We’ve got a lot of great new interviews coming up in the next few weeks, but for now this’ll have to do – this fantastic image depicts Patricia Risley as Evvy, dramatically lit in her famous chandelier scene. You can hear her talk more about what it’s like to perform this scene during her interview. …
Last weekend I headed over to Cutler Majestic to see the opera packing up, clearing out of the theater, and shipping the different elements off to Monaco. The changes were already pretty drastic. Before: And after: So now that the walls, chandelier, and all other miscellaneous parts have been shipped off, that’s it for rehearsals …
Tod Machover composed I Dreamt a Dream! in 2004 for the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. When he received the commission to premiere a new work for the YPC’s Transient Glory concert series, Tod turned to one of his favorite poets, William Blake, and selected a poem that he felt would speak to …
Continue reading “I Dreamt a Dream! – Machover setting for a Blake poem”
This Poetry Foundation profile of Robert Pinsky captures the qualities that attracted Tod Machover to approach Robert about collaborating on an opera. Robert Pinsky is one of America’s foremost poet-critics. Often called the last of the “civic” or public poets, Pinsky’s criticism and verse reflect his concern for a contemporary poetic diction that nonetheless speaks …
Continue reading “Meet the Artists: Robert Pinsky, poet and librettist”
Everyone is sweating bullets from morning until late at night to pull a zillion pieces together for this Wednesday, when there will be a complete run-through of the opera in preparation for shipping everything to Monaco. The complexity of this opera is mind-boggling: The singers and orchestra have to learn an extremely challenging score. The …
Continue reading “Rehearsal Photos – Monday, August 2, 2010”
I’m currently sitting in the audience at Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston watching Jim and Joelle rehearse one of the pivotal scenes in the opera. “We evolved as meat to want sugar and fat/once that was good, but now that is fatal,” croons Jim, writhing in anguish on a blanket on stage. I watch mesmerized …
The current issue of Nature features an interview with Tod about Death and the Powers. Because the venerable science journal lacks a music or opera review section (what an oversight!), the interview ended up under Book reviews. In the interview, Tod explains why he has been drawn time and again to creating operas: “With the …
Buy tickets for the Monaco premiere of Death and the Powers. Shows run on September 24th (invitation only), September 25th (8pm), and September 26th (3pm and 8pm). Ticket prices begin at 80 euros. About Death and the Powers “When the eccentric patriarch Simon Powers departs his physical being and downloads himself into The System, his …
Continue reading “Death and the Powers Ticket Site Now Open”
Yesterday, Tod was invited to lunch at the Consulate General of Monaco in New York as the guest of honor to speak to top members of the U.S. press about Death and the Powers. The event aimed to introduce the press to the Monaco premiere of the opera, as well as interest them in covering Powers …
Continue reading “Lunch at the Consulate General of Monaco in New York”
Last weekend the cast and crew ventured out to Tod’s farm in Waltham, MA to film scenes from the memory download sequence. Directed by Matt Checkowski of The Department of The 4th Dimension, the shoot began in the early morning at the Media Lab and ended up out in Waltham at around 7 PM, at …
Opera of the Future 