Arizona Opera brings Frankenstein to life this October. Together, composer Gregg Kallor and director Sarah Meyers create this captivating musical adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale. We had the opportunity to sit down with the immensely talented duo to get a sneak peek into what audiences can expect to see on stage this fall.
Q: Please tell me a little bit about yourself and your background working together.
Gregg: I’m a pianist, and I grew up playing classical, jazz, rock, pop, and theater music. The music that I compose draws from all of these rich inspirations. I never imagined I’d write an opera but looking back on it, it all evolved pretty organically. I love writing for the voice and setting text — it’s such an intimate musical expression, and it communicates very directly. I’ve written several song-cycles and I composed a setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling tale, The Tell-Tale Heart — my take on a musical ghost story — which we premiered in a 100-year-old crypt under a church in Harlem, New York. That was the first time I collaborated with director Sarah Meyers, whose inspired approach was captivating and haunting!
Sarah: I am really interested in gothic fiction and in horror stories and how they allow us to make contact with the things we are afraid of – and that is a necessary contact we need to have. We need to pursue those things; we can’t just shove our fears down below the surface. [As a director] I want my audiences to feel that fear, inhabit it, and then move through it. Gregg wrote this phenomenal monodrama based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and I got to direct that piece when it had its world premiere. Those ideas surrounding fear are something that I have constantly been in conversation with Gregg about throughout the process of Frankenstein.
Q: What inspired you two to create this show and what did the process look like of crafting the adaptation and getting the greenlight from Arizona Opera?
Sarah: I loved Gregg’s adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart. While we were working on that, Gregg was brainstorming and thinking about what could be the story that he would be able to create a fully fleshed opera from. I gave him a list of some of my favorite stories that I thought would make for a really great opera, and one of the stories that I offered to him was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I was shocked because he told me he hadn't actually read it before.
Gregg: Sarah and I were chatting about ideas for our next collaboration, and she suggested that I read Frankenstein. I couldn’t put it down. It felt both epic and intensely intimate. It felt operatic. I thought I knew the story, but most adaptations I’ve seen stray very far from the novel — so I wasn’t prepared for how deeply it resonated. I began my exploration of Frankenstein by focusing on what I believe is the heart of the novel: the pivotal scene in which the Creature describes the misery of his solitary existence to Victor Frankenstein — the man who created and abandoned him. My initial sketches for this and another scene were presented in the Catacombs of historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, in 2018. Sarah’s gorgeously conceived staging was riveting. Joe Specter, the President and General Director of Arizona Opera, and Chris Cano, AZO’s former Music Director, attended this performance. Two years later, they called to tell me that they’d like to commission me to expand the sketches into a full-length opera. I was ecstatic!
Q: From its inception to now being performed on stage, what are some key steps you’ve taken to prepare? Are there any behind-the-scenes moments you’d like to share?
Gregg: My first task was to condense Shelley’s novel in a way that would allow me to tell the story through music. Writing the libretto (the words and the dramatic action) inspired the music, which then suggested changes to the libretto. I was guided by Cori Ellison, the brilliant dramaturg, who asked probing questions to help me clarify my intentions. We went through my first draft word by word, phrase by phrase, note by note. And then we did it again. And again, and again, for several months. We threw musical spaghetti against the wall to see what stuck. We ripped scenes apart and stitched them together so many times and in so many ways that mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano coined the term “Frankenscore.”
Sarah: I think that you have to have a little bit of joy in the horror components… I think a lot of times we find ourselves giggling over some of the things that are scary -- or that we hope will be scary. In the beginning stages, when we did the sketches for the first time in the catacombs, we were doing our rehearsals late at night. We were figuring out the space and creating a dark and scary environment that we even sometimes scared ourselves. Although, nothing was more terrifying for me than the night we were packing up at the end of a rehearsal and, as we went to cover the piano, we discovered a gigantic spider inside of it. Everything that we do from now on can’t be as scary as discovering a giant spider had taken up residence inside the piano where Gregg was going to be performing.
Q: How does this musical adaptation compare to Mary Shelley’s original story? What unique twists does the audience have to look forward to?
Sarah: It is, in many ways, extremely faithful to Mary Shelley’s novel. Gregg is faithful to her spirit and her desire for creating the story. It is a very authentic portrayal of these complex characters and of the humanity in them. Greg insists that we refer to the creature as the creature and not the monster because he's not a monster -- he is a damaged soul who ends up doing horrible things, but the monstrosity is not something inherent in him, it's something that comes about from the way he is created and abandoned.
Gregg: My adaptation of Frankenstein hues very closely to the novel. I tried to preserve as much of her original prose as possible, adapting as necessary to make it a little more singable here and there.
Q: Are there any particular aspects or underlying themes within the show that you hope will really resonate with the audience?
Gregg: Frankenstein resonates so deeply because it holds up a mirror and asks us to consider our own humanity. Who’s the monster: a creature who is “other” — or the person who can’t see past this difference and acts hatefully? People of all communities and backgrounds can identify in some way with the Creature because we are all “other” to someone. And we all have the potential to be Victor Frankenstein, pursuing our own goals often heedless of how they affect others. Like the Creature, we are molded by the circumstances into which we are born, driven by an instinct to survive. And like Elizabeth (Victor’s fiancée), we are all bystanders with little or no control over what is being done without our knowledge or permission that may significantly impact our lives. But we are also capable of listening to each other. Comforting each other. Helping each other.
Sarah: The original creator, Victor Frankenstein, does not support his own creation. He abandons, neglects, and abuses it. We're really hoping to challenge people's empathy. The audience sees both the horrible things that happen in the show, but we also hope that they feel pity, concern, and compassion for the people who perpetrate these horrible acts.
Q: Why did you choose this specific story to tell? What is the significance in retelling the tale at this moment in time?
Sarah: I look at this story and I have trouble understanding how a person like Victor can do something so ambitious yet reckless, with no regard for the consequences. I say that and then of course we're living in a world where we're doing that all the time. Our scientists are constantly pushing limits and pushing boundaries and we think about the consequences afterwards. Probably most overtly connected to what we're seeing in this story is what we're grappling with right now in terms of artificial intelligence. We're opening doors and it's like a Pandora's box -- we don't know what's going to come out the other side. I think what Shelly is suggesting is that if you're doing it with awareness and compassion and care for the creation, the result doesn't have to be a tragedy.
Gregg: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 200-year old novel continues to inspire storytellers — including this one — to breathe fresh life into the tale for their own generation because it speaks to something fundamental about human nature. In a recent New York Times article, Geoffrey Hinton — the “godfather of artificial intelligence (AI)” — lamented the dangerous and potentially catastrophic consequences of his work. Acknowledging that the development of this unprecedented technology is fast approaching the point of no return (if it hasn’t already passed), he cautioned, “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.” J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” similarly expressed regret and concern about his achievement, and spent the rest of his life urging caution and restraint in the usage and development of nuclear technology. Like Victor Frankenstein, both men issued their warnings after unleashing existentially destructive forces upon the world, with no way to stop, delay, or even guide what happens next. This feels like a critical moment to learn from Victor Frankenstein’s disastrous mistakes.
Secure your tickets now for Frankenstein, with two shows scheduled in Tucson during the weekend of October 21, 2023. Interested in learning more? Visit www.azopera.org/performances/frankenstein for more information.
Frankenstein resonates so deeply because it holds up a mirror and asks us to consider our own humanity. Who’s the monster: a creature who is “other” — or the person who can’t see past this difference and acts hatefully?