Description
The Monstrous Child is an opera based on the book of the same name by Francesca Simon. It tells the story of Hel, the half-goddess half-corpse daughter of Loki -and Norse goddess of the dead. Teenage girl from the waist up, but putrid and rotting from the waist down, Hel is banished to the underworld by the fearful gods and forced to rule the ungrateful dead. However, along with her monstrous brothers, Fenrir the Wolf and Jormungandr the Snake she is fated to kill the gods and destroy the world - and even a goddess can't change her fate... It's impossible to squeeze all of the musical themes from the opera into a coherent twenty-minute orchestral piece, but I hope I've managed to capture the essence of the opera - the humour, the romance, the drama - in this Monstrous Little Suite.