Korngold redivivus

By Paul Haist

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A Portland native who has made his life in music and who has dedicated the last 10 years to his fascination with the 20th-century Jewish-Viennese-American composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold is close to realizing a dream.
Ralph Wells is an operatic baritone who today teaches voice at Oregon State University. When he is not otherwise occupied, he has been at work for several years now on a musical revue based on the life of Korngold, a child prodigy and musical genius who composed operas, concert music and film scores.
Wells' revue features the composer's music with lyrics by various authors. Wells created the book, additional lyrics and musical adaptations.
The Willamette Concert Opera will present "Farewell, Vienna!" in a free, semi-staged version with piano accompaniment Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Scottish Rite Center Auditorium in Portland.
Wells described his work in an exhaustive 2001 interview.

"It tells Korngold's life story through the eyes of the man himself, using his vocal music as the primary vehicle to illustrate his genius," said Wells. "The character of Korngold appears in his early 60s, just before his final illness and death. He is looking back on his life, musing on the ups and downs of one of the most remarkable careers of his era.
"As he tells the audience of his journey through life, the singers become characters in his works, both on stage and in films, plus people in his life who played important roles."
As it will be presented in Portland, "Farewell, Vienna!" will include three sopranos, a mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a baritone, as well as an actor in the role of Korngold.
Wells had long looked forward to performing the part of the baritone, but a stroke a few years ago forced him to step back from that role for now. It is almost eerily coincidental that Korngold, Wells and the man who inspired Wells to pursue this work are all stroke victims.
In the Portland performance, Grammy nominee William Stromberg will conduct. Actor William Dean O'Neil will play the role of Korngold. The singers include Elizabeth Wells, Barbara Custer, Eleanor Stallcop Horrox, Janice Edwards, John David de Haan, Michael McCall and Alessandro Magno. Juilliard-trained pianist Brian Farrell will accompany. Phil Randall will direct.
Korngold's story is rich with success and disappointment. It is a story strongly influenced by the fact that he was Jewish.
Korngold was born in 1897 in what is today the Czech Republic; he grew up in Vienna where his father was an eminent music critic.
A prodigy from an early age, Korngold composed his first original works at about age 8. Hugely precocious, he attracted the attention of masters. Gustav Mahler encouraged Korngold's father to engage a renowned teacher for his son. Alexander von Zemlinsky became the boy's musical mentor.
Mahler called the young Korngold a genius. Giacomo Puccini said, "That boy has so much talent that he could afford to give away half of it to us and still have more than enough left over for himself."
In 1910, at age 13, Korngold's two-act ballet/pantomime "Der Schneemann" (The Snowman) premiered at the Vienna Hofoper.
The boy was known as a "wunderkind" or miracle child.
"Der Schneemann" was followed quickly by a piano sonata premiered by Artur Schnabel, in addition to several other important orchestral works presented by leading musicians including Artur Nikisch, Felix von Weingartner and Karl Flesch.
Korngold's star was rising rapidly.
In 1916, his status as a respected opera composer was cemented with the success of two one-act operas. In 1921 Maria Jeritza sang the lead role in Korngold's third opera, "Die Tote Stadt" (The Dead State) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
His career continued along these lines until the rise of Hilter and Nazism forced him to escape Austria and Europe. The Nazis labeled his music degenerate and banned its performance.
Korngold said of his experience under the Nazis, "I was to pay a price higher than any other excepting death at the hands of murderers. My music was banned by the Nazis."
Like many other European Jews then, Korngold found a new home in Hollywood where he turned his gifts to films scores.
It is said that he created the modern film score.
Korngold's film credits include "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk," "The Sea Wolf," "Anthony Adverse," "Give Us This Night," "Of Human Bondage" and "Kings Row," among others.
He won two Oscars for his film scores—in 1936 for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and in 1938 for "Anthony Adverse."
It was watching old films on TV as a child in his Portland home that Wells was first exposed to the music of Korngold.
"I can still remember the huge impression pictures like 'The Adventures of Robin Hood" and 'The Sea Hawk' made upon me," said Wells. "I didn't know yet who Korngold was, but I was already beginning to feel the effects of the scores on my musical sensibilities."
A number of years would pass before Wells would take up the project of creating a dramatic musical reflection on the life of Korngold. It began with an astonishing coincidence back around 1990.
Wells was traveling when his mother wrote to tell him that Korngold's granddaughter had moved into the house next door to her in Portland.
Wells was incredulous at first, but it turned out to be true. This led to a number of new friendships in Wells' life, culminating in his introduction to noted film historian Tony Thomas, who also became his friend.
Thomas, who was much older than Wells, confided to him once that he had long wanted to create a Korngold musical revue. With revitalized interest in the project, Thomas created a draft script that he sent to Wells.
Wells called that the beginning of the project, or "the first beginning," because "the whole thing would take a tragic turn."
Thomas suffered a stroke that claimed his life.
"I assumed the Korngold show would simply die away with him," said Wells.
But friends encouraged him to proceed on his own, which he did, starting from scratch and dedicating to Thomas the work that followed.
After World War II, Korngold retired from Hollywood and returned to the life of a classical composer. Jascha Heifetz premiered his "Violin Concerto" in 1947, as well as his "Symphony in F-Sharp."
He returned to Europe, but was unable to reclaim his former eminence.
Korngold's compositions, said Wells, were "very elaborate Germanic music, but very melodic—Strauss meets Puccini."
But in the postwar world of classical music, the atonal was ascendant and Korngold's Romanticism was dismissed and largely ignored.
Discouraged, Korngold said farewell to Europe a second time and returned to California where, in 1957, he suffered a stroke and died, decades before the late-20th-century emergence of Neo-romanticism that would foster a renewed appreciation of his genius and achievement.
Wells says that "Farewell, Vienna!" encompasses Korngold's success and disappointment.
"It portrays," he said, "a man who literally starts at the top of the musical world, falls into an abyss of obscurity and does not live to see his music successfully revived years later."
Today, Korngold is more popular than ever.

Learn more about Erich Wolfgang Korngold at www.korngold.com.