> plays the sphere like a theremin

Wow, that's a brilliantly horrifying image. (Are there other analogous ones? Does anyone do musical timing of building demolitions, or something like that?)

I have the vague feeling like the last 40 years of movies must have contained at least one scene where a villainous figure makes conductor-motions as things explode to music, but I can't recall anything specific.

There was the V For Vendetta movie where landmarks exploded to the 1812 Overture, but no gesturing was involved.