Erich Wolfgang Korngold is an extraordinary figure who bridged the worlds of serious music, operetta and film music. Thus he worked with both Mahler and Errol Flynn. As a child prodigy composer in Vienna he achieved legendary status, but personal pressure later drew him into operetta arrangement and thence to Hollywood where he spent the war years becoming a highly influential composer of film music. Ignoring the changing tides of musical fashion, Korngold continued to write in his own lush, romantic idiom. Now, as his music is currently enjoying a great revival of interest, this study offers a reappraisal of his life and work.
