Father Richard: Silent Film with Live Organ Accompaniment

Father Richard Williams, organist, composer and former parish priest of St Mary’s Church in Hay, performs his stunning live accompaniment to FW Murnau’s classic, silent Dracula film Nosferatu, using the church’s outstanding Bevington organ.

Released in 1922, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror) is a German Expressionist adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, starring Max Schreck as the vampire. Unauthorised by Stoker’s heirs, the filmmakers at the time were sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered all copies to be destroyed. However, with a few prints surviving, it went on to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema. The film’s original music by composer Hans Erdmann was lost and never recovered.

Enter: Father Williams, bringing one of cinema’s forgotten classics to life in the atmospheric setting of St Mary’s Church. A moody evening of gothic horror to bring us into a weekend of wonders.