Wild and weird, crazy and scary, surreal and unsettling, mad and irreverent, funny and charming, grizzly and bizarre, zany and serious. What can it be? It's the way critics describe Frankenstein!!, a "pan-demonium" composed and performed by Austrian H.K. Gruber. Since its creation, Gruber has performed Frankenstein!! over 1,000 times throughout the world. Now he joins Present Music to perform this uncategorizable work, ranging from bar-room cabaret to parodies of operatic declamation. Gruber howls, hisses, croaks, croons, and sometimes even sings "conventionally" in his own inimitable style. Hot stuff for a cold night! Works by Aaron Kernis, Joseph Schwantner, and George Crumb will complete the program.

"Little mousey bites out an eye; Herr Frankenstein gives a toy doll a living heart and lungs; Lois Lane jumps into bed with Superman; little mouse is caught at the end and made into a fine pistol holder." - Frankenstein!! (poetry by J. C. Artmann)