The story of Steve Jobs is familiar not just because we all carry his greatest successes in our pockets. The librettist Mark Campbell has highlighted the personal story of a man's single-minded pursuit of his vision of success, subordinating everything else -- love, family, friendship, self-care, ideals. It's the story Faust, Ebenezer Scrooge, and the protagonist of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.
But with composer Mason Bates, Campbell has reshaped the story to be circular, like the Japanese enso design that was so important to Jobs. The enso represents the simplicity and the freedom of open-endedness that were ideals for Jobs.
In the opera's prologue, very young Steve receives the gift of a home-made workbench from his adoring father Paul (Daniel Armstrong) -- and through 17 scenes adult Steve comes back to the bench in an epilogue. By then, "get back to bench" has come to mean getting back to the creativity, curiosity, and connection (love of and from his father) that got him started.
The music that invites us into that sweet prologue catapults us without pause to the pinnacle of the man's success in design and commerce, as Jobs (played by baritone John Moore) introduces "One Device" that will do everything and allow us room to be creative. In a fugue for the chorus, the composer suggests how the demand for the device multiplies exponentially. Suddenly, at the end of that number, the music sounds the alarm that something's wrong, and a character tells Jobs, "You're dying." For the rest of the opera, the music and libretto take us back and forth through the lifetime of Steve Jobs.
The non-linear techniques developed in theatre since 1970 allow the creators freedom to make, not a straight narrative arc, but a kind of argument within Jobs himself expressed as dialogue with people whom he loved and/or hurt. These are Chrisann Brennan (Elizabeth Sutphen), a lover shunted aside when she bore their daughter; buddy Steve Wozniak (Billie Bruley), technical "Wizard of Woz" who built the products that made Jobs rich and famous; Kobun Chino Otogawa (Adam Lau), a Zen master who returns often in the opera to encourage Jobs along his circular spiritual journey; and Laurene Powell Jobs (Sarah Larsen), the woman who marries Jobs, stands up to him, and finally humanizes him.
Mason Bates favors transparent textures in the orchestra. The character Steve Jobs sometimes sees visions of the orchestra and sings about the sounds of its instruments, giving Bates several opportunities to highlight solos. The importance of solo guitar (Onur Alakavuklar) is emphasized by guitarist's credit listing in the space between the cast and the musical directors. Bates cranks up the orchestra and chorus for scenes such as that Broadway-style opener "One Device" and a wordless enactment of Jobs in physical pain and spiritual crisis. But some of the best moments in the opera were very quiet, often with two singers in harmony a cappella or over a sparse accompaniment.
Director Tomer Zvulun, who is also the Atlanta Opera's general and artistic director, designed this show for performances in five different theatres. Screens, so essential to the subject, are an important part of the design. Animations, slides, and full-sized murals shift and change color with shifts in the action. For example, we're startled by the image of an MRI scan that suddenly envelopes the whole stage. Moving on a set of platforms and wagons, the performers set spaces with the simplicity that Jobs would have liked -- swivel chairs for the office, a floor lamp to establish a living room, a workbench to establish the garage where the two Steves created their first products.
In the title role, John Moore has a commanding presence, whether he's laughing with friends or cutting them down. His voice is strong, but he blends in joyous harmony with Bruley and Sutphen while their characters are still friends. Lau's low bass makes a strong impression, especially when his character tells Jobs to take just one step, that word drawn out to great length each time, to show how a step can be a journey, too. For Laurene's roles as both a muse to Jobs and his down-to-earth domestic partner, Larsen was convincing and appealing.
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