Interview with Steven Stanke, composer of The Monk, a gothic chamber opera

Steven Stanke, composer of The Monk, on creating a bold new Australian opera for its world premiere​.
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Composer Steven Stanke shares the story behind The Monk and what inspired its music.

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What should audiences expect when they come to The Monk?
The original book by Matthew Lewis was published in the 1790s during the height of popularity of the Gothic novel. The world had been explored and mapped. There were no more dragons to be found, so the human mind needed a replacement.

Gothic fiction is built on fear and the threat of supernatural events and the intrusion of the past. They're typically set in ruined or old buildings, such as a monastery or a castle. The atmosphere is claustrophobic. The stories are built around psychological conflict or torment. There could be demons or rituals.


Matthew Lewis’s The Monk is such a scandalous and classic gothic novel. What sparked the “this must be an opera” moment for you?
In The Monk we see Ambrosio struggle with and succumb to temptation and become morally corrupt. Matilda, the other main character, represents companionship at first, then pity, desire and innocence as weapons, and finally the propagation of evil, the devil himself, basically.

Opera is all about heightened drama, larger than life characters, great kings and figures from literature or the tragedies of ordinary life and society. Gothic fiction is perfectly placed to provide stories for opera and when I read the story of The Monk I immediately thought, "this has to be an opera".


Are there particular composers or operatic traditions that influenced you?
Musically, I've presented the transformation of Ambrosio from pious monk to potential murderer by increasing modal dissonance. Ambrosio begins the opera speaking in church modes, the pure language of Palestrina, where graceful melody is paramount. 

But as his character becomes increasingly corrupt, I have added more and more dissonance using Messiaen's modes of limited transposition which add much more harmonic colour and disguise the traditional push and pull of harmonic progressions. We move from clear tension and release using traditional cadences to a world where music is timeless, endless, describing Ambrosio's path towards lawlessness and corruption.


Is there a moment in the score that you’re especially proud of or excited for audiences to hear?
There are some musical surprises. Matilda at one stage sings a simple folk song, and Antonia, the young girl whom Ambrosio has set his sights on, sings a quiet and pensive night time hymn. 

And when the demon is summoned by Matilda after some convoluted and mystic incantations, I have remained authentic to the book, which you'll have to see and hear for yourself. It's one of my favourite scenes in a story which has lots of twists and turns and revealing moments.


What themes from the story feel most relevant to modern audiences? 
It's all very topical. You can probably provide a list yourself of honourable and devoted humans who, when confronted with any temptation, end up failing the test, sometimes very publicly. To me, that's good theatre.

There's a connection and an impact, a thought, spoken and shared. 


Any messages to our patrons?  
I do hope to see you at our workshop performance at Rockdale Town Hall 
and if you can financially support this production with any amount, it would be greatly appreciated.