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Preview: FRANKENSTEIN @ La Monnaie, March 8-20, 2019
Unlike what was later made of it by Hollywood, Mary Shelley’s original novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the profoundly sad tale of a creature – the result of a scientific experiment – that strives to do good, but nevertheless does evil and is consequently rejected by its maker. Two centuries after its publication, the US composer and sound designer Mark Grey returns to the original story for his first full-length opera. Grey reworks it as a philosophical reflection on the human condition in our time and on the technology that gives humankind power over life and death on Earth, as well as a warning to a society that threatens to cast out the individual. Video and audio technology will play a crucial part in this 21st-century interpretation by La Fura dels Baus, commissioned by La Monnaie, which will present its first performance.
Review: Berkeley Symphony previews a ‘Frankenstein’ opera
San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2016
“Like a movie trailer, Grey’s 35-minute orchestral work is assembled out of some of the choice scenes from the full offering, arranged not in narrative order but so as to make things feel all the more alluring. Listening to these selections — which are robust enough to stand on their own, yet still teasingly partial in their dramatic effect — made a cogent argument for the virtues of the opera…Grey’s command of the orchestra is often striking, with ingenious combinations of instrumental color and a dramatic sense of scale that shows off those resources expertly.”
San Francisco Chronicle picks FRANKENSTEIN SYMPHONY in top five classical music choices for 2016: Classical Music Gems for 2016
