Kavalier and Clay Reviews are in!

I’m so grateful to everyone who came out for Opening Night of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It was pure joy to finally share this piece with you, and so moving to hear the reactions and read the reviews:

“Kavalier & Clay is its top-performing opera at the box office so far this season. Ticket sales for the opening night were the Met’s highest this decade.”
– The Economist

“The Met is back with a bang … Bates’s vocal writing allows his singers plenty of opportunities to shine, with long soaring lines.” 
– The Times 

 “An absolute knockout …a highly entertaining evening… Bates keeps the narrative moving swiftly, and his transitions from scene to scene are admirably deft, especially given how frequently the setting shifts… His music is unabashedly tonal, colourfully orchestrated, and he employs electronic sounds with precision and restraint.”
– The Financial Times

“This has blockbuster appeal … it takes advantage of the grand opera format and puts the more filmic qualities of Bates’s writing to perfect use.”
– The Observer

 “This was arguably the most successful opening night the company has had since the pandemic … Full of poetic gestures, and moments that truly sear into your heart and mind.” 
 – OperaWire 

“Bates’s score with its mix of electronics and acoustic instruments is engrossing and carries real emotional weight. … his use of electronica adds layers of texture and color to the score and makes the comic-book scenes pop with excitement.”
– Seen and Heard International 

Kavalier and Clay Featured in the New York Times

The New York Times Features The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Grateful to The New York Times — and legendary journalist Adam Nagourney (pictured in last photo!)— for this in-depth feature on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which opens the The Met Opera’s season on Sept 21.

The article traces nearly eight years of work adapting Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel into a two-act opera that moves from Nazi-occupied Prague to 1940s New York to a full-blown comic book universe. It also explores the opera’s use of symphonic electronica — blending orchestra with swing-era jazz, mandolin, Jewish liturgical music, and prerecorded electronic textures.

It’s an honor to open the Met season, and I’m deeply thankful to Gene Scheer, Bartlett Sher, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the extraordinary Met Orchestra and Chorus, Peter Gelb, and everyone involved helping to make this happen!

Continue below or click here to read the full article! 

The Composer Bringing ‘Symphonic Electronica’ to the Met

With “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” Mason Bates, a.k.a. DJ Masonic, expands the sound world of the Metropolitan Opera.

By Adam Nagourney

 Reporting from Burlingame, Calif.

Mason Bates’s spacious studio, just a few steps from his home near San Francisco, has a Steinway piano, a set of turntables and a row of guitars hanging on the back wall. But for the musical point he wanted to demonstrate on this bright California afternoon, Bates needed a synthesizer: He flicked a switch on his Prophet Sequential and a trembling blast filled the room.

“We are making the superhero world,” he said. “I felt like we needed some electronica.”

Bates, 48, was talking about “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” his Metropolitan Opera debut, which opens the company’s season on Sept. 21. It is based on Michael Chabon’s novel about two Jewish cousins in Brooklyn, one a refugee from Prague, who create a comic book hero to fight the Nazi occupiers there. The opera begins with that synthesizer blast — an electronic invocation of the threat of Nazi Germany, floating on the sounds of a harp, acoustic guitar and piano.

“I call it symphonic electronica,” Bates said. “Something that is beyond the orchestra, to give it that sound of Technicolor, fantasy. And that’s where my background in sound design and DJing became pretty useful.”

Bates is a composer whose music has been performed at symphony halls and opera houses. He is the composer of “The (R) evolution of Steve Jobs,” which premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2017. He was the first composer in residence at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

He is also a DJ who plays bass-heavy techno music for crowded dance floors across San Francisco, under his nom de club, D.J. Masonic.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Never before has electronica music been featured so prominently at the Met. “I have written into the score, at moments, ‘Conductor locks into the beat,’” Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s music director, said, describing the task of keeping time with an acoustic orchestra and a prerecorded synthesizer. “Which means, I am not in charge at the moment. I just listen to whatever the beat is at the time.”

“It’s a challenge,” he added. “But we have been doing new music very regularly in our diet for the past five years. This has prepared us for undertaking this kind of project.”

Commissioning “Kavalier and Clay” is the latest example of how the Met is trying to navigate changing tastes and markets, expanding its repertoire with works by living composers and contemporary stories.

With “Kavalier,” four of the five operas that have opened the Met season since Covid have been new works. (“Medea,” in fall 2022, was the only exception.) Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met, said: “Yannick and I are very determined to alter the course of opera by doing new works by leading composers. The idea of putting it as a season opener has to do with demonstrating to the public how important new works are to the future of our art form.”

Bates, Gelb added, “represents the kind of American composer who is interested in doing what opera should have been doing with new music for a long time but hasn’t.”

