More than just scary

”NorrlandsOperan’s commissioned ’The Elephant Man’ stems from some kind of timelessness: the idea of inner and outer beauty, goodness and evil, Dr. Jekyll-duality in all of us and the minimal acceptance of the deviant.” ”The South African librettist Michael Williams has intertwined two ma- cabre characters and stories to a full-length opera in two acts set in Victorian London.” ”Composer Carl Unander-Scharin has an impeccable ability to com- bine styles without becoming coarse and creates a contemporary response to the popular music hall tradition... his music also has a sad, emphatic grace with unusual instru- mentation and an almost Wagnerian crescendo in the final moments.”