The Arts Desk: The Powers and Perils of Musical Storytelling

Mason discusses the powers and perils of musical storytelling in a new blog post for The Arts Desk ahead of the UK premiere of ‘Liquid Interface’ at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday, March 30.

“Musical storytelling is on my mind this month as the London Philharmonic Orchestra performs Liquid Interface, my first large-scale exploration of musical narrative in the form of a “water symphony”. Premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2007, the work features watery orchestral textures and electronic sounds that range from field recordings of glaciers calving, to trip-hop beats built out of water samples.”       

“While the surface of Liquid Interface has many new elements, the programmatic approach dates to the 19th Century. But spokes of it have shot in all directions, including into the world of rock opera.“

“After a century of symphonic music defined by processes – from serialism to minimalism – I find it exhilarating to reexamine the programmatic approach with 21st Century sounds. Getting an orchestra to sync with digital sounds is not easy, but for me a world of imaginative possibilities awaits on the other side.”

Read the full article on The Arts Desk.

The UK premiere of ‘Liquid Interface’ will take place on Wednesday, March 30 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner as part of the Southbank Centre’s Soundscape Festival. For more information and tickets, visit the London Philharmonic Orchestra website.

Mercury Soul @ Saint Joseph’s Society For The Arts

Join Mason as he presents the next Mercury Soul event at Saint Joseph’s Society for the Arts on April 22, 2022.

Featuring DJ sets by: DJ Masonic (Mason Bates), special guest Rob Garza (Thievery Corporation), live modular electronica from DJ Justin Reed (illmeasures Chicago, machine tone music).

Performances by: International Orange Chorale, SFCM Baroque Ensemble, SFCM Percussion.

Music by Mason Bates, Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Erik Satie, Arvo Pärt, DJ Justin Reed

“Ignite your awe and wonder with the luxe beats and orchestral delights of world-renowned DJs and classical artists, Mercury Soul, who are joining together for one special night in the luxe cathedral space of the Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation. Vibes include: lush electronica meets a classical moment meets craft cocktails.”

For more information visit Mercury Soul

World Premiere of Bootlegger’s Break with the Frost Wind Ensemble

The University of Miami’s Frost Wind Ensemble performed the ‘Music of Mason Bates’ on Friday, March 11 under the baton of Robert Carnochan. Including a performance of Mothership, Sea Blue Circuitry and the World Premiere of Bootlegger’s Break. Bootlegger’s Break is a quicksilver opener driven by the soul of Lee Petty, a famous Prohibition-era getaway driver (his son Richard Petty channeled those skills into NASCAR).

Kansas City Lyric Opera clicks on something different: Rise and fall of Steve Jobs

Patrick Neas interviews Mason ahead of the Kansas City premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. 

“[Bates’] music is also some of the most distinctive new music out there. Having grown up on English psychedelia, Bates is not afraid to use the latest technology in his music, a quality used to great effect in (R)evolution.”

“Bates’ technological innovations couldn’t be put to a better use than in an opera about the ultimate technological innovator. “The first sounds you hear are samples of old Macintosh gear,” Bates said. “You hear keyboards, you hear little beeps. I thought it would be fascinating to open the opera with the actual sounds the protagonist created. We also hear Buddhist meditation sounds that have been recorded and electronically processed to represent the world of Kobun, Jobs’ spiritual adviser.”

Read the full article on the The Kansas City Star website. 

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will be at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on March 11 and 12 and on March 13 at Muriel Kauffman Theater, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Credit: Erich Schlegel, Austin Opera

The Independent: “Jobs Well Done”

Paul Horsley of The Independent talks to the creators of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, ahead of its upcoming performances at The Atlanta Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

“The outstanding new opera by Composer Mason Bates and Librettist Mark Campbell employs impressionistic vignettes and reflective flashbacks to tell the life story of a man who probably had a greater impact on how we communicate today than anyone in modern history.”