“Kavalier & Clay” is a sprawling novel that explores Judaism, the struggle against fascism, immigration, gay romance and comic book art. It focuses on Joe Kavalier, an artist and magician who escapes Prague for Brooklyn, and his cousin, Sammy Clay, a Brooklyn writer struggling with his sexuality. Working out of an apartment in Brooklyn, they create “The Escapist,” a comic superhero who becomes wildly popular in an America fixated on the advance of the Nazis and the outbreak of World War II.

The novel’s more than 600 pages, covering 25 years, have been squeezed by Bates and the librettist, Gene Scheer, into a relatively brisk two-and-a-half hour opera. Its two acts are staged in Nazi-occupied Prague, New York City in the 1940s and an imaginary comic book universe that is revealed in animation on screens behind the singers, who include the baritone Andrzej Filonczyk as Joe and tenor Miles Mykkanen as Sam.

“It moves like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’” Bates said. “It’s like, boom, boom, boom. Nazis. Superheroes.”

The opera has been nearly eight years in the making, dating back to 2017 when Gelb saw the Jobs opera in Santa Fe. Bates learned that Gelb was in the audience and sent him a note saying he was interested in writing for the Met. Gelb invited him to New York.

When Gelb asked him for ideas, Bates suggested “Kavalier & Clay” — a book, he said, which has “all the ingredients for a great opera.” He had already tracked down Chabon to get his permission to adapt the novel; Bates said that Chabon granted the rights, but has not been involved in bringing the work to the stage. (Chabon, who told Bates he has little interest in opera, declined a request for an interview.)

“Kavalier” was supposed to premiere at Los Angeles Opera as a joint production with the Met, but Los Angeles backed out, citing the cost and complexity of the work as it was struggling to recover from the financial setbacks from the pandemic. (“All operas are complicated and expensive,” Gelb said. “This one is particularly complicated.”) Instead, it premiered with a student cast last year at the Jacobs School of Music, the conservatory at Indiana University in Bloomington, with a stage nearly as large as the one at the Met.

 

Scheer, the librettist, said adapting a novel with this many story zigs and character zags was daunting; he also was the librettist for the similarly encyclopedic “Moby-Dick,” which is why Gelb said he turned to him. “It’s a huge lift, to be frank,” Scheer said. “We had to cut an enormous amount and reimagine it in a way that would invite music in. That’s the trick to this: to find a way for the music to distill the story.”

(When I asked Bates if he had told Chabon what parts of his novel had been left on the cutting room floor, he responded: “When’s this article coming out?”)

With Adam Adam Nagourney in Burlingame, CA

Kavalier and Clay Takes Flight at the Met Opera

Rehearsals are underway at the Metropolitan Opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which opens the Met’s 2025–26 season on September 21.

From the first day of rehearsals to the sight of a superhero soaring across the stage, the excitement inside the Met has been electric. Dancer Bonnie Wright recently took flight as the Luna Moth in a dazzling moment made possible by the ingenuity of choreographer Mandy Moore, the Met’s stage managers, technical crew, and production team.

The process of bringing this new opera to life is a collaboration on a remarkable scale — with artists across every department of the Met working side by side with director Bartlett Sher, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, librettist Gene Scheer, the creative minds of 59 Productions, and everyone at the Met.

Stay tuned as this extraordinary production comes together, and mark your calendars for opening night when Kavalier & Clay takes its place on the Met stage.

Learn More

Silicon Hymnal with Time for Three

Mason’s newest work, Silicon Hymnal, travels to the San Francisco Symphony on Wednesday, July 23 for a thrilling homecoming with one of my longest collaborators, Maestro Robert Moody—who, decades ago, commissioned my very first orchestra piece. This genre-blurring triple concerto was written for the inimitable Time for Three, whose members seamlessly shift between singing and playing in any style. The piece begins as a suite of capricious dances and gradually expands into a full-blown concerto, culminating in two massive final movements. And Mason will be joining them onstage, pumping out the heavy electronica track.

It’s been a busy summer for Silicon Hymnal, with performances at Brevard Music Center under Keith Lockhart, an upcoming date with Sun Valley Symphony and Alsadair Neale on August 4, and a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on August 21.

Check out this excerpt of Silicon Hymnal here! 

 

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Opens Met Opera’s 2025–26 Season

NEW PRODUCTION | September 21–October 11

I’m thrilled to announce that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay will open The Met Opera’s 2025–26 season on Sunday, September 21!

It’s been an incredible journey transforming Michael Chabon’s masterpiece into an opera, and I’m beyond excited to see this epic tale come alive on the world’s most legendary opera stage. I can’t wait for you all to experience the magic and energy of this production. Huge thanks to everyone who’s been a part of this journey—follow along for new updates and to watch the adventure unfold!

In this exhilarating new adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Incorporating scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles, the eclectic score moves seamlessly among the three worlds of Gene Scheer’s libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy. Bartlett Sher’s production provides spectacular visuals to match, with towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Opening Night premiere, and baritone Andrzej Filończyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen.

