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FULL Elizabeth Frankenstein (Edmund Cionek) New York 2021 Natalie Ballenger, Blake Friedman, Joseph Charles Beutel
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Elizabeth Frankenstein
- Composer: Cionek Edmund
- Libretto: Maryanne Bertollo
- Venue & Opera Company: Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, New York City
- Recorded: November 15, 2021
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Natalie Ballenger, Blake Friedman, Joseph Charles Beutel, Charlotte Detrick, Jasmine Manley, Laura Virella
- Conductor: Gerald Steichen
- Orchestra: Gerald Steichen, PIANO
- Stage Director: Beth Greenberg
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: edmundcionek
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Elizabeth Frankenstein, a 90-minute opera, is a re-imagining of the classic novel Frankenstein from the point of view of Victor’s wife. Frankenstein was written in 1817 by Mary Shelley, an early feminist. However, most renditions of her enduring work focus on Victor’s lust for creation and the chaos which ensues. Elizabeth Frankenstein allows the novel’s foremost female character to step away from Victor’s shadow into her own light.
Elizabeth is depicted as a strong-willed and unusually sensitive person; she gravitates towards Victor’s genius as a match for her own intelligence and empathy. In the first act, she becomes engaged to Victor; in the second act they are married, then she is raped and murdered by The Creature, jealous of Victor’s happiness. In the final act Elizabeth is a ghost who appears in the Arctic where Victor has gone to hunt down and kill his creation. She confronts both The Creature and Victor though the latter, poignantly, cannot see her. Elizabeth implores them to transform their worst impulses in order to bring forth a better world.
Elizabeth Frankenstein has several facets: the romance between a brilliant man and an equally brilliant woman; the tension of opposing forces–love and hate, violence and compassion, vengeance and reconciliation; and the testimony of a woman who though she loses everything retains her courage and her innocence. Above all the opera is original, entertaining and inspiring.