Death and the Powers was successfully launched this past Saturday night for its week-long run with the Chicago Opera Theater. The production looks and sounds fabulous in the Harris Theater. Unlike the ornate, traditional venues in Monaco and Boston, the Harris has a dark, industrial modern design that harmonizes beautifully with the futuristic set. The …
“Culture Shock” from Clef Notes Journal
Clef Notes Chicagoland Journal of the Arts offers an informative, elegantly written article about the upcoming Chicago Opera Theater run of Death and the Powers. CNCJA serves as Chicago's premier resource for arts and culture coverage with feature stories on music, art, theater and dance. Click on the image below for a larger-sized version.
Opening Week Round-up
Finally, a moment to catch our breath while the entire stage set of Death and the Powers is being trucked to Chicago. Fingers and toes crossed that nothing breaks along the way, as there's barely enough time to get everything set up and running smoothly for the Midwest premiere on Saturday, April 2! We compiled …
Opening Week Press on Death and the Powers
We've been inundated by press and reviews this week! It's hard to keep up, so we've collected those from the past couple of days here. Death and the Powers has one more Boston performance this Friday night (March 25) before moving on to Chicago for a one-week run (April 2-10). - Updated March 24, 2011 …
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Boston Globe Review – Discuss!
The Boston Globe's review of Death and the Powers should generate some conversation! Critic Jeremy Eichler offered high praise for most aspects of the production: "Much of Machover’s music, his soaring vocal writing, and especially some of his sculpted electronic soundscapes, are highly imaginative and quite compelling. Robert Pinsky’s libretto is often deft, and the …
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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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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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 …
Science Friday features Death and the Powers
NPR's popular weekly program, Science Friday, this week put a spotlight on Death and the Powers. Composer Tod Machover talks about his desire to use technology to amplify rather than diminish the live human presence in musical performance. You can listen to the podcast here (click on the audio player in the upper left-hand corner). …
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Nice shout out on Stuff at Night!
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Opera of the Future 