Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 20 July 2017
Apple founder Steve Jobs is the subject of a new opera

By MIKE SILVERMAN move about the stage for
Associated Press seamless scene changes.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — It’s Bates makes extensive
2007, and Steve Jobs has use of the synthesizers and
just finished launching the other computer-generat-
first iPhone before an en- ed effects for which he is
raptured audience when known. But much of the
he nearly collapses, ex- score is richly melodic and
hausted by the illness that relies on more-or-less tradi-
will kill him four years later. tional orchestration to ac-
At this moment in Mason company the singers.
Bates’ opera “The (R)evo- “I’ve found in my sym-
lution of Steve Jobs,” a phonic music that elec-
harrowing sound emerges tronics are a little bit like
from the orchestra pit, a a pet snake,” Bates said.
crushing downward pro- “Treat them very carefully.
gression that’s described in Twenty-five percent of the
the score as an “electronic power of electronics is the
shutdown.” silence when you’re not
“It’s a combination of a playing them. Because
stand-alone synthesizer then when they come in,
with the actual sound on they’re a new element.”
the old Macs of hard drives Each character has a
turning off — and one in unique sound world. As
reverse booting up,” Bates This image released by the Santa Fe Opera shows Edward Parks as Steve Jobs in Santa Fe Opera’s Bates described it, there
explained in an interview world premiere of Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s opera, “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” in are “quicksilver electronics
last week at the Santa Fe Santa Fe, N.M. and acoustic guitar pick-
Opera, where his work will Associated Press ing” for Jobs and “oceanic
have its world premiere on era, he composes on two back and forth through nius innovator but flawed strings and grounded har-
Saturday. Apple computers, which Jobs’ adult life from 1973 to human being who long monies” for his wife, Lau-
“That moment is the real- he will “play” during perfor- 2011, with a prologue and refused to acknowledge a rene. Kobun, Jobs’ Bud-
ization of his mortality, so I mances to launch sounds epilogue that bookend the daughter born out of wed- dhist spiritual adviser, has
wanted to have that kind and rhythms at just the right story in 1965 in the garage lock and drove his employ- “prayer bowls, gongs and
of shutdown sound,” Bates moment. of his boyhood home. ees — and himself — ruth- chimes”; Steve Wozniak,
said. “Even if you can’t rec- As an innovator in how mu- Campbell said he rejected lessly. Apple’s co-founder, has
ognize it, it adds a little au- sic communicates, Bates the idea of a straight lin- The opera unfolds in a sin- “saxophones that associ-
thenticity that the guy who said he became fascinat- ear progression because gle act of about 90 min- ate him with a jazzy world”;
is the subject of this opera is ed by the idea of an opera “I wanted to place events utes, in Campbell’s words, and Jobs’ girlfriend, Chri-
the creator of some of the about Jobs, “the man who the way the mind recalls “as quick and streamlined sann Brennan, is “our hum-
devices we’re hearing.” changed the way we all them. We don’t remember as the technology Jobs mingbird with this glittering
Bates, 40, enjoys a growing communicate.” things chronologically, we created.” This sense of upper register.”
reputation for orchestral He approached librettist connect them emotion- fleetness is reinforced by “When people start inter-
scores that combine tradi- Mark Campbell and they ally.” the production, directed acting, those sound worlds
tional instrumentation with agreed on a framework He and Bates also agreed by Kevin Newbury, which collide and wash into each
electronics. Appropriately for the piece. In 18 scenes, the opera would neither uses rectangular screens other,” Bates said, “and
for the subject of the op- the opera hopscotches glorify nor vilify Jobs, a ge- with projected images that that’s when things get in-
teresting.”
Bates said he knew imme-
M.J. Rose takes readers on a journey to 1925 in new novel diately he wanted Jobs
to be a baritone, “a kind
of Billy Budd with a little
By JEFF AYERS see these scandalous vi- City, she reluctantly agrees more edge.” Edward Parks
Associated Press sions easily, and she knows to go back to Paris with her sings the role in Santa Fe,
M.J. Rose takes readers on that her family history has brother. Soon she will con- with mezzo Sasha Cooke
a journey to 1925, where given her this gift of insight. front a past she had been as Laurene, tenor Garrett
a post-war environment One evening Duplessi hoping to avoid, and the Sorenson as Wozniak, bass
invoked a sense of height- draws a woman at a party man she loved whom she Wei Wu as Kobun and so-
ened passion and new op- and the finished piece has can never see again. prano Jessica Jones as
portunities in “The Library of her subject in a sexual en- Rose’s writing conveys both Chrisann. Michael Christie
Light and Shadow.” counter with a man who is passion and emotional art- will conduct.
Delphine Duplessi has left not her husband. istry in this story. She trans- “Jobs” is the 15th world
Paris and the man she loves It’s actually her brother- ports the reader into the premiere for Santa Fe and
due to a vision she cannot in-law. The chaos that oc- past better than a time ma- expectations are high.
shake. She spends time do- curs after the finished art chine could accomplish. A Further performances are
ing parlor tricks for people, is seen results in the death simple brushstroke or color already planned in the
but her ability is actually of a man, and she vows invokes so many emotions high-tech communities of
quite powerful and frighten- to never use her talents of that it is as if one is admiring Seattle and San Francisco,
ingly real. She can blindfold drawing these “shadow a painting rather than de- This cover image released as well as at Indiana Uni-
herself and sketch some- portraits” again. vouring prose. by Atria shows “The Library of versity, and a commer-
one, but what she draws is Duplessi soon watches her The history mixed with the Light and Shadow,” a novel by cial recording will be re-
also that person’s deepest fiance leave her, and with multilayers of the narrative M.J. Rose. leased by the Dutch label
hidden secret. Duplessi can nothing left in New York will captivate readers.q Associated Press Pentatone.q