by Daniel Hathaway

“The score is really a character in the film — horrific when it’s supposed to be horrific, and when it’s supposed to be romantic, it’s really romantic,” said Richard Kaufman, who will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in Franz Waxman’s score to Bride of Frankenstein on Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall. Meanwhile, James Whale’s 1935 sci-fi horror film will play on a big screen above their heads. “I only wish Waxman could be here to hear it — he would be in tears!”

Bride of Frankenstein is the sequel to Universal Pictures’ 1931 silent film Frankenstein, further developing a subplot in Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel. As legend has it, Waxman, who had fled Europe in the wake of Hitler and ended up in Hollywood, met Whales at a party where the director proposed that he write a score for the sequel. [Read more…]