Mark Grey, Frankenstein (2019)

I have to admit, I have never read Frankenstein. Actually, what am I saying? I don't have to admit that! I could easily fake it just by reading the wikipedia entry. Boy, I sure screwed this one up. Stupid! Stupid!

Um, where were we? Right. I suppose it would have actually made sense to see this around Halloween time, but...I didn't. This is a production (the debut, from La Monnaie de Munt) that was on Operavision some time ago, but for whatever reason, I didn't get to it until now. The plot is the plot of Frankenstein. Mostly. It DOES have a new frame narrative: a group of scientists in a future, science-fictiony Arctic salvage the block of ice in which the creature is frozen and thaw him out to try to get him to tell his story. This replaces the frame narrative of the original novel. And the creature does indeed tell about his past: about him being scorned by the people and framing a servant, Justine, for the murder of Doc Frank's brother; about him trying to get the doctor to make him a bride and about him killing the Doctor's bride-to-be. Well, that's Frankenstein!

Very fancy production, with a big futuristic, set that freely slips into the past. But did I like the opera? Well, I'll level with you: not very much. The music does reach a few sort of dramatic crescendi (is that how you pluralize "crescendo?" I realize I don't think I've ever done it before), but mostly it's the kind of thing you get with a lot of contemporary operas where it's really not that interesting in itself, and mainly just supporting the story. Which can be okay, but (of course there's a but) I...really didn't find the story very engaging either. Granted, part of this may be that somewhat confusing staging and my unfamiliarity with the novel made it harder than it needed to be. Or maybe I'd find the novel boring! Who knows? But I just at no point felt involved with the story. It maybe perhaps didn't help that all the non-creature characters, male and female, are made up to look the same, with shaven heads, pale skin, and sunken eyes. If this is meant to be a "who are the REAL monsters?!?" thing, it didn't work for me. And if it's meant to be something else...it also didn't work for me.

You know I like seeing all kinds of operas, and this was really the only old operavision production I'd missed, apart from a few that were only available before I knew about the site. So in that sense, I'm glad to have seen it. But in another sense, I do not feel that it is any great loss to you if you missed it.