The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This Halloween season, The Invincible Czars return to Sage Chapel with a new, nightmarish-ly fun soundtrack to the world’s first feature-length horror film, Robert Weine's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). With an immersive combined live soundtrack experience that transports audiences back 100+ years, the age-old tale is accompanied by a chilling, tastefully-modern score featuring an impressive blend of traditional acoustic and present-day electric instruments.

An extraordinary combination of expressionist visual style and psychological horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most striking and influential of all silent films. The film tells the story of a group of friends who encounter the deranged hypnotist Dr. Caligari and his scary, spidery sleepwalking sidekick Cesare at a carnival. When a series of murders brings the town to its knees, a young man named Franzis sets out to prove Caligari is responsible… but is he?

This special event will take place in Sage Chapel. 

About the band:
The Invincible Czars began making adventurous rock music in Austin clubs 2003 but they quickly branched into the arts world with their wide scope of styles, cinematic flare, mix of modern and classical instruments and their complicated relationship with heavy metal.

Though they continue to take on a variety of projects, including their Austin-tacious re-imagining of Tchaikovsky‘s Nutcracker Suite, The Invincible Czars are probably best known for their silent film soundtracks which they perform live at cinemas, colleges and performing arts spaces all over the US and Canada. They began accompanying silent films at the original Alamo Drafthouse in Austin in 2006 with Aelita, Queen of Mars (1922) and continue adding titles to their catalog year after year.

The band operates as a collective with a few core members and a rotating cast of additional members on any given project or tour. They sound different from season to season and year to year.

The touring ensemble for 2023 is:

Phil Davidson – violin, keyboards, percussion
Skunk Manhattan – piano, keyboards, bass
Josh Robins – guitar, bass, samples, percussion
Louis Landry – drums, percussion, keyboards
Hampton Rattan – winds, keys

 

Cosponsored by the Wharton Studio Museum and LaTourelle Hotel, Bistro, and Spa