Korngold Festival
April 1-10, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
The University of Chicago’s and Folks Operetta’s Korngold Rediscovered Festival celebrates the life and music of one of the 20th century’s most successful yet underrecognized composers, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Taking place in April 2022, Korngold Rediscovered will offer a new glimpse into this significant composer through concerts, lectures, a film screening, a workshopped theater production reading, a scholarly symposium, and the North American premiere of Korngold’s last opera, in the 125th anniversary year of his birth.
Korngold Rediscovered is a collaboration between Folks Operetta, UChicago Presents, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, the University of Chicago Division of the Humanities, and the University of Chicago Department of Cinema and Media Studies.
All events take place at the Logan Center (915 E 60th). For more information, visit korngoldfestival.org
SCHEDULE
James Ehnes, violin and Orion Weiss, piano
Fri, Apr 1, 7:30pm / Logan Center Performance Hall
University of Chicago Presents
$40 | $20 under 35 | $10 Students
Combining effortless virtuosity with steadfast musicality, violinist James Ehnes is joined by pianist Orion Weiss in a program of many violin and piano repertoire favorites, including Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing suite and Tanzlied from one of Korngold’s most beloved operas, Die tote Stadt.
Korngold in Song
Sat, Apr 2, 7:30pm / Logan Center Performance Penthouse
$35/ $15 (UChicago students only)
Folks Operetta’s “Korngold in Song” concert explores Korngold’s work in art song and operetta. From an early age, Korngold was a prolific composer of lieder. With his keen sense of melody and his affinity for setting poetic text, he was a master of the genre. Korngold also devoted significant time and effort to his orchestrations of operettas by Johann Strauss, Jr. and Leo Fall. He is often cited as re-invigorating operetta after the First World War. This concert will feature the song cycles, So Gott und Papa will; Lieder des Abschieds, op. 14; and Sechs einfache Lieder, op. 9; as well as some of Korngold’s little-known work in the field of operetta, including selections from Die Stumme Serenade, Rosen aus Florida, and Die geschiedene Frau; the rarely-heard Prayer, op. 32; and song selections from some of his film scores.
Korngold Symposium:
From the City of Music to the City of Angels: Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Compositional Journey
Wed-Fri, Apr 6-8, various times / Logan Center Performance Penthouse
FREE, RSVP Recommended
The Korngold Symposium encompasses performances and academic presentations, which together complement and enhance the American premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's 1937 opera, Die Kathrin, at the Logan Center for the Arts. The Symposium participants, both guest speakers and those from the University of Chicago, represent different departments and disciplines. Presentations will address a range of topics related to Korngold's life and work, as well as broader issues in Jewish music and culture in Europe and the United States, including the relationship between music, film, and other media and the experience and effects of exile.
Featuring a concert by the New Budapest Orpheum Society, "The Golden Age of Jewish Film Music,” on April 6 at 7:30pm.
For a full schedule of the symposium events, visit korngoldfestival.org
Die Kathrin
Thu, Apr 7 & Sat, Apr 9, 7:30pm / Logan Center Performance Hall
$50-75 / $25 UChicago Students (limited quantities, Standard seating only)
Folks Operetta presents American premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s last opera, Die Kathrin. This rarely-performed 1937 opera was written between the two wars and at the height of Korngold’s creative powers. Korngold was a master of vocal and orchestral writing, and Die Kathrin is no exception. With its dramatic story and lush, romantic score, the opera is a throwback to the turn of the twentieth century, a stylistic bridge between old Vienna and the rich sound of the classic Hollywood soundtrack. It tells a story of perseverance and the unending power of love.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Fri, Apr 8, 7:00pm / Logan Center Screening Room
Film Studies Center
FREE, RSVP Recommended
The 1938 film, The Adventures of Robin Hood, will be presented in a rare archival print by the Film Studies Center. This film was the first to realize the full dimensions of the epic movie that Hollywood films would in many ways define. The all-star cast — Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains — appear larger than life and is shot in rare technicolor, moving through the sonic landscape of Korngold’s richly orchestrated composition. In fact, he received the 1938 Academy Award for the best dramatic score in a film. Print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum and lent by an anonymous collector.
Quatuor Diotima
Sun, Apr 10, 3pm / Logan Center Performance Hall
University of Chicago Presents
$30 | $20 under 35 | $10 Students
French string quartet Quatuor Diotima, known for casting a new light on both masterpieces of the quartet canon and contemporary additions to the genre, presents one of Korngold’s lesser-known pieces, his third string quartet, alongside other hidden gems of the string quartet repertoire, including Zemlinsky’s first quartet and Brahms’ second.
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