English Literature

Frankenstein A resource for teachers

Frankenstein A resource for teachers 1

Contents

2 Guidelines for teachers 3 Teaching ideas 4 Background 5 Characters 5 Behind the scenes 6 Excerpts 8 Interview 9 OperaVision 9 La Monnie

Photo credits Cover, inside cover, pages 2, 5, 6, 7 © La Monnaie Page 4 © Moviestore Collection; © Bauman Rare Books Cover Image: Act I set of Frankenstein Page 6 © Simon van Rompay Left: Chorus in Act I of Frankenstein Page 9 © Royal College of Music; © Philippe De Gobert 2 OperaVision

Guidelines for teachers

Frankenstein is one of the great The pack contains teaching ideas, a background works of English literature. First pub- to the novel and opera, an interview with bari- tone Scott Hendricks and excerpts from chap- lished in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel ters 23 and 24. broke new ground and helped to define the form of modern science The opera Frankenstein is a new opera composed by Mark fiction. Its obsessive scientist and his Grey and produced by La Monnaie / De Munt. hideous monster have appeared in It received its world premiere in Brussels on 8 dozens of stage and screen adapta- March 2019. A subsequent performance was tions, from Richard Brinsley Peake’s streamed live on OperaVision on 15 March 2019. 1823 play to James Whale’s 1931 film Contextual videos staring Boris Karloff, to Mark Grey’s As showing the full performance in class may 2019 opera. be impractical, this pack instead suggests three short-form videos to illustrate the opera. They are: ‘Let us begin’, a scene from Act I; a For pupils studying the novel, these adaptations timelapse makeup video; and ‘Lifeless, inani- can breathe life into the text and help them to mate’, an aria from Act II. better engage with the subject. It also gives them an opportunity to see how Frankenstein These three videos can be found on the video continues to inspire new creations that provide slider on the Frankenstein page at www.bit.ly/ work for hundreds of people and pleasure to FrankensteinEN and are available until at least thousands. October 2020. Alternatively, you can find ‘Let us begin’ at bit.ly/Let-us-begin; the timelapse video This pack at bit.ly/Frankenstein-Timelapse; and ‘Lifeless, This resource for teachers has been produced inanimate’ at bit.ly/Frankenstein-Lifeless. by OperaVision with content provided by La Monnaie / De Munt. We hope that it will prove Contact us useful for English literature teachers around the For more information about Frankenstein or world who want to use a contemporary opera OperaVision, or to provide feedback about this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel to help their pack, please contact Hedd Thomas at hedd@ students to engage more with the text. opera-europa.org.

Topi Lehtipuu as the Creature in Act II of Frankenstein Frankenstein A resource for teachers 3

Teaching ideas

Exploring opera Exploring the drama Start with activities to get your class thinking Opera combines text, music, song and staging about opera and what their ideas and pre- to create emotional and thought-provoking conceptions might be. Ask your students: works of drama. Ask your students: • Can they describe what an opera is? • What is the most dramatic moment in Mary • Can they name any operas? Shelley’s Frankenstein? • Where are operas performed? • What are the different characters feeling in that moment? • Who is involved in making an opera? • How would the music and sinigng sound if that moment appeared in an opera? Exploring the background As a class, read the ‘Background’ text on page Exploring the text and music 4, then watch the scene from Act I of the opera, ‘Let us begin’. Ask your students: As a class, read the excerpts from chapters 23 and 24 of the novel on pages 6 and 7, then • How technologically advanced was European watch Victor Frankenstein’s aria ‘Lifeless, society in 1818? Inanimate’. Ask your students: • Do new technologies and scientific • How does the aria make them feel? discoveries lead to mostly positive or mostly negative outcomes? • How has the librettist adapted Mary Shelley’s words into text for the singer to sing? • When reading Frankenstein today, does the novel feel futuristic or old fashioned? • How has the composer used music to create a sense of sadness and loss? • In the year 354 of the New Anthropogenic Glacial Period, it is possible to return frozen • How is the drama and emotion of the music a mind and body to consciousness. Will complemented by the staging? we have the capabilities in our lifetimes to achieve this? Will it be a good thing? Exploring the creators • How does the character of Dr Walton in the As a class, read the interview with Scott opera compare to that of the novel? Hendricks on page 8. Ask your students: • How would they describe the life of a Exploring the characters professional opera singer? As a class, read the ‘Characters’ and ‘Behind • Have they ever thought about working in the the scenes’ texts on page 5, then watch the world of opera? timelapse video. Ask your students: • Who in the class would they like to • How closely does the Creature’s costume collaborate with on a creative project and resemble how the character is described in how would they go about it? the novel? • How does the Creature’s appearance affect Reflecting on the experience the way it feels and the choices it makes? After watching part of the opera and engaging • What is the Creature’s relationship with with the above questions, ask your students: Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza and • Has this experience changed their perception Dr Robert Walton? of what opera is? • Do they feel like watching the whole opera? • Has it given them new insights into Mary Shelley’s novel? • What opera do they want to explore next? 4 OperaVision

