Ellen West
an opera by Ricky Ian Gordon

with libretto by Frank Bidart 
Recorded live from the Prototype Festival 

CD AND DIGITAL
Release Date: September 25, 2020

Lidiya Yankovskaya | music director + conductor
Nathan Gunn | baritone
Jennifer Zetlan | soprano
Djordje Nesic | piano
AEOLUS QUARTET: Nicholas Tavani & Rachel Shapiro | violins, Caitlin Lynch | viola, Alan Richardson | cello
Evan Premo | double bass

Based on real life events, Ellen West plunges into the emotional, psychological, and physical challenges of a woman struggling with perceptions of her body, her relationship with food, her gender, and the world closing in around her. Inspired by one of the earliest cases of existential analysis, poet Frank Bidart and composer Ricky Ian Gordon examine the lives of psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger and his patient, Ellen West. Bidart’s poem, which serves as the opera’s libretto, juxtaposes the clinical observations of Binswanger with fictitious entries of Ellen’s journals, illuminating a psychological portrait of a woman at war with her body.
-Ricky Ian Gordon, July 2020

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CREDITS:

Composer: Ricky Ian Gordon
Librettist: Frank Bidart
Publisher: Theodore Presser
Produced by: Ricky Ian Gordon + Louis Levitt
Engineered, Edited + Mixed by: Garth MacAleavey
Mastered by: Andrew Bove
Cover Art & Album Package Design by: Marian C. Holmes
Photographer: Maria Baranova | Director: Emma Griffin
Recorded Live at the Prototype Festival January 14-19 2020, Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center Brooklyn, NY

Ellen West was co-commissioned and co-produced by:

Beth Morrison Projects - Beth Morrison, President and Creative Producer
and
Opera Saratoga - Lawrence Edelson, Artistic and General Director. 

Ellen West received its world premiere at Opera Saratoga, on June 30th, 2019 and its New York City Premiere at the PROTOTYPE Festival, where the opera was recorded live.

Ellen West was commissioned with generous support from The Poetry Foundation, The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, Richard and Sharon Ellingsen, David and Kiki Gindler, The Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for Opera, The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, and New Music USA.

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