PBS NewsHour – Former Poet Laureate Pinsky: Poetry ‘Too Fundamental, Large’ to Need Advocate
Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky is one of the rare “public poets” who enjoys sharing and performing poetry in settings as wildly diverse as The Colbert Report, The Simpsons and the musical performance stage. Pinsky has performed his poetry with jazz musicians and supplied the language for the libretto of the opera Death and the Powers.
The Guardian (UK) – The MIT factor: celebrating 150 years of maverick genius
“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has led the world into the future for 150 years with scientific innovations. Its brainwaves keep the US a superpower. But what makes the university such a fertile ground for brilliant ideas?” The article begins with Tod Machover’s hypercello project with Yo-yo Ma and comes full circle at the end with Noam Chomsky on the eve of his musical debut as the narrator with the Kronos Quartet in Machover’s newest work, “Chomsky Suite”.
Eternal Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Robot fans blog about Death and the Powers! The technology: “It’s spooky good. The 3,000-pound “operabots” directed by Xbox controls move and speak like you’ve never seen.” Is “Death and Powers” good opera? Initial reception has been good, even in picky Opera News. Is it genius engineering and application? Posing Big questions worth asking? Yes and yes.
Opera of the Future 