FrankensteinA resource for teachers

English Literature

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

Cover Image: Act I set of FrankensteinLeft: Chorus in Act I of Frankenstein

Photo creditsCover, inside cover, pages 2, 5, 6, 7 © La MonnaiePage 4 © Moviestore Collection; © Bauman Rare BooksPage 6 © Simon van RompayPage 9 © Royal College of Music; © Philippe De Gobert

Guidelines for teachers

Frankenstein is one of the great works of English literature. First pub-lished in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel broke new ground and helped to define the form of modern science fiction. Its obsessive scientist and his hideous monster have appeared in dozens of stage and screen adapta-tions, from Richard Brinsley Peake’s 1823 play to James Whale’s 1931 film staring Boris Karloff, to Mark Grey’s 2019 opera.

For pupils studying the novel, these adaptations can breathe life into the text and help them to better engage with the subject. It also gives them an opportunity to see how Frankenstein continues to inspire new creations that provide work for hundreds of people and pleasure to thousands.

This packThis resource for teachers has been produced by OperaVision with content provided by La Monnaie / De Munt. We hope that it will prove useful for English literature teachers around the world who want to use a contemporary opera adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel to help their students to engage more with the text.

The pack contains teaching ideas, a background to the novel and opera, an interview with bari-tone Scott Hendricks and excerpts from chap-ters 23 and 24.

The operaFrankenstein is a new opera composed by Mark Grey and produced by La Monnaie / De Munt. It received its world premiere in Brussels on 8 March 2019. A subsequent performance was streamed live on OperaVision on 15 March 2019.

Contextual videosAs showing the full performance in class may 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 timelapse makeup video; and ‘Lifeless, inani-mate’, an aria from Act II.

These three videos can be found on the video slider on the Frankenstein page at www.bit.ly/FrankensteinEN and are available until at least October 2020. Alternatively, you can find ‘Let us begin’ at bit.ly/Let-us-begin; the timelapse video at bit.ly/Frankenstein-Timelapse; and ‘Lifeless, inanimate’ at bit.ly/Frankenstein-Lifeless.

Contact usFor more information about Frankenstein or OperaVision, or to provide feedback about this pack, please contact Hedd Thomas at hedd@opera-europa.org.

Topi Lehtipuu as the Creature in Act II of Frankenstein

2 OperaVision

Teaching ideas

Exploring opera

Start with activities to get your class thinking about opera and what their ideas and pre-conceptions might be. Ask your students:

• Can they describe what an opera is?

• Can they name any operas?

• Where are operas performed?

• Who is involved in making an opera?

Exploring the background

As a class, read the ‘Background’ text on page 4, then watch the scene from Act I of the opera, ‘Let us begin’. Ask your students:

• How technologically advanced was European society in 1818?

• Do new technologies and scientific discoveries lead to mostly positive or mostly negative outcomes?

• When reading Frankenstein today, does the novel feel futuristic or old fashioned?

• In the year 354 of the New Anthropogenic Glacial Period, it is possible to return frozen a mind and body to consciousness. Will we have the capabilities in our lifetimes to achieve this? Will it be a good thing?

• How does the character of Dr Walton in the opera compare to that of the novel?

Exploring the characters

As a class, read the ‘Characters’ and ‘Behind the scenes’ texts on page 5, then watch the timelapse video. Ask your students:

• How closely does the Creature’s costume resemble how the character is described in the novel?

• How does the Creature’s appearance affect the way it feels and the choices it makes?

• What is the Creature’s relationship with Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza and Dr Robert Walton?

Exploring the drama

Opera combines text, music, song and staging to create emotional and thought-provoking works of drama. Ask your students:

• What is the most dramatic moment in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?

• What are the different characters feeling in that moment?

• How would the music and sinigng sound if that moment appeared in an opera?

Exploring the text and music

As a class, read the excerpts from chapters 23 and 24 of the novel on pages 6 and 7, then watch Victor Frankenstein’s aria ‘Lifeless, Inanimate’. Ask your students:

• How does the aria make them feel?

• How has the librettist adapted Mary Shelley’s words into text for the singer to sing?

• How has the composer used music to create a sense of sadness and loss?

• How is the drama and emotion of the music complemented by the staging?

Exploring the creators

As a class, read the interview with Scott Hendricks on page 8. Ask your students:

• How would they describe the life of a professional opera singer?

• Have they ever thought about working in the world of opera?

• Who in the class would they like to collaborate with on a creative project and how would they go about it?

Reflecting on the experience

After watching part of the opera and engaging with the above questions, ask your students:

• Has this experience changed their perception 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?

