The following are excerpts from KissFAQ's interview with producer Mark Opitz in celebration of the 10th anniversary of KISS Symphony:

KF: I assume Tommy would have been around during this time as well. How about Peter Criss? Would he have been around during this stage?

MO: "No, Peter wasn't around at all during post-production. Tommy was around a lot because he was our contact. In the end, we had to get involved in the video side as well, because the video guys were sending us pictures that weren't what we needed. They were sending us pictures with shots from Dallas and other shows like that, and we said, "No way. No way. We can't do that. We can only use pictures that we've got. It won't work." So in the end we took a big hand in how the video was put together as well. That's why we get such a big credit, if you watch the DVD, we come straight away after the band and Doc. In the end, we had to get involved in the vision as well. Because music is king and that's the thing that we had to keep putting across to the video people that video is very, very important and vision is very much part of a KISS show when you go to see it, very much part of the spectacular, but in the end the music has to be king. The vision has to follow the music. Again, we know what the KISS Army is like and their fan base, and there's no band in the world that treats their fans better than KISS. There is just not. The just really are so conscious of their fan base."

KF: I want to go back to Peter. Given he was struggling with carpal tunnel at the time, how do you rate his performance on the album?

MO: "Well, I rate his performance really well. Because he was soft hitting, there was a bit of enhancement on the drum sound to get a bit more power into it. But it was his playing, I just had to use his good hits and when you had a really good hit, I would use that snare sound underneath his other softer hit. But I used all of his sounds to make [it] work. But it did mean I had to bring in when he was hitting harder, I'd use his soft hits, because it was hard for him to hit, so I'd have to enforce his own sounds by just doubling up on them and things like that."

KF: Was a click track at all considered, or would that have been too difficult given the symphony aspect and that there was a conductor?

MO: "Too difficult, far too difficult, because of the symphony component. Just getting him to sing was hard. When he was doing "Beth" and stuff like that I had to help him out with that in the studio, just sticking him into time here and there, where he sort of fell out of time. I said, "Look, just let me do what I do." And then I played it back to him, and he started crying."

KF: I believe that was a big moment for him. "Beth" was obviously a big hit for KISS and Peter always sang along with a tape at concerts. This was the first time he actually sang it with an orchestra.

MO: "Yeah. Once I got in there and fixed any little technical difficulties he had, and played it back to him in the studio, he just started crying. That was a pretty big compliment. We got to know the boys really well and built up a huge respect for each other. It was one of the most interesting projects -- if not the most interesting project -- that I've ever been on. Not just the length of it, but because of the people. I was struck by the intelligence of people like Paul and Gene, they're just two of the smartest guys I've ever met. Particularly, Paul. I said to him, "Why did you take the makeup off?" And he said, "So we could put it back on." And I thought that's the smartest answer I've ever heard in the music business. To take [the makeup] off and then put it back on. It's genius. Just genius."

Read the entire interview here.