A Prodigy in Sherwood Forest

Thu, Mar 4, 2010 by Reference

Erich Wolfgang Korngold is often credited with the creation of the modern film score. But before arriving in Hollywood he was well known in Europe as a composer of operas and concert works. Like his namesake, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Korngold began his musical career as a child prodigy.

Korngold came to Hollywood from Austria in 1934 and shortly after signed an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., making him one of the first world-renowned composers to work in the Hollywood film industry. Shortly after his arrival in California, the Anschluss took place in Austria, creating perilous conditions for Jews and forcing him to remain in America.

His first original score for Captain Blood helped launch Errol Flynn’s film career in 1935, and Korngold’s score for the movie Anthony Adverse received an Oscar for the best film music of the year 1936. His other scores include The Prince and the Pauper (1937), Juarez (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), The Sea Wolf (1941), King’s Row (1941), and Deception (1946).

Please join us on March 9, 2010 at 12:00pm at the Annex to enjoy Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s superb Oscar-winning score for the swashbuckling epic The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.