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Background

A modern PrometheusFrankenstein - 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 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-nology, genetics, information science and medi-cine. At a time of atom bombs, genetic engineer-ing, artificial bio-selection and social media, the gap between our ability to invent and our inabil-ity to understand could be even greater than in Shelley’s time. The need is greater than ever to experience a moral and emotional awareness in parallel with what we have just created.

An international creative teamThe idea of creating an opera to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus came up in a conversation between Spanish stage director Àlex Ollé and the director of La 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 futureThe 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 novel) manifest themselves in flashbacks.

The first page of Mary Shelley’s novel

The Creature and Dr Walton in Act II of Frankenstein

The first page of Mary Shelley’s novel

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Characters

Victor Frankenstein Baritone An ambitious scientistThe Creature Tenor A monster made by Victor in his laboratoryElizabeth Lavenza Soprano Victor’s brideDr Robert Walton Bass-Baritone A scientist from the future

Victor Frankenstein (Scott Hendricks)and Elizabeth Lavenza (Eleonore Marguerre)

The Creature (Topi Lehtipuu)and Dr Robert Walton (Andrew Schroeder)

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.

Except from Chapter 23Narrated by Victor Frankenstein

I had been calm during the day, but so soon as night obscured the shapes of objects, a thou-sand fears arose in my mind. I was anxious and watchful, while my right hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until my own life or that of my adversary was extin-guished.

Elizabeth observed my agitation for some time in timid and fearful silence, but there was some-thing in my glance which communicated terror to her, and trembling, she asked, “What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you fear?”

“Oh! Peace, peace, my love,” replied I; “this night, and all will be safe; but this night is dreadful, very dreadful.”

I passed an hour in this state of mind, when sud-denly I reflected how fearful the combat which I momentarily expected would be to my wife, and I earnestly entreated her to retire, resolving not to join her until I had obtained some knowledge as to the situation of my enemy.

She left me, and I continued some time 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.

Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her pale and distort-ed features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I see the same figure—her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.

When I recovered I found myself surrounded by the people of the inn; their countenances expressed a breathless terror, but the horror of others appeared only as a mockery, a shadow of the feelings that oppressed me. I escaped from them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy. She had been moved from the posture in which I had first beheld her, and now, as she lay, her head upon her arm and a hand-kerchief thrown across her face and neck, I might have supposed her asleep. I rushed towards her and embraced her with ardour, but the deadly languor and coldness of the limbs told me that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips.

Excerpts from the novel

6 OperaVision

Scott Hendricks as Victor Frankenstein sings ‘Lifeless, Inanimate’

Except from Chapter 24Part of a letter from Dr Walton to his sister

Frankenstein discovered that I made notes con-cerning his history; he asked to see them and then himself corrected and augmented them in many places, but principally in giving the life and spirit to the conversations he held with his enemy. ‘Since you have preserved my narration,’ said he, ‘I would not that a mutilated one should go down to posterity.’

Thus has a week passed away, while I have lis-tened to the strangest tale that ever imagination formed. My thoughts and every feeling of my soul have been drunk up by the interest for my guest which this tale and his own elevated and gentle manners have created. I wish to soothe him, yet can I counsel one so infinitely misera-ble, so destitute of every hope of consolation, to live? Oh, no! The only joy that he can now know will be when he composes his shattered spirit to peace and death. Yet he enjoys one comfort, the offspring of solitude and delirium; he believes that when in dreams he holds converse with his friends and derives from that communion con-solation for his miseries or excitements to his vengeance, that they are not the creations of his fancy, but the beings themselves who visit him from the regions of a remote world. This faith gives a solemnity to his reveries that render them to me almost as imposing and interesting as truth.

Our conversations are not always confined to his own history and misfortunes. On every point of general literature he displays unbounded knowl-edge and a quick and piercing apprehension. His eloquence is forcible and touching; nor can I hear him, when he relates a pathetic incident or endeavours to move the passions of pity or love, without tears. What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall.

‘When younger,’ said he, ‘I believed myself des-tined for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound, but I possessed a coolness of judgment that fitted me for illustrious achieve-ments. This sentiment of the worth of my nature supported me when others would have been oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow creatures. When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported

me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust. All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell. My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and applica-tion were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without passion my reveries while the work was incom-plete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognise me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to rise.’

Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathise with and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have found such a one, but I fear I have gained him only to know his value and lose him. I would reconcile him to life, but he repulses the idea.

‘I thank you, Walton,’ he said, ‘for your kind intentions towards so miserable a wretch; but when you speak of new ties and fresh affections, think you that any can replace those who are gone? Can any man be to me as Clerval was, or any woman another Elizabeth? Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superi-or excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, howev-er they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives. A sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be con-templated with suspicion. But I enjoyed friends, dear not only through habit and association, but from their own merits; and wherever I am, the soothing voice of my Elizabeth and the conver-sation of Clerval will be ever whispered in my ear. They are dead, and but one feeling in such a solitude can persuade me to preserve my life. If I were engaged in any high undertaking or design, fraught with extensive utility to my fellow crea-tures, then could I live to fulfil it. But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled and I may die.’

