Gabriel Von Wayditch Project

The story of greatest composer you’ve never heard of. Gabriel Von Wayditch was born in Hungary and emigrated to America in 1911 when he was 17. He spent more of his life hand-writing music in a shack in Queens, New York, and his body of work is larger than any other 20th Century composer. He wrote 8 grand operas and holds the World Record for the longest opera, “Horus”. But during his lifetime, he only ever heard one of his works performed.

ORGIES, OPIUM, BEDBUGS, AND OPERA IN OUTER SPACE

The Von Wayditch Project a documentary film about the greatest composer you’ve never heard of. Gabriel Von Wayditch was born in Hungary and emigrated to America in 1911 when he was 17. He spent more of his life hand-writing music in a shack in Queens, New York, and his body of work is larger than any other 20th Century composer. He wrote 8 grand operas and holds the World Record for the longest opera, “Horus”. But during his lifetime, he only ever heard one of his works performed. A puzzling mix of pulp, sci-fi, psychedelia, and romanticism (“Jesus Before Herod” never became a Christmas mainstay at Opera Companies as Gabriel expected, likely due to the preponderance of orgy scenes) his music was at once ahead of his time and yet very much rooted in it.

Following his death in 1969, his only son Walter set about trying to get his father’s work recognized. He was able to have selections from two early operas recorded in the early 1970s, but was otherwise unsuccessful. When Walter died in 2005, it seemed that Gabriel Von Wayditch’s music would die with him.

But a motley crew of enthusiasts, including a musicologist, a family friend, and an odd painter from Budapest, have emerged from the shadows to save Gabriel’s original manuscripts from certain destruction. And now that the Pandora’s box has been opened, it seems like we may well be hearing more of Gabriel’s mysterious, momentous music.

More than 8 years in the making, we have no idea when the documentary will be complete. But we do know that it’s one of the strangest and most enchanting stories we’ve ever encountered.