Artemisia: Light and Shadow

A life more dramatic than an Italian opera: trained in art by her father, sexually assaulted as a teenager, Artemisia survived a sensational trial to become an internationally renowned painter and the secret lover of a Florentine nobleman.

A one-woman multi-media show on the life of 17th-century painter and feminist heroine Artemisia Gentileschi, starring Sarah Frei, actress/singer.

“Sarah Frei was unforgettable as Artemisia. She is a wonderful singer/actress whose performance was deeply moving, heartfelt and beautiful. The minimal but evocative sets, the projections of Artemisia’s dramatic paintings, the wonderful script and music…a magical evening of theater and music.” Emory Fanning, Professor of Music, Middlebury College

“Artemisia is, by turns, witty, joyful, tragic, woebegone, tragic, (she lost three children, she was, famously, raped at 18, and after many splendid years in Florence under the protection of Duke Cosimo II Medici, she was exiled back to Rome and then Naples where she weathered scandal, solitude, and poverty). On stage, Artemisia is also vengeful, but philosophical, and ultimately joyful. She sings of fate and destiny and, as she did so, I was moved, included, inspired, comforted.” – Phyllis Chesler, Professor of Women’s Studies, City University of New York