Background

A modern Prometheus Frankenstein - considered by some to be the very first science-fiction novel - was published in 1818, two years after Mary Shelley hit upon the idea for it while staying with Lord Byron near Lake Geneva. Interpellated by the technological and scientific developments of her time and their unforeseeable consequences for man and socie- ty, she wrote her own ‘what if’ scenario. And, as The first page of Mary Shelley’s novel in all good science fiction, that scenario goes be- yond futuristic speculative fiction.Frankenstein touches on essential philosophical and ethical questions which, transposed to the present day, apply equally to creative experiments in biotech- The first page of Mary Shelley’s novel nology, genetics, information science and medi- cine. At a time of atom bombs, genetic engineer- An international creative team ing, artificial bio-selection and social media, the The idea of creating an opera to mark the gap between our ability to invent and our inabil- two-hundredth anniversary of Mary Shelley’s ity to understand could be even greater than in novel Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus Shelley’s time. The need is greater than ever to came up in a conversation between Spanish experience a moral and emotional awareness in stage director Àlex Ollé and the director of La parallel with what we have just created. Monnaie / De Munt, Peter de Caluwe. They turned to American composer and sound de- signer Mark Grey to write the music. Grey’s musical writing is based on a very inventive ‘recomposition’ of diverse musical material: old or romantic music, industrial noise, elec- tro-acoustic sounds, and the harmonic language of John Adams and Aaron Copland. When com- bined together, these different elements produce powerfully emotional music in which moments of intense energy are interspersed with calm medi- tation. Grey and Ollé asked librettist Júlia Canosa i Serra to turn the novel into a stage play and to update Shelley’s poetic English.

A frozen future The opera Frankenstein is not a simple retelling of Shelley’s novel. Instead, it is set in an unspec- ified future after the events of the story. Several scientists discover a creature frozen into the ice fields in the year 354 of the New Anthropogenic Glacial Period. One of them, Dr Walton, takes the lead in bringing him back to life in a bold exper- iment. Gradually the ‘Creature’ returns to con- sciousness. Snatches from a murky past surface and, with the help of high-tech equipment, the scientists also succeed in visualising those men- tal images. The crucial scenes from what took place so many years ago (i.e. the action of the The Creature and Dr Walton in Act II of Frankenstein novel) manifest themselves in flashbacks. Frankenstein A resource for teachers 5

Characters

Victor Frankenstein Baritone An ambitious scientist The Creature Tenor A monster made by Victor in his laboratory Elizabeth Lavenza Soprano Victor’s bride Dr Robert Walton Bass-Baritone A scientist from the future

The Creature (Topi Lehtipuu) Victor Frankenstein (Scott Hendricks) and Dr Robert Walton (Andrew Schroeder) and Elizabeth Lavenza (Eleonore Marguerre)

Behind the scenes

As well as all the musicians, singers and the conductor that you see in the pit and on the stage, large teams of technicians, craftspeople and administrators work together in order to put a full scale opera on the stage.

These include designers; scenery builders, carpenters and painters; electricians; sound and lighting technicians; drivers; costume makers; wig makers; milliners, who make hats and headdresses; hair and make-up artists; prop makers; directors; assistants and stage managers.

Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu had to spend two hours in his dressing room before every performance of Frankenstein while a team of make-up artists prepared him to perform the role of the Creature.

