“Charlie Chaplin, Eisler’s friend in postwar Hollywood, described the ruthlessness of the Eisler siblings as coming out of one of Shakespeare’s histories. Hanns Eisler’s use of music as a ‘political weapon’ would be… Continue reading →

“Operetta by Jewish composers and librettists suffered a particularly iniquitous post-Hitler legacy. The Third Reich’s guardians of public morality removed popular works and replaced them with alternatives from which all social satire and… Continue reading →

“While it is true that Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s most progressive music was composed while still a teenager, he equally loved the nostalgia of Viennese operetta. In arranging the works of others, he saw a… Continue reading →

“Erich Wolfgang Korngold, on the other hand – composer of Violanta, Der Ring des Polykrates and Die tote Stadt – is the only true contemporary opera composer who has been able to balance… Continue reading →

“Korngold was far classier than anyone Hollywood had encountered before, and everyone was in awe of him. His contract was unique, and he was spared the assembly line methods of other studio composers.… Continue reading →

Erich Wolfgang Korngold and family in New York in 1935.

“Korngold was far classier than anyone Hollywood had encountered before, and everyone was in awe of him. His contract was unique, and he was spared the assembly line methods of other studio composers.… Continue reading →

“Clemens Krauss left the Vienna Opera in 1934, and Die Bakchantinnen was not revived in Austria. Egon Wellesz had in any case turned a corner: Die Bakchantinnen would be his last stage work until Incognito,… Continue reading →