The revolution will be digitized
The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Kennedy Center: not a poorly made opera, but so relentlessly mid.
Mark Campbell
14 pieces since 2010 — at 2 companies, most often at San Francisco Opera.
14
pieces
2
companies
17
years
By company
Character assassination
Austin Opera’s 2024 production of The Manchurian Candidate proved to be a daring and timely commentary on political power in America, shortly after the 2024 election, just as it had been before the 2016 election.
Diplomatic immunity
Émigré, unfortunately, fails to do justice, either musically or theatrically, to this group of refugees or to the Shanghainese who took them in.
Nighthawks
Edward Hopper’s paintings from the 1930s and 1940s are simply lousy with windows.
Think different
Bay Area composer Mason Bates’s and librettist Mark Campbell’s contemporary opera about the life of the tech mogul Steve Jobs came home “to the place where it all began” in spectacular fashion
Times after times
Despite the ongoing pandemic and the political upheaval, the Prototype Festival is back, and it is bigger and more accessible than ever before.
Ringing in my queers
Stonewall threads some difficult needles with great success overall in this last installment of New York City Opera’s Pride Month Programming.
Riding on empty
Two atmospheric but bleak works provide a musical illustration of the notion that misery loves company.
Christmas past imperfect
Give the creators credit for producing an emotional response.
Whiskey tango foxtrot
I really cannot exaggerate the extent to which I truly did not know what was going on in New York City Opera’s production of Maria de Buenos Aires.
The party’s over
Seven characters step forward and sing a rousing opening number, “The Party Goes On,” accompanied by images of job lines, Hoovervilles, and soup kitchens.
Commie dearest
The Manchurian Candidate is indeed operatic: outsized characters, a doomed love story and a narrative fraught with suspense.
Outskirts
As One is an opera about a boy growing up to discover that he is a girl.
Dark humor grows in Brooklyn
After Friday night, it seems clear that the Brooklyn hipster is destined to be the next audience for opera. Galapagos Art Space was home to another co-production by American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap, this their fifth collaboration, and once again some amazing surprises were presented by this rag-tag bunch of very experimental artists. […]
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).