Frankenstein Suite, op. 40b
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Though the Baber-Gardner first opera, Frankenstein, has proved to be unproducible, a number of arias, duets, choruses, and an Orchestral Suite from the work have been excerpted for performance over the years.
Though unpublished until now, the Suite, which is tonal with modernist outbursts, has had many performances and has been especially popular for Halloween concerts. It is virtuosic in the “Gypsy Dance,” surreally strident in the “Procession of the Judges,” tunefully dirgelike in “Bring in the Dead,” suspensefully eerie in the “Prelude to Act IV,” and kaleidoscopically chaotic in the finale, “The Raising of the Monster.” Scoring: 3d1, 2, 2, 2 - 4, 3, 3, 1, timp., 2 perc., str. Note: In the last movement, there are some differences between the recording and the revised version of the score. |
