“Grendel: An Operatic Monster’s Tale,” is the name of the article by Jeff Lunden. The article brings together the humans and monsters to the stage in a new opera that opened in New York. The opera tells the story of Beowulf, except from the monster’s perspective. The show itself was based off of John Gardner’s novel. The writers of the show had it planned for Grendel to sing in contemporary English and the humans in Old English. This was done to pick out the outsider Grendel himself. The writer’s Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal nearly worked on the opera for twenty years before it was delivered. There was however, one part of the novel that was ignored that allowed the emotional factor to continue with the monster. Due to production issues,…show more content… Something that generally fascinates me is the different ways or perspectives that someone chooses to write in. The epic of Beowulf is told to us by a narrator that sees anything and everything surrounded by Beowulf. Something that is left out from the reader is the monster’s thoughts and emotions along the way. The monster’s thoughts were something I had to take time and decipher. The writers of the opera nearly took twenty years to bring the show to life. I instantly connected this to Beowulf fighting the dragon in his old age, the time that had passed. The writer’s journey along writing was also something I connected. Elliot Goldenthal had a small setback when he was writing at his dining room table and falling asleep. The weight distribution resulted in him tumbling to the ground losing his speech. His speech quickly returned to him resulting in the show coming to life on schedule. Elliot Goldenthal and Beowulf have some characteristics similar. Beowulf came across three challenges during his journey and never let anything get in his way. Fighting the dragon and losing was a way of setting his legacy. Goldenthal didn’t let his fall destroy his dreams of creating something that turned out absolutely amazing. Reimaging stories such as the opera “Grendel” will forever live on the epic of
