Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born in 1897 in Austria/Hungary and died at the age of 60 in California.  He was a child prodigy, having a great European career until the rise of the Nazi regime forced him to flee to America in 1934.  Thereafter, he worked on some 16 Hollywood films, writing the scores and receiving two Oscars for his work.  His main classical work was written in Europe and this particularly applies to the opera, Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane), which is written in three acts and was first performed at the Hamburg State Opera in October 1927.