An opera exploring the life of the late Steve Jobs has won the financial backing of opera companies in San Francisco and Seattle, ensuring the musical production will be shown in the Apple co-founder's home state of California (via CBS SF Local).
The partnerships were announced on Tuesday, ahead of the premiere of "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" this July at the Sante Fe Opera's open-air summer stage, in the foothills of New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The opera is a "deeply layered, moving portrayal of a man grappling with the complex priorities of life, family and work," according to San Francisco opera general manager Matthew Shilvock, who called Jobs "a real person and a member of our community".
"This is not an opera about technology, although it will be the highest technology production that we've ever done," said Charles MacKay, general director of the Santa Fe Opera. "It is an opera about relationships, and it is an opera about human frailties. He could be a very difficult man."
The opera has been composed by electronica DJ Mason Bates and written by librettist Mark Campbell. Accompaniments include a live orchestra, guitar, natural sounds, and expressive electronics. The co-commission from the Seattle Opera and the San Francisco Opera will cover artistic creation of the opera as well as its physical stage production, and guarantee their right to stage performances beyond Santa Fe in California and Washington, although it could take a few years before that happens because of the time it takes to schedule opera calendars.
Since his death in 2011, Jobs' personal and professional life has been the subject of several books, documentaries, and films. MacKay said Jobs provides the "sort of heroic, tragic figure" that operas have explored for centuries, and hopes the performances may lure new and younger audiences to metropolitan opera houses.
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Also, Mousse... I'm pretty sure you're being ironic... but to anyone who agrees with you at face value: the idea that opera should preferably be in some *foreign* language and certainly not English is preposterous (Porgy & Bess, Handel's The Messiah, Leonard Bernstein's White House Cantata, pretty much anything by Benjamin Britten); classical music is not just from the 16th-19th century, as any modern orchestral or ensemble work (film scores, for example) performed with traditional instrumentation and voices can sound like any Romantic master's work.
Case in point:
THE PERFECT AMERICAN by respected composer Philip Glass -- an opera about Walt Disney, another complicated man.
Or consider:
DEAD MAN WALKING based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean; Music by Jake Heggie; Libretto by Terrence McNally.
You can even stretch the idea to Andrew Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or the amazing retelling of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, MISS SAIGON!
So... open your eyes and ears, expand your definition of such ambiguous terms as classical or opera or modern.
I will happily give this one a chance, too, when it comes around.
".... You.. Are holding.. It... Wroooooooooong!!!"
*Crowd bursts into applause*
Jobs is a fascinating figure. Unfortunately every portrayal of him has been really bad except the Pirates of Silicon Valley.
There is one series that him and Apple in general would nicely fit: Halt and Catch Fire. it's a very good series and they have several references to Apple, but would like to see more.
Hope someone will execute well.