Mason’s new production of his Grammy award-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs saw its East Coast premiere by The Atlanta Opera last weekend, conducted by Michael Christie.
“To say the audience greeted the work joyfully would be an understatement.”
“With its compelling score by Bates that combines the melodic and the technologic, the driving and the calm, the sound and the solemn, it melds with the libretto, created by Campbell. That consists of a series of vignettes that jump back and forth in Jobs’ life-one that is not linear at all but circular–and show the human part of the man’s story, which was important to his philosophical growth.”
“The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs proves the not-to-be-missed opera of the season”
“These digital video elements, which occasionally include some exceptionally fast-paced montages and animations, are sequenced beautifully with Bates’ music, which beautifully merges live and electronic components, including sounds generated by a 1980s Macintosh computer as well as digitally appropriated sounds such as the drones of brass Buddhist prayer bowls. The electronic sounds do not go about drawing attention to themselves simply for being “electronic”; they instead come across as an impressively organic extension of the orchestra.”
“The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” is a magnificent, wondrous opera”
“Contemporary classical composer, 45-year-old Mason Bates, shaped from his mind a dazzling Grammy Award-winning opera around the life of Steve Jobs, with libretto by Mark Campbell (both of whom were in attendance at opening night). The opera is a wondrous and dramatic entry point for those who don’t think the opera is for them and a ground breaking path forward for those who have remained comfortable with the traditional trappings of what opera has been. The music is challenging, the stage design is a visual feat, and the opera is thought-provoking.”