Mercury Soul at Gray Area

An extraordinary show combing dance, DJing, and classical music unfolds on Saturday Jan 25 courtesy of Mercury Soul.  Please join us for this one-night-only event! San Francisco’s legendary dance company ODC will be appearing between DJ sets mixed by me and DJ Justin Reed of Chicago, interspersed by short performances of Chopin, Adams, Mozart, Piazzolla, Mendelssohn, and Bach – plus some brand-new interludes I’ve composed to tie it all together. You’ll be transported from the dance floor to soulful performances merging dance and classical music —and back again!

Mercury Soul at Grace Cathedral

On April 19, Mercury Soul transforms San Francisco’s iconic Grace Cathedral in a magical evening of luxe DJ beats, lush classical music, and immersive visuals.
 
Bay Area audiences have flocked to shows produced by Mason’s classical/club nonprofit, which animates spectacular spaces with DJing, classical sets, and imaginative stagecraft.  Recent shows have been at the historic San Francisco US Mint, The Battery, and The Midway club.
 
For this event, interspersed between sets by DJ Masonic, DJ Justin Reed, and special guest DJ Rob Garza, the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, Francis Poulenc, and William Byrd will be performed by a lush brass chorale and organ.

Entrancing early minimalism of John Adams will be choreographed by Smuin Ballet; Jules Massenet’s exquisitely beautiful Taïs Meditation brought to life by violinist Ava Pakiam; and scintillating organ toccatas performed by Grace Cathedral’s Christopher Keady.

SF Opera Adler Fellow Arianna Rodriguez sings an aria from Bellini’s La Sonnambula, and SF Gay Mens Chorus fills the cathedral with choral music of the Renaissance.

Dress to impress and be ready to dance later in the evening during this extraordinary evening at an iconic San Francisco space.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at San Francisco Opera

Operas through the centuries are filled with creative characters – from Bohème’s starving artists to Death in Venice’s haunted author.  About ten years ago I started dreaming about an opera that would examine a different kind of creative individual: the creative technologist.

Living in the Bay Area for a decade leading up to that moment, I became familiar with the fascinating breed of creative people whose innovations transform civilization.

And no one better exemplified this than Steve Jobs.

As we gear up for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at San Francisco Opera this fall, a feeling of homecoming is in the air.  Not only is the opera’s story grounded in the Bay Area, but the piece was conceived and written here as well.  Matthew Shilvock, General Director of SF Opera, was the first person to jump aboard this production after seeing it premiere at Santa Fe Opera, so SF Opera has played a key role in bringing this piece to life.

After two years that have seen a glorious new production tour through five cities, it’ll be thrilling to see the original production on the grand stage of SFO.  This original production is renown for its mix of cutting edge projections and old-fashioned stagecraft, exemplified by the six huge monoliths that combine in endless ways to form the set.  The walls of Young Steve’s garage fly apart after the opening scene to create every subsequent scene!

The opera also feels even more resonant in 2023 than it did six years ago, with its message of “look up, look out” extremely relevant in a post-pandemic world.  After the challenging years of lockdowns and digital life, many people have embraced the return to true connection.  That’s the message of the opera, as sung by Laureen Powell Jobs in her final aria.

As a tech mogul who presented as an artist, Steve Jobs gives us a unique opera subject – both protagonist and antagonist – who journeys from hippy idealist to master of the universe.  It’s a story that resonates deeply in the Bay Area, and it is tremendously meaningful to experience this story at San Francisco Opera.

Utah Opera Presents The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

The new production of Mason’s GRAMMY-winning opera at Utah Opera caught the attention of Fox 13 Salt Lake City. Check out their segment on the piece and interview with John Moore, who plays the title character. 

This is a Grammy-award-winning opera that anyone will enjoy

Mason Bates & Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
By: The PLACE

Get your tickets now to the upcoming Utah Opera performance of Mason Bates & Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.

This Grammy-award-winning, “totally user-friendly” opera (Los Angeles Times) is a smart and sleek take on the entrepreneur who changed our modern world forever.

Steve Jobs relentlessly dedicated himself to creating the perfect device while wrestling with his own imperfections.

He created technology to connect us all while struggling to connect with those around him. Faced with his mortality, Jobs re-visits moments that shaped his life –from a young romance to his dramatic fall from the C-suite – and circles back with newfound understanding. 

John Moore makes his Utah Opera debut in the lead role and—according to composer Mason Bates—”so vividly creates the lead role that, by the end, you will be half-certain you are witnessing the man himself.”

The production runs May 6-14, 2023, at Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

Philharmonia Fantastique European Premiere

In April 2023, Mason’s Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra will be heading to Europe for the first time. The Aurora Orchestra will perform the European premiere under the baton of Nicholas Collon, with two performances at The Southbank Centre on Sunday April 16, 2022.

For more information visit the Southbank Center website.