Tod returns by popular demand to speak with opera lovers at the Dallas Opera on September 18. He’s joined by Sara Heaton, who performed in “Death and the Powers” in the role of Miranda. Here they are in “Composing Conversations”:
Tag Archives: Death and the Powers
Technology Review: Opera, Remixed
Sound check Ben Bloomberg, '11 works in the “engine room” in Monte Carlo, entering coördinates for speakers used in Death and the Powers. Credit: Peter Torpey
The M.I.T. Media Lab attracts people whose quirky passions and eclectic skill make them misfits in traditional academic departments. Founding director Nicholas Negroponte likes to call the lab a salon de refusés, a roomful of rejects. One such refusé was Ben Bloomberg, an undergraduate who loves pop music and entertainment technology. In the current issue of Technology Review, Ben tells an engaging story of how he found himself at the epicenter of 21st century opera:
I’m sitting in the cavernous Harris Theater in Chicago when an older man with a beard steps up to a microphone. “This project is something that will be remembered,” he says. “Ten or 100 years from now the history books will list this as the turning point, a great shift for the world of opera…”
Read the rest at “Opera, Remixed: My UROP in the Opera of the Future lab”
Superb review of Death and the Powers
Kudos to Jen Gunnels of The New York Review of Science Fiction for her outstanding article about Death and the Powers. This is a comprehensive review that discusses, with knowledge and insight, every aspect of the production, from the libretto, music and performances, to the art direction, stage technology, lighting and sound. Reading it made us want to see the opera all over again. Future productions are in the works. Stay tuned!
Read the full text of the review
Glasschord’s Future Shock features Death & the Powers
Tod Machover shares his thoughts about “Death and the Powers” in Glasschord, a magazine of arts and culture founded by a community of emerging artists. The current issue is dedicated to artists confronting the future, certainly a theme that is central to DATP. In the opera, the opportunities and challenges of the future are explored through both the message and the medium. ”The integration of materials and experiences – within and beyond sound – in POWERS feels new in my work,” Tod writes, “and it is something that I will continue to pursue in my future projects.”
Glasschord magazine is a gorgeous and provocative read, well worth exploring!
Death and the Powers recording session
This just in from Tod Machover’s Facebook:
“Finished the DEATH AND THE POWERS recording today with two fabulous sessions. All the singers, the BMOP players, conductor Gil Rose, and the whole recording and tech team did an amazing job. I am SO happy that the music is in the can; now we enter the editing and post-production phase which will take a while but will be a total pleasure. Look for the release this spring!!”
Photos by Tod Machover
October 5 – Robots and Chowdah
If you’re in Boston in early October, check out this event at the Museum of Fine Arts:
Mixed Taste: Tag-team Lectures on Unrelated Topics: Robot Opera and Clam Chowder
Huh? You may well ask. What do operatic robots have to do with chopped clams simmered with onions in a creamy broth? We don’t know, and that’s the idea behind this wildly popular series of talks curated by Adam Lerner , director and “chief animator” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. He is hosting this evening’s discussion with Tod Machover, composer of Death and the Powers, and Richard Vellante, executive VP of restaurants and executive chef, Legal Sea Foods. Chowder will be served!!
Event details
October 5, 2011, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Remis Auditorium, 161
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Remis Auditorium, 161
- ADMISSION
- $15MFA members, seniors, and students
- $18Nonmembers
Prague Quadrennial coverage
Lighting and Sound magazine has published its report on the Prague Quadrennial conference (from page 110). The event held in June 2011 is one of the world’s foremost gatherings of theater lighting and sound professionals. Starting on page 113, the article summarizes Tod Machover’s talk, which focused on how technologies such as Hyperinstruments, Hyperscore and disembodied performance from Death and the Powers, were motivated by the desire to design systems that can lead to compelling live performance experiences.
What’s up this week
SAGE Gateshead on the banks of the Tyne
Check out the updated official Death and the Powers website. We appreciate feedback!
Tod is on a whirlwind trip to Europe this week, giving talks and meeting with collaborators. He’s in Prague today (June 19), where he’ll be speaking about the production design and technology of Death and the Powers to audiences attending the Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.
On June 21, he’ll be at the SAGE Gateshead in Newcastle, England, where his opera Skellig debuted in 2008. This time, he’ll be addressing delegates to the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Digital Conference.
For the 23rd, Tod heads down to the south of France for the Cannes Lions Festival, which is billed as “ the world’s only truly global meeting place for creative professionals in the communications industry.” He’ll be part of a session on what the music industry can teach advertisers, sharing the stage with will.i.am. Check out Cannes Countdown: What Not to Miss This Year.
We keep coming across commentaries from people who saw or heard about Death and the Powers. Here’s one posted at high SCORE New Music Center: “The medium is the message in Tod Machover’s opera ‘Death and the Powers’. To quote: ”In fact, the communication of the theme of this opera is heightened to the utmost by its highly technological delivery. A fine 21st century example of Canadian Philosopher Marshal McLuhan’s maxim ‘the medium is the message’(5). In fact, should ‘the System’ ever become reality, it may make use of innovations not unlike those developed by Peter Torpey, research assistant at MIT Media Lab and creator of ‘the System’ as it appeared on-stage.”
Q&A with Tod Machover – “What are you working on now?”
Here are the final questions from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson’s recent interview with composer Tod Machover:
NVR: Can you give us a little glimpse of what you might be working on right now?
TM: Whenever I finish a project as large and involving as Death and the Powers (which took me about 10 years to realize from the moment of original conception), one of my main goals afterwards is to evaluate what we have actually accomplished and what that suggests for future work. Continue reading
- "Mr. Machover's new quartet, "... but not simpler ...," is a vigorous, exciting study in speediness, full of tremolando figures, racing lines and iridescent passages.."
- The New York Times
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