Monsters and humans share the stage in Grendel, a new opera that opens in New York Tuesday night. Based on the novel by John Gardner, the show tells the classic medieval tale of Beowulf, but from the monster's perspective.

Julie Taymor, the show's Tony-winning director, also co-wrote Grendel with J.D. McClatchy. In order to get the audience to identify with the monster, rather than the humans, Taymor and McClatchy opted to have Grendel sing in contemporary English while the humans sing in the Old English of Beowulf. "It forces the audience to identify with the outsider, with the monster," Taymor says.

Taymor and composer Elliot Goldenthal have collaborated together, artistically and romantically, since the 1970s. Even before they met, both were intrigued with the idea of bringing Gardner's novel to the stage. They have been working on and off on the opera for twenty years.

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