“For its creators, part of this opera’s draw is that its subject is of interest to millions. “This audience is going to be made up of opera outsiders,” John Moore (Steve Jobs) said. “I am interested… in those people who don’t know they love opera discovering it through a piece like this.”

Read the full article at The Independent

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at The Long Center Austin Opera, February 2022

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs upcoming performances:

The Atlanta Opera
April 30 May 3, 6 & 8, 2022

Lyric Opera of Kansas City
March 11, 12 & 13, 2022

Conversations with the Philadelphia Orchestra

Mason talks with the Philadelphia Orchestra on how the life of Apple CEO Steve Jobs “inspired an opera, a rhapsody, and a revolution.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra has performed two of Mason’s premieres in the last year alone. The premiere of The Rhapsody of Steve Jobs, which swirls together many of the musical elements from his opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and the world premiere and Philadelphia Orchestra co-commission of Mason’s Piano Concerto.

Mason’s Piano Concerto, performed by Daniil Trifonov and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will be available to live-stream on Philadelphia’s Digital Stage on:

Wednesday, April 27, 2022, 8:00 PM ET
Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 11:00 PM ET

The concerts will be available to live-stream from the performance and will be available for ticket holders to watch on-demand for one week.

For more information and to purchase a digital ticket visit The Philadelphia Orchestra.

World Premiere of The Rhapsody of Steve Jobs with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eun Sun Kim

The Philadelphia Orchestra performed the world premiere of The Rhapsody of Steve Jobs last weekend under the baton of Eun Sun Kim.

“Verizon was near full Saturday, one of the rare times it has been since the orchestra’s return to regular live performances, and it was a welcome sight”

“Filled with pulsing energy, the new work for orchestra depicts, among other things, the moment Jobs unveiled the iPhone”

“The music represents, among other things, the moment Jobs presented the world with its first iPhone. Bates doesn’t depict the event as an act of Promethean significance, but, rather, one of driving optimism, and it is this spirit that infuses the whole work — upbeat with a slight pop-music flavor, highly rhythmic, and limned in a silvery wonder. Trumpets surge, violins race, and you have no doubt that the tech god is going places.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Excerpted from the composer’s 2017 opera about the late founder of Apple, the 15-minute suite pulses with a technological undercurrent despite featuring no electronica. Strings and woodwinds swirl through the opening motif in a manner that recalls a computer processing code. But the music turns almost immediately to an expansive, cinematic sweep – think Elmer Bernstein scoring Hud, or even Copland. It’s probably no accident that Bates, a native Philadelphian now based in Northern California, chose to evoke Western soundtracks in his depiction of the man who colonized Silicon Valley. The choice is a smart one that further banishes the concept of “movie music” as a pejorative. The programmatic piece ends with a sweet aria for Jobs’ widow, Laurene, that celebrates the natural beauty to be found just beyond the iPhone screen.”

BachTrack

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs: Austin Opera Review

Michael Barnes of Austin American-Statesman writes a glowing review of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs which gave its Texas premiere at Austin Opera last weekend.

Barnes writes:

“Those whom I buttonholed in the lobby expressed, like me, affirmative responses to Mason Bates’ and Mark Campbell’s impeccable 100-minute opera, given its Texas premiere by Austin Opera, as sleek, smart and sublime as an Apple device.”

“Also crucial to the opera’s success was Bates’ pulsating, propulsive music, combined with a bit of jazz and a fully romantic payoff.”

Read the full review at Austin American-Statesman.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs:

Atlanta Opera on April 30, May 3, 6 & 8
Kansas City on March 11, 12 & 13

BLOG: The Legacy of Steve Jobs

In the pantheon of iconic figures, very few continue to grow in influence after their death.  Whether you love him or hate him, Steve Jobs made such an enduring impact on our culture that his impact has only increased since his untimely death in 2010.

