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VIDEOS | PDF Synopsis | Press | Contact Andrew Ager
VIDEOS of the Opera
The complete opera is posted on YouTube in 6 sections - embedded below for your convenience.
RECORDED PERFORMANCE: World Premiere - TrypTych Productions, January 2010
CAST: Victor Frankenstein - Lenard Whiting; Henry Clerval - Graham Robinson; Frankenstein Sr - Michael York; The Monster - Stephen King; DeLacey - Michael York; Felix - Michael Taylor; Elizabeth - Dawn Bailey; Agatha - Melanie Conly; William - Charles Waddell.
Accompanist: Andrew Ager; Director: Edward Franko
Section 1: The Opera opens with the return of Victor Frankenstein to his father’s home. Victor refuses to tell either his good friend Clerval or his fiancée Elizabeth the reason for his nervous exhaustion – he is afraid the y would be horrified by his experiments.
Section 2: Victor tells Clerval merely that he has a “scientific wonder (he) will soon reveal.” Scene 1 ends with the tearful departure of Elizabeth who is distraught over Victor’s condition. Victor returns to his laboratory, and after musing upon the nature of his experiments, he is momentarily overcome by disgust for his creation.
Section 3: Victor eventually animates the Monster but then flees in terror.
Section 4: The Monster has fled to the Alpine Mountainsides where it encounters a family in exile, who live in a hut and who come to depend upon “some benevolent God” – the Monster unseen – for their food and water.
Section 5: The Monster learns language and human behaviours in watching the family from a hiding place but upon endeavouring to talk with the elder DeLacey, who is blind, he is driven away by Felix, who comes to the rescue of his lover Agatha when she is frightened by the Monster’s appearance.
Desolate and alone, the Monster returns to the now abandoned hut and sings of his wonder at the beauty of Creation. Soon Elizabeth and William (Victor’s younger brother) arrive, searching for Victor, as they have heard that he has been in the region. Of course they do not know that he is in pursuit of the Monster. Elizabeth leaves the scene and William plays by himself in the wood.
Section 6: The Monster befriends the boy but the scene ends tragically when the Monster, angry at hearing the name “Frankenstein”, tried to remove William’s locket and accidentally strangles him.
Victor finds William’s body and soon the Monster appears, threatening Victor at first but only to entreat him to hear his sad history since his animation. He then implores Victor to create a mate for him, and then the two creatures will make their “home in these remotest parts”. After being physically threatened, Victor agrees, very unwillingly, to create another being.
Later having installed a laboratory in the hut, Victor approaches the final stages of animating a mate for the Monster, but is overcome by fear and despair at having repeated his folly.
When he leaves the hut momentarily in anguish, Clerval enters, looking for Victor, and is struck down by the Monster, which fears for the safety of its mate. Victor rushes in and is knocked unconscious by the Monster, whereupon Elizabeth enters, also searching for her fiancé. As an act of final vengeance the Monster strangles Elizabeth. Victor discovers Elizabeth’s body and dies in despair.
The Opera ends with the Monster tenderly lifting its mate and leaving sadly – vowing self-immolation.
PRESS
Article from The Wholenote (January 2010) - Christopher Hoile
"... the opera is gripping from start to finish. I wanted more because what there was, was so enjoyable. The librettists have boiled the story down to its bare essentials which are even more timely now when mankind really can artificially create life. Ager himself played the score on a grand piano, where it sounded like a gorgeous post-impressionist tone poem, lush yet propulsive, where constantly shifting tonalities reflected the morally ambiguous world of the story."
- Christopher Hoile, The Wholenote Blog, February 2010
CONTACT ANDREW AGER
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