Steve Jobs to be focus of upcoming opera set to debut in 2017
A U.S. opera company in Santa Fe on Wednesday announced plans for an upcoming production centering on Steve Jobs, adding to a growing number of books, movies and documentaries focusing on the life and times of the late Apple cofounder.
Commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" by composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell will put a dramatic spin on what has become well-trod ground since Jobs' passing, reports The Los Angeles Times.
With a life chock full of personal and public turmoil, success, loss, love and discovery, Jobs' story seems like a perfect fit for the opera house. The production will incorporate important characters from the tech guru's inner circle, including his adoptive father Paul and his wife Laurene Powell Jobs, while digging into sensitive subjects like his relationship with former girlfriend and mother to his first child Chrisann Brennan.
According to the report, the upcoming Jobs opera will stage a workshop in San Francisco next month in collaboration with Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. Director Kevin Newbury is in charge of the production, which will be conducted by Minnesota Opera music director Michael Christie.
Jobs' untimely death in 2011 generated a crush of press, while his storied life inspired multiple biographies, magazine specials, documentaries and big-screen adaptations. A hotly anticipated big-budget movie based on Walter Isaacson's official biography, and penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, is set for release in October. The film has been selected as the "Centerpiece" of this year's New York Film Festival.
Commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" by composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell will put a dramatic spin on what has become well-trod ground since Jobs' passing, reports The Los Angeles Times.
With a life chock full of personal and public turmoil, success, loss, love and discovery, Jobs' story seems like a perfect fit for the opera house. The production will incorporate important characters from the tech guru's inner circle, including his adoptive father Paul and his wife Laurene Powell Jobs, while digging into sensitive subjects like his relationship with former girlfriend and mother to his first child Chrisann Brennan.
According to the report, the upcoming Jobs opera will stage a workshop in San Francisco next month in collaboration with Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. Director Kevin Newbury is in charge of the production, which will be conducted by Minnesota Opera music director Michael Christie.
Jobs' untimely death in 2011 generated a crush of press, while his storied life inspired multiple biographies, magazine specials, documentaries and big-screen adaptations. A hotly anticipated big-budget movie based on Walter Isaacson's official biography, and penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, is set for release in October. The film has been selected as the "Centerpiece" of this year's New York Film Festival.
Comments
So fucking tired of milking Jobs' death, in such extreme fashion, so soon after his passing. What's worse, those behind most of this garbage clearly did not even have a shred of insight or understanding as to the real Jobs and his personality and motivations- or if they did, they decided to go with character assassination, easily advertisable trash instead.
Having read just about everything written about Jobs and Apple, I can see, and have seen, how those stories could make for a great movie. Heck, the early days of Apple could even be a MadMen-like TV series.
But I don't see an opera. I understand they did Nixon in China which was successful, but honestly what is there for Jobs and Sculley to croon about? I guess Gates and Jobs could perform a dramatic Aria called "You Stole My Operating System".
This is just a bad idea.
I would go see it if Philip Glass wrote it.
Apropos of nothing:
I see a great opera in Jobs life story. Kind of a cross between "Avita" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar".... Now if they just write some great songs to do it up right. Songs that everyone wants to enjoy, and then Beats 1 has the exclusive on... yeah, that!
Well, there was that opera about Nixon going to China, called "Nixon In China"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_in_China
I see a great opera in Jobs life story. Kind of a cross between "Avita" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar"....
"Every time I look at you I don't understand, why you hold my iPhone wro-ong in your hand…"
Agreed. I picture a fat lady with a Viking helmet yelling "It's Shit!!!" In Italian.
I am the very model of a Silicon Valley leader,
I’ve information holistic and some say I’m a mind reader,
I know what works and what doesn’t and how big that chamfer should be;
The only thing that matters is that there’s another side of me…
I’m nothing but a deadbeat dad who refused my paternity,
I also verbally abused my subordinates–employees,
And from my competitors I would regularly steal ideas
And sue them all right afterwards–or buy them; come and be with us!
I tried to patent the concept of rounded corner rectangles,
And when that failed I turned around and sued Samsung; the animals,
But I would never beg or cry or even be a pleader,
I am the very model of a Silicon Valley leader!
“10/10, it’s shit.” –IGN
I would go see it if Philip Glass wrote it.
that would be interesting; as it is, i think i'll pass
There are some things that should not be made into musicals or operas and this is one of them. But having said that:
Don't cry for me, Apple Insider
Don't worry about my reputation
I had lots of fame
Though they thought me insane
You thought my reality distortion field
was totally real.
And as for ego, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seems to the world they were all I desired
They are illusions
Intel's not the solution it promised to be
The Cube was the answer at the time
Don't you see I couldn't care less if you love me
Don't cry for me, Apple Insider
But know how to hold the phone
I think it's insanely great
But they called it iPhonegate
I kept my promise
I was insistent
Don't cry for me, Apple Insider
The iPhone, I gave to you
I claimed I did it all myself
There was nobody else
OK, some Ive design
All else was mine
Don't cry for me, Apple Insider
Even though I drove my people mad
I thought everything was kewl
I asked the impossible
I know you think I'm terrible
For making the products inaccessible.
Don't cry for me, Apple Insider
I know you're worried about Tim Cook
For someone who was into design
I wore the same outfit every time
I kept my promise
I started the spaceship
One more opera Bozos, Eric 'the creeper' Schidt and korean knock off guy will never have.
let the man lie in peace! An Opera . . . . What’s next, a Space Conquest Game based on his life? Or, a Comic Book where Steve is a Super Hero who repeatedly saves the planet from MicroSlop’s world domineering subterfuge? Leave Him Be.