Yes, he had a career before he came to Hollywood and became a great writer of scores. In Germany, he wrote three amazingly popular operas (and a few others not so popular). Die Tote Stadt, the story of a grieving widower and his painful emergence both from grief and from doing stupid stuff on the rebound, was so highly anticipated and so competed for, that it had simultaneous world premieres in two different German cities!
The Nazis drove him out of Germany for being Jewish, of course.
Anyway, I just saw a little bit of Die Tote Stadt on that little Classic Arts Showcase thing that runs on public access in the mornings. It was Korngold for sure. Even in one of those stupid European opera productions which are designed to go diametrically against the actual meaning of the work, the stupendously beautiful music and songs shone through. Apparently they only work with extremely good and healthy singers, though, because he has the full orchestra going most of the time and the singers are expected to sing right along with it.
I think it’s a great shame that he didn’t write any operas in America. His film scores were very important, but the twentieth century was very low on good operas, much less great ones. Alternately, I wish someone had hired him to do a dramatic musical. (He did write one musical after WWII, but that was in German. And then he died in 1957.)
Check it out. You already know he’s good stuff.
Aliens in This World 