Programs · Episode

KORNGOLD: The Dead City (Die Tote Stadt)

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, May 11, 2024 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

The Austrian-American composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold is best known today for his work in the movies. His numerous film credits include music for the Errol Flynn swashbuckler The Sea Hawk, and an Oscar-winning score for another Flynn vehicle, The Adventures of Robin Hood. But before he reached Hollywood, Korngold was already an internationally known composer of music for the concert hall — and the opera house. The Dead City is a moody tale about a man tormented by his tragic past, and struggling to hold on in a city quickly emptying in the wake of economic collapse.

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Leif Segerstam, conductor
Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra and Chorus

CAST: Thomas Sunnegårdh (Paul); Katarina Dalayman (Marietta/Marie); Anders Bergström (Frank); Ingrid Tobiasson (Brigitta)
(Naxos 8.660060))

Erich Leinsdorf, conductor
Munich Radio Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Chorus

CAST: René Kollo (Paul); Carol Neblett (Marietta/Marie); Benjamin Luxon (Frank); Rose Wagemann (Brigitta)
(RCA 88697446602)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

For a long time, watching great movies has also been a way to hear great music.  Yet, not so long ago, purveyors of classical music tended to avoid movie music altogether — and at times, even look down their noses at it.

More recently, that's been changing. Today, for example, when you turn on a classical radio station — including WDAV — you might just hear music from a classic film score played right alongside a Romantic tone poem, a Classical symphony, or a Baroque concerto.  An example might be music from Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Oscar-winning score for The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn — or, for that matter, from any one of Korngold's many other acclaimed film scores.

But, Korngold was hardly a "one-trick pony." By the time he first arrived in Hollywood, in the 1930s, he was already a successful composer — just not at the movies. By now, in fact, his most recognizable music may not be a film score. It might just be a concert piece, his widely performed Violin Concerto in D.  It was completed in 1945, when he was already a smashing success in the movie business. Even so, with that concerto, he was just picking up where he left off, many years earlier.

Korngold was born in Moravia, in 1897. By his 20s, he was a successful composer of concert music in Austria and Germany. For a while, his works were performed more often than the music of Richard Strauss! But then things changed. Not long after the Nazis came to power in Germany, and then took over in Austria as well, Korngold came to America — and it seems he decided to avoid writing anything but film scores until Nazi rule had ended.

Before the war, it was different.  Back then, Korngold had written symphonic overtures, a piano concerto, string quartets, and piano sonatas. He was also active in the theater. But, not in the movie theater. Korngold had composed operas. Since then, there's been some discussion about which one of Korngold's five or so operas is the best. But there's little doubt about which one has made the greatest impact. It's the opera featured here, Die tote Stadt — The Dead City.

On At the Opera, host Lisa Simeone takes us to Korngold's Dead City with two recordings. One was made live at the Royal Swedish Opera House in Stockholm, in 1996, with conductor Leif Segerstam. We'll also sample a 1975 recording from Munich, led by conductor Erich Leinsdorf, and featuring tenor René Kollo, with soprano Carol Neblett.

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