On Hollywood and Weimar:
The Songs of European Composers from the Golden Age of Film

Running time: 75 minutes

“Now here we are at New York's wonderful Center for Jewish History as soprano Karyn Levitt, accompanied by Jed Distler, plunged us back into the days when Hollywood was full of exiled and transplanted composers (including Weill, Korngold, Tiomkin, and Hanns Eisler) who found fruitful refuge in the studios. The show was as moving as it was educational.”

– James Gavin

“Karyn Levitt's two sold-out shows at the Center for Jewish History drew large and diverse audiences to the hall both nights. The insightful programs, "On Hollywood and Weimar" and "Will There Still Be Singing?", were very warmly received with much enthusiasm. We were proud to present these two shows that celebrated the contributions of great German-speaking Jewish composers to American culture.”

– David Brown, Director of Public History at Leo Baeck Institute

Description

On Hollywood and Weimar, created by and starring soprano Karyn Levitt with pianist Jed Distler, celebrates the glorious music of old Hollywood by European composers from the Golden Age of Film. Musical geniuses, like Kurt Weill, Erich Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Hanns Eisler — many of whom had escaped to Southern California from Nazi Europe — brought from their respective homelands the highest level of culture, which they poured into the American film industry: they blended the music of the old world and the new, thereby creating and inventing the uniquely hybrid sound of Hollywood films. American music benefited as we became heir to their legacy. From dusty westerns and sweeping romances to the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, Karyn Levitt and Jed Distler perform eleven composers’ songs in a theatrically-directed, choreographed, and gorgeously lit musicological journey through some of Hollywood’s most iconic film scores. The songs range in style from Weimar cabaret and operetta to country-western, classical art song, and jazz… from “Falling in Love Again” to “On Green Dolphin Street,” from “San Francisco” to “Spellbound,” from “Rawhide” and “(High Noon) Do Not Forsake Me” to Kurt Weill’s “Song of Ruth,” and more.