Discover OperaVision’s behind-the-scenes videos at https://operavision.eu/en/library/ backstage A team of make-up artists prepares Topi Lehtipuu to per- form the role of the role of the Creature in Frankenstein. 6 OperaVision

Excerpts from the novel

Except from Chapter 23 Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am Narrated by Victor Frankenstein I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there, I had been calm during the day, but so soon as lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, night obscured the shapes of objects, a thou- her head hanging down and her pale and distort- sand fears arose in my mind. I was anxious and ed features half covered by her hair. Everywhere watchful, while my right hand grasped a pistol I turn I see the same figure—her bloodless arms which was hidden in my bosom; every sound and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell my bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until is obstinate and clings closest where it is most my own life or that of my adversary was extin- hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; guished. I fell senseless on the ground.

Elizabeth observed my agitation for some time When I recovered I found myself surrounded in timid and fearful silence, but there was some- by the people of the inn; their countenances thing in my glance which communicated terror expressed a breathless terror, but the horror of to her, and trembling, she asked, “What is it that others appeared only as a mockery, a shadow agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you of the feelings that oppressed me. I escaped fear?” from them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so “Oh! Peace, peace, my love,” replied I; “this night, dear, so worthy. She had been moved from the and all will be safe; but this night is dreadful, posture in which I had first beheld her, and now, very dreadful.” as she lay, her head upon her arm and a hand- kerchief thrown across her face and neck, I might I passed an hour in this state of mind, when sud- have supposed her asleep. I rushed towards her denly I reflected how fearful the combat which I and embraced her with ardour, but the deadly momentarily expected would be to my wife, and languor and coldness of the limbs told me that I earnestly entreated her to retire, resolving not what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the to join her until I had obtained some knowledge Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The as to the situation of my enemy. murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from She left me, and I continued some time her lips. walking up and down the passages of the house and inspecting every corner that might afford a retreat to my adversary. But I discovered no trace of him and was beginning to conjecture that some fortu- nate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces when sudden- ly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins and tingling in the extremities of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated, and I rushed into the room. Scott Hendricks as Victor Frankenstein sings ‘Lifeless, Inanimate’ Frankenstein A resource for teachers 7 Except from Chapter 24 me in the commencement of my career, now Part of a letter from Dr Walton to his sister serves only to plunge me lower in the dust. All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and Frankenstein discovered that I made notes con- like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, cerning his history; he asked to see them and I am chained in an eternal hell. My imagination then himself corrected and augmented them was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and applica- in many places, but principally in giving the life tion were intense; by the union of these qualities and spirit to the conversations he held with his I conceived the idea and executed the creation enemy. ‘Since you have preserved my narration,’ of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without said he, ‘I would not that a mutilated one should passion my reveries while the work was incom- go down to posterity.’ plete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their Thus has a week passed away, while I have lis- effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high tened to the strangest tale that ever imagination hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! formed. My thoughts and every feeling of my Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once soul have been drunk up by the interest for my was, you would not recognise me in this state guest which this tale and his own elevated and of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my gentle manners have created. I wish to soothe heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until him, yet can I counsel one so infinitely misera- I fell, never, never again to rise.’ ble, so destitute of every hope of consolation, to live? Oh, no! The only joy that he can now know Must I then lose this admirable being? I have will be when he composes his shattered spirit to longed for a friend; I have sought one who would peace and death. Yet he enjoys one comfort, the sympathise with and love me. Behold, on these offspring of solitude and delirium; he believes desert seas I have found such a one, but I fear I that when in dreams he holds converse with his have gained him only to know his value and lose friends and derives from that communion con- him. I would reconcile him to life, but he repulses solation for his miseries or excitements to his the idea. vengeance, that they are not the creations of his fancy, but the beings themselves who visit ‘I thank you, Walton,’ he said, ‘for your kind him from the regions of a remote world. This intentions towards so miserable a wretch; but faith gives a solemnity to his reveries that render when you speak of new ties and fresh affections, them to me almost as imposing and interesting think you that any can replace those who are as truth. gone? Can any man be to me as Clerval was, or any woman another Elizabeth? Even where the Our conversations are not always confined to his affections are not strongly moved by any superi- own history and misfortunes. On every point of or excellence, the companions of our childhood general literature he displays unbounded knowl- always possess a certain power over our minds edge and a quick and piercing apprehension. which hardly any later friend can obtain. They His eloquence is forcible and touching; nor can I know our infantine dispositions, which, howev- hear him, when he relates a pathetic incident or er they may be afterwards modified, are never endeavours to move the passions of pity or love, eradicated; and they can judge of our actions without tears. What a glorious creature must he with more certain conclusions as to the integrity have been in the days of his prosperity, when he of our motives. A sister or a brother can never, is thus noble and godlike in ruin! He seems to unless indeed such symptoms have been shown feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall. early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may ‘When younger,’ said he, ‘I believed myself des- be attached, may, in spite of himself, be con- tined for some great enterprise. My feelings templated with suspicion. But I enjoyed friends, are profound, but I possessed a coolness of dear not only through habit and association, but judgment that fitted me for illustrious achieve- from their own merits; and wherever I am, the ments. This sentiment of the worth of my nature soothing voice of my Elizabeth and the conver- supported me when others would have been sation of Clerval will be ever whispered in my oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw ear. They are dead, and but one feeling in such a away in useless grief those talents that might be solitude can persuade me to preserve my life. If I useful to my fellow creatures. When I reflected were engaged in any high undertaking or design, on the work I had completed, no less a one than fraught with extensive utility to my fellow crea- the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I tures, then could I live to fulfil it. But such is not could not rank myself with the herd of common my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being projectors. But this thought, which supported to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled and I may die.’ 8 OperaVision

