Nosferatu Tickets *£12/£10/£6

Nosferatu with The Arranz Ensemble

Duration of performance time:104 mins

The Arranz Ensemble present their acclaimed new soundtrack for Nosferatu – in their home town! Expect to hear piano, oboe, cello, sax, accordion, viola, harp, percussion, organ and electronica from these talented multi-instrumentalists as they weave an atmospheric spell around this Vampire masterpiece. The evening will open with two delightful films from Georges Méliès, the Magician of Early Cinema. The score (composed by Robert Lee) blends modern atmospheric techniques with the music of modernism and melodrama to create a sound-world that enhances the emotional and sinister qualities of Nosferatu.

Made in Germany in 1922, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror thrills and chills thanks to the genius of Max Schreck in the title role. He creates one of the timeless icons of cinema – Nosferatu himself – a figure countlessly revisited in popular culture, from Herzog’s remake, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Nosferatu (made and directed by F.W.Murnau) is largely based on the story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This is so much the case that, at the time, the Estate of Bram Stoker demanded that all copies of the film be immediately destroyed. Fortunately, some prints survived, and after the release of Nosferatu in America in 1929, the film came to be regarded as significant and influential.

The Arranz Ensemble (Robert Lee, Jane Saunders, Matt Hartnell and Ruth Wakefield) will also be accompanying some of the silent films of Georges Méliès, the Magician of Cinema. Join them in fabulous underwater kingdoms, fiery hellish caves and silly kitchens!

Méliès began his performing career in the 1880s as a Stage Magician. By the time the twentieth century arrived he was making short films that were initially a direct progression from stage magic and already incorporated many of the tricks of film that would be staple for the next one hundred years. Ranging from the fantastical to the comic to the documentary, his films cover subjects as diverse as the Roman Empire, A Channel Tunnel, Fairy Land, Science-Fiction, Magic, and Romance. In all, Méliès made hundreds of films, remarkable for their innovation, charm, ingenuity, comedy and invention. By 1920 his career was in ruins and his films largely forgotten. But not forever.