Tag: frankenstein

Los Angeles Opera Presents ‘Frankenstein’ (1931): Opera Meets the Monster

Commentary When you think of “Frankenstein,” does opera come to mind? Mary Shelley’s classic novel about a scientist who tries to create life by unnatural means, but ends up creating a monster, is hardly the most musical horror story. However, Los Angeles Opera chose it as the basis of its Off Grand Halloween performance this…


Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s Failure

Mary Shelley described Dr. Victor Frankenstein as an Italian-Swiss scientist born into one of the most distinguished families of Genoa, though he was born in Naples. He obtained one of the best scientific educations available at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. Gifted in mathematics and chemistry, he succeeded in creating a human-like creature by…


Frankenstein Was the Foreshadowing

Commentary Two years before lockdowns, the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s classic “Frankenstein,” about which a wonderful movie was released on the author’s life and thought. At the same time, there was a book and an exhibit at the Morgan Library, and growing controversies about the personal and political ethos that a generation of radicals meant to their times…


Myths for Our Times: Frankenstein and the Age of Technology

We have plenty of modern myths to help explain what is going on in the world today. Perhaps the greatest of all is the one written at the dawn of the modern world, just preceding the Industrial Revolution beginning in Britain in the 19th century. That rapid scientific development established Britain as the world’s No….