Orpheus Music Project is set to present “Requiem for Frankie Silver,” on Nov. 5, 2022 at  the Great Benson Hall at Bethel University.

The work by librettist Craig Fields and composer Craig Carnahan is an adaptation of the award-winning book by Sharyn McCrumb that sheds light on current social problems of intolerance, abuse of women, family dysfunction, capital punishment and inequities in the criminal justice system. It employs narratives, folk songs , ballads, arias, traditional hymns, and a new Latin requiem mass setting for 12 12 soloists, 60 choristers, and a full orchestra.

This musical memorial pays final tribute to the life of a young woman wrongly condemned in 1831 for killing her drunken husband to save her baby and herself from a violent death. To protect her, the Stewart family dismembered the body of the her husband, but she was promptly arrested and charged for the crime. Due to the rules of the court, she was never allowed to take the stand and explain her side of the story nor the fact that her husband attempted to kill her child. Silver, after tried, was sentenced to death by a jury made up entirely of men. Even appeals from the community to save her were ignored by the North Carolina governor at the time.

“Requiem for Frankie Silver” lasts 90-minutes.