Elliot Goldenthal: The Alien in Opera

Last year I met met a cast member of one the Alien films and was prompted to go back to watch the quadrilogy.

I was shocked to realise that I hadn't actually seen Alien. I'd seen clips and parodies and thought I'd seen it, but no. Watching it I see why it spawned to many sequels. It's a genuine masterpiece of film. Scott and Giger are a wonder team and I lament that fact that they never completed Dune together (childhood favourite, mostly thanks to the PC game Dune II).

I think the true genius of Alien is what it deliberately lacks. The film is slow paced, there is little actual Alien screen time and almost no soundtrack. The lack of music emphasises the emptiness of space. As they say, in space no one can hear you scream.

Come Alien 3 though, the sound design consists of a gritty yet grand musical score by Elliot Goldenthal, the 'cerebral composer'. I hear he was inspired by the dark mood of LA during the '92 riots. His soundtrack is suitable bleak, very experimental and in some ways inspired.

Alien 3 was his first mainstream work and drew so much attention, he would be used again and again in Hollywood, including working with Julie Taymor on Frida (earning him an Academy Award). Later he would team up again with Taymor to write a 3-act opera called Grendal, based on the story of Beowulf from the perspective of the beast.

Back to Alien 3. The Quadrilogy regurgitates the same plot line (alien found, humans trapped in space, time limit set for escape, synthetic human involved in pivotal plot moment, Ripley curses at the aliens and saves the day). To me Alien 3 has the weakest plot of all four films, but thank goodness the soundtrack is a saving grace.

In Alien 2 and Alien: Resurrection the scores are overly militant or post-apocalyptic and are distracting and in some cases tries to steal the show. The Goldenthal soundtrack is musically superior of all the sequels, but is best because it is restrained, always giving importance to the action on screen (it's just unfortunate what was on screen wasn't very good) and never really unleashing its true power until the final moments of the film. It also has a jarring and uneasy feeling - a symptom of Goldenthal's use of unusual instruments and genius timing.

Goldenthal's Agnus Dei gives us an eerie beginning - with church choirs singing a ghostly hymn - almost like he's telling us that in space not even God will hear you scream. Highly appropriate considering that Ripley finds herself crash landing onto a prison commune of repented fanatics who reject women.

I'm a big fan of the space opera, both of the fictional and musical variety. Whilst many go for the heroic and uplifting pieces like Vangelis' Mission to Mars sung by Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle that paint a picture of a grandiose space, Goldenthals gives us a bleak and perhaps even claustrophobic counterpoint. For example, in the extended version, we are treated to Lento. The piece is so close to being beautiful, but Goldenthal holds back. He never lets it shine fully - keeps it just tethered and the result is a tortured and haunted piece.

Agnus Dei

Lento