April 26, 2023
Frankenstein: The Opera
Gregg Kallor
Composer; Pianist
Gregg Kallor and Marge D'Amico, Introducer
Minutes of the 29th Meeting of the 81st Year
John Cotton presided over the Old Guard meeting at Springdale. Julia Caole led the invocation; Peter Epstein read the minutes of the preceding week. Guests were: Dasha Koltunyuk, the wife of the speaker, Gregg Kallor, introduced by John Cotton; Bob Holly, introduced by Lee Gladden; Marna Seltzer, Debbie Rhoades, and Alexis Branigan, introduced by Anne Seltzer; Mica de Ligerolles, introduced by Lynn Johnston. There were 100 members and their guests in attendance. John Cotton asked for a moment of silence for two members who have recently died: John S. Chamberlin and John Hegedus. In addition, there was a brief change in the bylaws announced: A member must be in good standing for five years before he/she is entitled to move to emeritus status.
BF Graham announced the officers for next year with a note that the committee decided to recruit newer members for the slate of officers.
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Gregg Kallor, whose talk “Frankenstein, the Opera” described Mr. Kallor’s work in writing and producing an opera based on the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley written in 1823. This opera will premier in Phoenix this fall at the Arizona Opera House. Mr. Kallor, a classical and jazz pianist, has been called by Opera News “a rising star in the music world with a singular compositional voice.” In the past few years—through the pandemic—he has worked night and day on his two-act opera based on Mary Shelley’s novel.
Gregg talked eloquently about what drives his passion for the work: “Shelley’s exquisitely wrought plea to look deeper within ourselves to find our commonality and to uphold our responsibility to one another, which feels especially resonant at this moment. The creature’s tragic existence is a stark reminder of the urgent need for empathy in our world.”
Gregg began his musical exploration of Frankenstein in 2018 by composing three scenes that were presented in the catacombs of historic Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn. Gregg played the haunting opening scene for the Old Guard via video and explained that rather than reinforcing the brutish spectacle that we often associate with Mary Shelley’s novel, he aimed to return to the core of the work, the heartbreaking story of a living, feeling creature brought into the world only to be forsaken by its creator, Victor Frankenstein, a scientist driven relentlessly by the urge to create life regardless of the cost. As Gregg explains, “Giving voice to the creature lays bare the horror of alienation.” These early scenes that the Old Guard heard and saw are the same ones that led the editor of OperaWire to write, “But if I simply must select a single performance this year, above all, then that is actually quite easy: Gregg Kallor’s Sketches from Frankenstein.”
Once Gregg was given a commission to expand these scenes into a full-length opera, a workshop was held in New York City in September 2021, with a phenomenal team of collaborators including the soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, dramaturg Cori Ellison, and director Sarah Meyer. Gregg’s video gave us the opportunity to watch and hear a bit of this workshop. He considered it a minor miracle that he was able to have this weeklong workshop in New York City during Covid (especially since singing is not the most Covid-safe activity!).
In his second workshop a few months ago in Phoenix, the mezzo-soprano came down with Covid, creating a momentary panic in finding a replacement. He is now busy revising his work based on the second workshop, with “simplify” as his mantra throughout his revision.
In talking about the original source of his material, Gregg reminded us that Mary Shelley was 19 and pregnant when she wrote Frankenstein. Hers is essentially a novel about a motherless child, a theme that Gregg explored through the aria written for the “monster” who laments that he has been abandoned by his creator.
Gregg also took us into the technical world of opera, explaining the role of the dramaturg and the director, and into his approach to orchestration (like cooking, in which he decides the musical flavor he wants to dominate and which ingredients to add in order to balance the sounds and garnish it).
As Mr. Kallor talked about the loneliness of Frankenstein’s monster he acknowledged his debt to his wife, Dasha, also a pianist (and a graduate of Princeton University in comparative literature and piano, whose musical instincts and literary insights he trusts implicitly). In Gregg’s words, “If there had to be a pandemic, there’s no one with whom I would rather have been isolated.”
At the end of his full and fascinating account of writing this opera, he finished with the reflection that “music can elevate words and the ideas behind them—and amplify their emotional impact. I want to lift Mary Shelley’s gorgeous work off the page with music that makes us feel for the creature and all the characters in this tragic story.”
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Seltzer
BF Graham announced the officers for next year with a note that the committee decided to recruit newer members for the slate of officers.
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Gregg Kallor, whose talk “Frankenstein, the Opera” described Mr. Kallor’s work in writing and producing an opera based on the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley written in 1823. This opera will premier in Phoenix this fall at the Arizona Opera House. Mr. Kallor, a classical and jazz pianist, has been called by Opera News “a rising star in the music world with a singular compositional voice.” In the past few years—through the pandemic—he has worked night and day on his two-act opera based on Mary Shelley’s novel.
Gregg talked eloquently about what drives his passion for the work: “Shelley’s exquisitely wrought plea to look deeper within ourselves to find our commonality and to uphold our responsibility to one another, which feels especially resonant at this moment. The creature’s tragic existence is a stark reminder of the urgent need for empathy in our world.”
Gregg began his musical exploration of Frankenstein in 2018 by composing three scenes that were presented in the catacombs of historic Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn. Gregg played the haunting opening scene for the Old Guard via video and explained that rather than reinforcing the brutish spectacle that we often associate with Mary Shelley’s novel, he aimed to return to the core of the work, the heartbreaking story of a living, feeling creature brought into the world only to be forsaken by its creator, Victor Frankenstein, a scientist driven relentlessly by the urge to create life regardless of the cost. As Gregg explains, “Giving voice to the creature lays bare the horror of alienation.” These early scenes that the Old Guard heard and saw are the same ones that led the editor of OperaWire to write, “But if I simply must select a single performance this year, above all, then that is actually quite easy: Gregg Kallor’s Sketches from Frankenstein.”
Once Gregg was given a commission to expand these scenes into a full-length opera, a workshop was held in New York City in September 2021, with a phenomenal team of collaborators including the soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, dramaturg Cori Ellison, and director Sarah Meyer. Gregg’s video gave us the opportunity to watch and hear a bit of this workshop. He considered it a minor miracle that he was able to have this weeklong workshop in New York City during Covid (especially since singing is not the most Covid-safe activity!).
In his second workshop a few months ago in Phoenix, the mezzo-soprano came down with Covid, creating a momentary panic in finding a replacement. He is now busy revising his work based on the second workshop, with “simplify” as his mantra throughout his revision.
In talking about the original source of his material, Gregg reminded us that Mary Shelley was 19 and pregnant when she wrote Frankenstein. Hers is essentially a novel about a motherless child, a theme that Gregg explored through the aria written for the “monster” who laments that he has been abandoned by his creator.
Gregg also took us into the technical world of opera, explaining the role of the dramaturg and the director, and into his approach to orchestration (like cooking, in which he decides the musical flavor he wants to dominate and which ingredients to add in order to balance the sounds and garnish it).
As Mr. Kallor talked about the loneliness of Frankenstein’s monster he acknowledged his debt to his wife, Dasha, also a pianist (and a graduate of Princeton University in comparative literature and piano, whose musical instincts and literary insights he trusts implicitly). In Gregg’s words, “If there had to be a pandemic, there’s no one with whom I would rather have been isolated.”
At the end of his full and fascinating account of writing this opera, he finished with the reflection that “music can elevate words and the ideas behind them—and amplify their emotional impact. I want to lift Mary Shelley’s gorgeous work off the page with music that makes us feel for the creature and all the characters in this tragic story.”
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Seltzer