by June Kinoshita Arrived in Monaco around noon. We were very lucky that our connecting flight from Paris to Nice took off as scheduled. So many people traveling to the premiere of Death and the Powers have been stranded at various airports throughout Europe because of the French general strike. I'm sorry that they missed …
Interview with Hal Cazalet, “Nicholas”
We actually interviewed Hal a few months ago during the June/July rehearsal period, but somehow that file got lost in the shuffle, so I re-filmed this interview with him in his dressing room before one of the rehearsals. Hal has previously starred in such productions as the World Premiere of Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terrible, …
Final Dress Rehearsal Photos
Last night was the final dress rehearsal before the show opens tomorrow night, and even I was anxious running around backstage with my camera. Though I've seen the show from start to finish several times start to finish (as proven by the fact that my dinner table and I sang through almost all of scene …
Interview with David Woolard, Costume Designer
I was wandering around backstage at the Salle Garnier when I stumbled across the (very hot) wardrobe room, where David Woolard was finishing up the final touches on the suit jackets of the delegates from the United Nations, the United Way, and the Administration. David has designed costumes for such Broadway shows as West Side …
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Rehearsal Photos
Yesterday afternoon during rehearsal I spent a good two hours, armed with my camera, crouching in the front row of the Salle Garnier. Besides getting a few strange looks from conductor Gil Rose and almost getting tripped on more times than I can count, I managed to get a few good shots of the last …
Interview with Tod Machover 3: From the Libretto to Monaco
This is the third of the three-part interview with Tod Machover discussing the history of Death and the Powers. Here, Tod talks about how the project evolved from the first draft of the libretto to today's full-scale production, from about 2004 to 2010. This is probably my favorite interview I've filmed to date - you …
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Listen to Robert Pinsky, librettist for Death and the Powers
BU Today has posted a story about Robert Pinsky: Robot, of Thee I Sing Pinsky’s words help put technology in innovative opera. In the article, Robert talks about how he became involved in the project and discusses the differences between writing poetry and writing for opera. Composer Tod Machover says “I have been constantly delighted …
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Interview with Tod Machover 2: Assembling the Creative Team
This is the second of Tod's three-part interview about the history behind Death and the Powers (didn't I tell you we had a LOT to talk about?). Here, Tod discusses how the first part of the creative team came together - Robert Pinsky, Diane Paulus, Randy Weiner, and Alex McDowell - and worked as a …
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Interview with Tod Machover 1: The Idea Behind Death and the Powers
Tod and I got together during an extremely rare moment of down time to shoot this interview a few days ago, right inside the beautiful Opéra de Monte-Carlo, or Monte Carlo Opera House. We had so much to talk about that I decided to cut up his interview into a few installments, starting with how …
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Meet the Team – Peter Torpey (Visual Design)
Post by Peter Torpey, M.I.T. Media Laboratory Over the past three years, I’ve played several roles throughout the production of Death and the Powers, working closely with Tod Machover and Alex McDowell to figure out what is necessary and possible to present the story of Simon Powers. From thinking about how to tell the story, …
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Opera of the Future 