Smooch!
Getting ready for tonight’s U.S. premiere of Death and the Powers, composer Tod Machover shares an intimate moment with Operabot…
WGBH interviews Diane Paulus
Here’s an in-depth interview on Boston’s WGBH with Death and the Powers director Diane Paulus. She also speaks about her work on the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Hair and the immersive rock musical Prometheus Bound, currently at Club Oberon in Cambridge. We haven’t had a chance to hear much directly from Diane (little wonder, she …
Why Death and the Powers?
We were pleased to discover the Boston Musical Intelligencer, an erudite and elegant blog edited by pianist and musicologist Robert Levin and devoted to the classical music scene in Boston. They recently published a highly informative article about Tod Machover and his new opera, Death and the Powers. The article delves deeply into Tod’s musical …
Meet the Digital Composer: Tod Machover
Whether he’s creating genre-breaking compositions for the concert hall, “robotic” operas for worldwide stages, software that allows anyone to compose original music, or musical activities that can diagnose illness and restore health, Tod Machover’s unique vision is shaping the future of music. Join us as Tod discusses his new opera “Death and the Powers” and …
Boston Phoenix – “High tech meets high anxiety”
Journalist Chris Dahlen hung out in the Cutler Majestic Theater during rehearsals of Death and the Powers last August, just before the set was shipped off to Monaco for the opera’s world premiere. His story in the current Boston Phoenix reports in detail on the numerous technological innovations in the opera. It’s an entertaining account …
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Time Out Boston interviews Tod Machover
Which film robot is the favorite of Death and the Powers composer Tod Machover? What came first in the creation of the opera – the technology or the concept? And where does baritone James Maddalena, who sings the role of Simon Powers, go when he disappears from the stage? How would Tod characterize his music? …
BBC World Service chats with Tod Machover
You can count on the BBC to produce great material, and this interview with Death and the Powers composer Tod Machover is no exception! The interviewer asks great questions. Are the operabots instruments or are they performers? How much is the pursuit of immortality a motivation for the composer? Is it about living forever through …
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Designing Operabots
Alex McDowell, production designer for Death and the Powers, shared these notes with us detailing his experience working on the production design of Death and the Powers. We thought they were worth sharing. Thanks Alex! DEATH & THE POWERS – designing operabots Alex McDowell, March 9 2011 Death and the Powers was my first experience …
Boston Globe spotlights Operabots
Here’s a charming article in the Boston Globe that focuses on the creative and technological efforts that went into the “operabots” in Death and the Powers. The article reveals how director Diane Paulus and choreographer Karole Armitage latched on to some early technical quirks and glitches and used them to imbue the operabots with dramatic …
A radical new approach to live performance
Here’s another excellent article about Death and the Powers from Variety. This one sheds light on how composer Tod Machover and production designer Alex McDowell thought about rendering the character of Simon Powers through the elements of the stage design and the development of “Disembodied Performance” technology. “Machover sees applications for this technology in large …
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Opera of the Future 