Upcoming

You are invited to enjoy an evening with a vampire, at Nosferatu Live!  This event features the 1922 classic silent film Nosferatu, enhanced by the musical composition, Sound Poem Inspired by Nosferatu, by local composer Karel Suchy. A live performance by Voices and Verses will include Sound Poem and poetry contributed by local poets. The performance will take place at the Kenosha Public Museum, 5500 First Ave., Kenosha, WI. Doors open at 6 pm and the film starts at 6:30 pm and admission is free. This event is a part of the Crowdsourced Kenosha program, presented by the Kenosha Public Library, Kenosha Community Media, and Voices & Verses.

The Choral Arts Society commissioned Sound Poem Inspired by Nosferatu from composer-in-residence Karel Suchy in 2008. It was again performed in 2010. The music encompasses a variety of styles, including early modal music, modern classical, Appalachian hymnody, and rock ballad. The emotional, dramatic and philosophical elements of the film are interpreted through leitmotif, “modified gypsy” scale, and musique concrete (recorded natural sounds). In the words of reviewer Fred Hermes, “The music, not the usual chase music, is ethereal and dreamy…” and “The excellent music was ‘dreamed up’ by composer Karel Suchy . . .”

Poetry that was inspired by and which complements the film was contributed in 2010. These works by poets Pat Chaffee of the Choral Arts Society, and by Jenny Bootle, Lisa Adamowicz Kless, Peg Rousar-Thompson, and Kaitlyn Wierzchowski of the Kenosha Writers’ Guild will again be featured in the upcoming October 25^th performance.

German director F. W. Murnau’s silent film Nosferatu was based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. The resulting lawsuit by Stoker’s widow led to the destruction of many copies of this masterpiece. The first film to deal with an occult subject, Nosferatu pioneered innovative techniques, such as filming on location, and the use of montage. As film critic Roger Ebert has stated, Nosferatu . . . doesn’t scare us, but it haunts us. It shows not that vampires can jump out of shadows, but that evil can grow there, nourished on death.”