‘Grendel’ is a milestone, of sorts, for L.A. Opera

Art isn’t easy. Opera isn’t easy. And new opera is practically impossible. But the long and winding road to Elliot Goldenthal’s “Grendel” has been one for the books.

Nearly two decades in the making, this opera conceived by Goldenthal and director Julie Taymor finally -- after a 12-day delay due to finicky computer technology -- had its premiere Thursday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And this much can be said without qualification: It is the most ambitious, spectacular and successful new opera yet from Los Angeles Opera.

Then again, before Thursday, the company had in its 20-year history managed to mount only three premieres -- Aulis Sallinen’s dreary “Kullervo,” Tobias Picker’s inconsequential “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” and Deborah Dratell’s incompetent “Nicholas and Alexandra” -- each more disappointing than the last.

So with “Grendel,” which is subtitled “Transcendence of the Great Big Bad,” the cycle has been broken, if the great big bad not exactly transcended. The opera accomplishes little through words or music, but there is quite a bit to look at.

“Grendel” is a story of evil turned inside out. Based on the 1971 novel by John Gardner as well as the Anglo-Saxon epic “Beowulf,” it takes the monster’s point of view, Grendel being the God-cursed, bone-lapping, blood-gorging terror-monger, to borrow some language from Seamus Heaney’s translation of the poem.A favorite of undergraduates in the 1970s, the novel “Grendel” is existentialism made easy, nasty and very funny. The monster observes the folly of men and then indiscriminately eats them. Lonely, he longs for love, or at least a taste of sex. But he learns to appreciate the arbitrariness of the universe and welcome the monster-slaying hero, Beowulf. Still, he remains deliciously wicked to the end. “Poor Grendel’s had an accident,” he says as he falls into the abyss. “So may you all.”

Taymor and Goldenthal are, at their best, makers of engrossing epic, mythic theater and movies. Taymor’s fame rests on her Broadway production of “The Lion King” and her ability to pull something universal from many theater traditions, particularly Indonesian puppetry. Goldenthal, a longtime Taymor collaborator and a successful film composer in his own right, is a musical chameleon, often able to pull exactly the right kind of music out of a vast stylistic hat for whatever a scene demands.

Taymor and Goldenthal are a power couple, and “Grendel” is their power opera. Although they first conceived it when they worked with small budgets in off-Broadway churches, “Grendel” has always been a grand project. As now realized, the production, which is shared by L.A. Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival, cost an opera-bank-busting $2.8 million (with $300,000 more lost because of the canceled first night). It does look expensive.

A massive revolving wall designed by George Tsypin is ice-shelf on one side, grotto on the other. Weird things are attached to it. From its center folds down a secondary stage for action on high. Grendel’s forlorn mother and monster relatives are gloomy, looming puppets designed by Taymor and Michael Curry. Dance, created by the venturesome French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, is a major component. The work ends as opera-ballet, with the role of Beowulf entrusted to the dazzling dancer Desmond Richardson.

There is grandeur of scale everywhere in “Grendel,” including in the large, diverse orchestra that Goldenthal uses and in some of the gothic language of the libretto by Taymor and J.D. McClatchy. The opera feels long -- the first act is just under 1 1/2 hours, the second a little less than an hour. Yet Grendel appears small.

That is because he is small, or at least human-sized, and because the music doesn’t make him larger. Goldenthal’s score passes time. His talent for theater and film music is that of a hit-and-run artist, able to create mood and, when needed, mayhem in short bursts.

“Grendel” is not without such compelling short bursts, but the score is mostly glue. The musical styles are mostly borrowed, and Goldenthal’s ongoing problem is how to get from this John Adams bit to that Carl Orff bit.

Give this composer a pretext for punchy rhythmic music for chorus and orchestra, or the opportunity to use lots of percussion, and he is off, which is one reason why the dancing was the highlight of the evening. (The other was that Preljocaj’s choreography is full of invention and the dancers were good.)

But much of “Grendel” is Grendel, who sings long monologues, not having anyone to talk to. A conceit in the libretto is to have him sing in English and the humans in Old English, which is a rhythmic language that also seems to bring out the best in Goldenthal.

Eric Owens’ Grendel is round, frumpy and lovable. Goldenthal asks too much of him, extending the baritone’s range deep into the bass register, which Owens can manage but not with much power. And Goldenthal has no music for the transcendence of the great big bad -- this monster just gets quieter and dies. Still, the role is hugely demanding, and for Owens it’s career-making.

In what has become a very tired device in modern opera, Grendel has three shadows who sing along with him at times and help him out. And so does the Dragon -- a camp cameo for Denyce Graves -- whom Grendel consults for some wisecracking wisdom. The trio of Dragonettes who perch on her tail are annoyingly derivative of the “Mao-ettes” in Adams’ “Nixon in China.”

Other important singers have equally meager parts. Richard Croft is the Shaper, a troubadour who mesmerizes Grendel, but here with bland song. The hopeless warrior Unferth is made a hapless heldentenor, amusingly sung by Jay Hunter Morris. Laura Claycomb sounds lovely as the lovely Queen Wealtheow, for whom Grendel lusts. The boy soprano Kyle Hampson is the boy Grendel. Charles Robert Austin as King Hrothgar nicely handles the Old English syllables, as does the chorus.

Conductor Steven Sloane had one of the most difficult jobs -- holding this long evening together -- and he seemed completely on top of all the details in the score, whether they mattered much to the drama or not.

*

‘Grendel’

Where: Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and next Saturday

Price: $30 to $205

Contact: (213) 972-8001 or www.laopera.com