The man who brought us the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad has unsurprisingly been the focus of much attention since his death in 2011, but with two movies and a documentary already devoted to his life and work the story is becoming very familiar.
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“Riding on the heels of Jennifer Higdon and Gene Scheer’s “Cold Mountain”, which received both audience and critical acclaim at its world premiere on Saturday”, said MacKay, “it is a thrill to announce Santa Fe Opera’s next major commission.
” The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will mark the Company’s 15th world premiere, continuing the tradition of producing work that pushes the boundaries of the art form”, said Santa Fe Opera General Director Charles McKay in a news release.
The opera, titled “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs“, will be composed by Mason Bates, with an original libretto by Mark Campbell. According to the opera, the production will examine Jobs facing his own mortality and will circle back to the events and people in his past that shaped and inspired him.
New Mexico, of which Santa Fe is a capital, has recently embarked on several projects honouring its connections to technology innovators including Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
It will feature characters based on Jobs’ father, Paul, as well as his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs.
While Gates worked on his project, Jobs operated from in his garage in Los Altos and with partner Steve Wozniak released the compact Apple II at the time Albuquerque was a technology hub. “When they collide, that’s when it gets interesting”, Bates said according to the AP.
Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985 in a board coup but came back 11 years later.
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Although this will be Bates’ first produced opera, the release describes him as “one of America’s most acclaimed and popular composers”, and notes that Campbell was the librettist for the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Silent Night.