Interview with Scott Hendricks

Scott Hendricks plays the title role north of San Francisco. I flew out there back in of the obsessive scientist in 2015 and we met over the course of three days. Frank- I gave him some ideas, he gave me some snip- enstein. OperaVision asked him pets here and there about what he was working a few questions about his latest on. We both work with Sibelius, the notation work before his performance was programme, so he would send some files over and I would check them out. He was doing that streamed live from La Monnaie / De with all the soloists, if I’m not mistaken. So the Munt. parts were tailor-made for each of us. Dr Walton was tailor-made for Andrew Schroeder, as was Elizabeth for Eleonore Marguerre, as was Victor Welcome to Brussels. Or rather, welcome back, for me. It’s wonderful when something fits like because you’ve been here a number of times. a glove, and this certainly does. Mark welcomed You’ve performed at La Monnaie / De Munt in feedback from all of us. He’s a very generous Macbeth, Salome, Il trovatore, La traviata, Un man. He just wants us to feel as comfortable as ballo in maschera, Sweeney Todd, Pagliacci, La possible, and he went out of his way to make Gioconda and now Frankenstein. sure that we did. This place feels like a second home now. I’ve ac- tually spent more time in Brussels then I’ve spent Friday night saw the world premiere of this at home in San Antonio over the past ten years. new opera. How did it go? It was great! It was great. I’m not big on opening Frankenstein isn’t the first time you’ve worked nights; I don’t believe in ‘opening night magic’. with Mark Grey; you’ve previously performed It’s kind of nerve-racking, really, because the and recorded his 2009 choral work called Ene- corridor is filled with people and folks are knock- my Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio, a piece inspired ing on your door. But even though we were very by the oral literature and language of the Na- focused, we were pretty relaxed. I thought it was tive American Navajo people. a great show. Generally speaking I avoid reading Yes, it’s for baritone, choir and orchestra, and he reviews but this time I’ve got people sending me wrote the baritone part specifically for me. It was reviews left and right. The press has been very mostly in English but had positive. a sentence here and there in the Navajo language. It’s After Frankenstein you’ll be head- absolutely beautiful, and ing to the Komische Oper Berlin to the story’s great. It’s about star in another new opera, M – A City a soldier who comes back searches for a Murderer by Moritz home and tries to re-as- Eggert. Then you’ll be playing Rigo- similate back into every- letto at the Bregenzer Festspiele. day life, but it’s difficult, How you do deal with your workload and the Navajo have this as a professional opera singer? cleansing ceremony for it. I’ve never had to balance and organise my time as much as I have over the How much did composer last couple of months. It’s been very Mark Grey involve you challenging. Once I feel comfortable in the process of writing with M I’ll be able to kick back and put Frankenstein? my feet up for a bit, because I’ve done Mark and I were in touch Rigoletto before. I’ll have to relearn it for years about the part but by then I’ll be in good shape men- of Victor, about the tes- tally, physically, spiritually, because situra, the range. He and right now it’s challenging. But I love a his wife live 45 minutes challenge! Portrait of Scott Hendricks. Frankenstein A resource for teachers 9

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