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Interview with Scott Hendricks

Scott Hendricks plays the title role of the obsessive scientist in Frank-enstein. OperaVision asked him a few questions about his latest work before his performance was streamed live from La Monnaie / De Munt.

Welcome to Brussels. Or rather, welcome back, because you’ve been here a number of times. You’ve performed at La Monnaie / De Munt in Macbeth, Salome, Il trovatore, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, Sweeney Todd, Pagliacci, La Gioconda and now Frankenstein.This place feels like a second home now. I’ve ac-tually spent more time in Brussels then I’ve spent at home in San Antonio over the past ten years.

Frankenstein isn’t the first time you’ve worked with Mark Grey; you’ve previously performed and recorded his 2009 choral work called Ene-my Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio, a piece inspired by the oral literature and language of the Na-tive American Navajo people.Yes, it’s for baritone, choir and orchestra, and he wrote the baritone part specifically for me. It was mostly in English but had a sentence here and there in the Navajo language. It’s absolutely beautiful, and the story’s great. It’s about a soldier who comes back home and tries to re-as-similate back into every-day life, but it’s difficult, and the Navajo have this cleansing ceremony for it.

How much did composer Mark Grey involve you in the process of writing Frankenstein?Mark and I were in touch for years about the part of Victor, about the tes-situra, the range. He and his wife live 45 minutes

north of San Francisco. I flew out there back in 2015 and we met over the course of three days. I gave him some ideas, he gave me some snip-pets here and there about what he was working on. We both work with Sibelius, the notation programme, so he would send some files over and I would check them out. He was doing that with all the soloists, if I’m not mistaken. So the 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 for me. It’s wonderful when something fits like a glove, and this certainly does. Mark welcomed feedback from all of us. He’s a very generous man. He just wants us to feel as comfortable as possible, and he went out of his way to make sure that we did.

Friday night saw the world premiere of this new opera. How did it go?It was great! It was great. I’m not big on opening nights; I don’t believe in ‘opening night magic’. It’s kind of nerve-racking, really, because the corridor is filled with people and folks are knock-ing on your door. But even though we were very focused, we were pretty relaxed. I thought it was a great show. Generally speaking I avoid reading reviews but this time I’ve got people sending me reviews left and right. The press has been very positive.

After Frankenstein you’ll be head-ing to the Komische Oper Berlin to star in another new opera, M – A City searches for a Murderer by Moritz Eggert. Then you’ll be playing Rigo-letto at the Bregenzer Festspiele. How you do deal with your workload as a professional opera singer?I’ve never had to balance and organise my time as much as I have over the last couple of months. It’s been very challenging. Once I feel comfortable with M I’ll be able to kick back and put my feet up for a bit, because I’ve done Rigoletto before. I’ll have to relearn it but by then I’ll be in good shape men-tally, physically, spiritually, because right now it’s challenging. But I love a challenge!

Portrait of Scott Hendricks.

OperaVision

OperaVision is opera for the connected world. Watch live streams as the operas themselves unfold in the opera house. View your favourite per-formances, subtitled, on demand. Learn about the art form and specific productions by browsing our richly populated digital library, stories, and articles. Discover resources for young audiences and for artistic career development. In English, French, and German, thoughtfully curated, and free to browse and explore. Supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, OperaVision builds on the success of The Opera Platform, with more contributing opera companies from more countries, under the editorial supervision of Opera Europa, the European associa-tion of opera companies and festivals. OperaVision brings together 29 partners from 17 countries and invites you to travel and discover the diversity of opera from wherever you want, whenev-er you want.

Learn more at www.operavision.eu/enThe Marriage of Figaro at Royal College of Muisic.

La Monnaie

The Royal Opera House La Monnaie is Belgium’s federal opera house.

It is a cultural meeting point in the centre of Brussels and has for more than 300 years gathered people together for opera and dance performances, recitals and concerts. With its bold and inter-

nationally acclaimed productions, La Monnaie has taken its place among the major European opera houses and continues to achieve its artistic ambitions by attracting renowned performing artists, giving opportunities to tal-ented young performers and above all by combining the traditional skills of its studios and workshops with a spirit of innovation. Not just art for art’s sake, but because the experience of art succeeds in emancipating people in a va-riety of ways, making them stronger and reinforcing social ties.

Learn more at www.lamonnaie.be/en

Frankenstein A resource for teachers 9

The La Monnaie theatre in Brussels, Belgium.