His legacy reaches across industries and counties.  His ‘simplicity first’ design ethos has made sleek interfaces a requirement for everything from tablets to Teslas.  His fusion of creativity and technology is continuously showcased in animated films from Pixar, which he created.  His cold managerial style and lack of philanthropy created a dangerous ‘genius monarchist’ model for today’s tech CEOs.  

The continuing fascination with Jobs is on my mind as my opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs receives its second production in a half a dozen cities this season and next.  It opens this week at Austin Opera under the direction of Tomer Zvulin, who has created a stunning reimagination of the work.

A new production means new sets, costumes, lighting and projection design – in short, new everything.  The original production at Santa Fe Opera featured an ingenious ‘monoliths’ resembling enormous iPods that continuously moved around the stage.  Illuminated from within and projected on like canvases, they could stack close together and resemble the four walls of Jobs’ garage, or could fly apart and become an outdoor wedding at Yosemite.  This design element was the stroke of genius that guided the first production, but not every opera house can handle the crew and technical requirements of flying monoliths.

So Tomer and production designer Jacob Climer created a new multilevel set, emblazoned with dozens of flatscreens, that opens to reveal a second hidden world upstage.  Animated by brilliant projection design of Katy Tucker, the set fluidly morphs into an apple orchard or Apple headquarters – and many things in between.  It has an abstraction to it that emphasizes the sense that the entire opera is a sequence of memories in the mind of Jobs on his deathbed.

Screenshot 2022-02-04 at 18.10.40

The Austin Opera Orchestra sounds superb under the direction of Timothy Meyers.  He makes the propulsive surfaces of the opera glisten with excitement while, in the work’s last third, pulling back to let the lyricism open up.  At the end, the opera shifts focus to Lauren Powell Jobs, who’s warmth brings a crucial humanity to the story.  Her final aria “Look Up, Look Out” is a plea for everyone to look away from devices and strive for true connection. 

Baritone John Moore so vividly creates the lead role that, by the end, you will be half-certain you are witnessing the man himself.  From hippie to mogul to, tragically, a man almost unable to stand, Steve Jobs is conjured by John Moore in a superb tour-de-force.  Mezzo Sarah Larsen brings to life the strong independence of Laurene, and Madison Leonard reprises the role of Chrisann with both innocence and sadness.  Bass Wei Wu has created the role of Kobun, the Buddhist spiritual advisor to Jobs, from the world premiere, and he absolutely owns this important role.  New to the Steve Jobs family is tenor Bille Bruley, who beautifully portrays the everyman Steve Wozniak.

I’m often amused to see the surprised look on someone’s face when hearing about the opera for the first first.  “An opera about Steve Jobs?!”  A technologist clad in black turtlenecks and sneakers doesn’t initially seem like a natural subject for opera, which to the general public is noble medium populated by romantics.  But the story of Steve Jobs is full of passion, obsession, love, betrayal, and tragedy that is the stuff of opera – and as this new production begins its life, I hope you get a chance to see it.  

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs:

Austin Opera: Feb 3, 5, 6 2022

Kansas City Opera: March 11-13 2022

Atlanta Opera: April 30 & May 3, 6, 8 2022

Sightlines: ”The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs clicks on the human connection”

“Even though [the story of Jobs] sounds like a crazy idea for an opera, the obsession with love, the tragedy of his death, it really is the stuff of opera,” said Mason Bates.

[The pandemic] has taught us how important human connection is, and that’s what this opera ultimately makes a plea for,” said Mark Campbell, the opera’s librettist.

One interesting point [about now] is the fascination with the screen and with all its pluses or minuses,” Director Tomer Zvulun said. “I think that what Steve Jobs did is change the world, and it really was right in time for the pandemic. He influenced it in a big way without knowing, 10 years after his death.”

Read the full article on the Sightlines website.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
Austin Opera on February 3, 5 & 6
Atlanta Opera on April 30, May 3 6 & 8
Kansas City on March 11, 12 & 13