary.'
It was a Comic Con for the Jane Austen set, an enormous party thrown by Focus Features for one of its most beloved films, Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice.' Inside the Viennese Ballroom at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, Calif., fans of the movie recently gathered for the rare opportunity to hear Thibaudet perform Dario Marianelli's soundtrack.
Thibaudet, dressed in custom Vivienne Westwood designed for the occasion, took his seat at the piano and began to play 'Dawn,' the tone-setting theme from the start of the film, in which a freely repeating note gives way to an instantly endearing melody over gentle waves of arpeggios. A hush swept through the room, and people held up their phones to record. Two friends held each other and cried; one took a video as the other wiped away her tears.
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