Program Notes

Franz Waxman’s third Academy Award nomination for Best Dramatic Score of the Year and fifth Spencer Tracy film was Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1941). Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner and Donald Crisp were also featured in Victor Fleming’s production based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel.

Waxman was so fascinated with the subject matter that he would spend the next twenty-five years composing an opera which was incomplete at the time of his death.

The Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Suite forms a ‘musical synthesis’ encapsulating the whole story within a single orchestral movement.

After the main theme, we hear an atmospheric evocation of fog-shrouded Victorian London with hidden dangers lurking around every corner. Then, in Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory, the first testing of the fateful potion is witnessed. A kaleidoscope of images and emotions is experienced as the strange brew begins to take effect. A feeling of triumph is followed by an ethereal tranquility before a menacing tread in the basses marks the start of the actual transformation of Henry Jekyll. (It is interesting to note that to note that in 1975, John Williams used an almost identical motif to create an aura of tense expectancy in Jaws). As the ‘alter ego’ begins to take possession, so does Jekyll/Hyde’s feverish brain conjure up even more tortured visions until, at last, the transmogrification is complete.

The sound of a music hall band takes us into an East End beer-hall where the newly emergent Mr. Hyde now goes. Here he meets Ivy who is happily singing along with the rendering of a popular song of the time. From here the tragic story unfolds remorselessly. Inexorably, the character of Hyde takes over despite Dr. Jekyll’s avowed intention not to continue with his dangerous experiment. Ivy’s song and the menacing transformation motif merge in an unholy alliance as Hyde’s influence over the unfortunate girl becomes increasingly pervasive. The ending is a nightmare of uncontrollable events. The satanic Mr. Hyde kills Ivy and then Sir Charles Emery. We hear the ensuing police chase through the fog-bound streets while the killer escapes. Mr. Hyde is eventually cornered in Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. A shot is fired, he falls dead and, to the sound of a tolling bell, slowly changes back to Dr. Jekyll. The final music signifies the ultimate triumph of good over evil.