Sorry, must just mention Miklos Rosza's music for "Ben-Hur". I know it's slightly cheesy in places, and he must have employed MANY arrangers, but I was absolutely wowed by it on the film's first run in 1959, and I still am. Positively operatic. Try the bit where Ben-Hur returns to Judea and meets Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men. Rosza manages to get three main themes in within about three minutes, totally seamlessly.