On the most haunted night of the year, Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and conductor Aaron Holloway-Nahum will invite audiences into one of the most enigmatic worlds in film history, brought to life through Joby Talbot’s intense and atmospheric live-to-picture score VAMPYR from 2018.
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s cult film Vampyr (1932) is a dreamlike journey through fog, silence, and unease – a work that never provides clear answers, but instead creeps under the skin with its ghostly cinematic language. We meet Allan Gray, a traveller obsessed with the supernatural who stumbles upon an inn in the French village of Courtempierre. A series of strange events draws him towards a haunted manor where a young girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
For this universe, Joby Talbot has composed a new musical undergrowth of trembling strings, skewed rhythms and transparent layers of sound which not only accompanies the film but gives it a new pulse. Talbot’s score, written for a 15-piece chamber orchestra, was commissioned in 2018 by the LA Opera Off-Grand series and premiered at Halloween at the 1920s ACE Hotel in Los Angeles to great acclaim:
Talbot’s work effectively manages to blend the old and the new, finding a balance between nostalgic, romantic motifs and unmistakably modern elements. (L.A. Times, 2018)
Talbot's music follows the story, intensifying its dreamlike state and its emotional effect on the viewer. When the sun goes down, the lower tones of Talbot's sound palette create foreboding. …I think Talbot's score could be a performable concert piece for a chamber ensemble. It's just plain good music (Broadway World, 2018)
Joby Talbot has composed several scores for concert screenings of classic films, including The Lodger (1927/1999), The Dying Swan (1916/2002) and Everest Prelude (1924/2017). Explore the full list here.
Listen to LA Opera's Behind the Curtain Podcast about VAMPYR here:
Peruse the full score of VAMPYR here:
Details
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen
Aaron Holloway-Nahum, conductor
Sat 31 October 2026, 19.30
The Black Diamond
Copenhagen, Denmark
Tickets and more info
Sun 1 November 2026, 15.00
Musikhuset Aarhus
Aarhus, Denmark
Tickets and more info
