Czech composer Karel Svoboda is perhaps best known for the hit musical Dracula (1995) which is revived somehow somewhere almost all the time - what is less well known is the former mineworker and tractor driver earned his bread-and-butter writing theme music for German TV shows throughout the 70s and 80s (including Vicky the Viking). His style was a huge influence on the industrial synch wave found everywhere a decade ago (even the theme from the Murdoch Mysteries).
One of my favourite shows with which he was associated was Visitors (1983) (for some reason called Expedition Adam 84 in Australia). The show involved a team of time-travelling scientists sent back from 2084 to 1984 who then struggle with practically every aspect of life in the neo-romantic zone. (A bit like Adam Adamant in reverse).
But back to Dracula - Karel's son, Petr has just released a biography of his father called Zit !(Live!) in which he says his father was inspired to write the musical when his own wife died young and he recognised similarities: "Although Dad had the image of a tough guy, of course he wasn't. He felt a great sadness. And he projected all of that into the musical Dracula. He wrote his feelings there, that's why the musical was so successful. Dracula loses his partner, experiences grief, her picture hangs on his wall. And we had a similar picture of my mom in the living room at home."
Here's an extract from the musical:
and the theme from Visitors:
One of my favourite shows with which he was associated was Visitors (1983) (for some reason called Expedition Adam 84 in Australia). The show involved a team of time-travelling scientists sent back from 2084 to 1984 who then struggle with practically every aspect of life in the neo-romantic zone. (A bit like Adam Adamant in reverse).
But back to Dracula - Karel's son, Petr has just released a biography of his father called Zit !(Live!) in which he says his father was inspired to write the musical when his own wife died young and he recognised similarities: "Although Dad had the image of a tough guy, of course he wasn't. He felt a great sadness. And he projected all of that into the musical Dracula. He wrote his feelings there, that's why the musical was so successful. Dracula loses his partner, experiences grief, her picture hangs on his wall. And we had a similar picture of my mom in the living room at home."
Here's an extract from the musical:
and the theme from Visitors:
statistics: Posted by andrew.stephenson999 — 8:27 AM - Today — Replies 0 — Views 112