18 | director’snote Director’s Note WRITTEN BY
Tomer Zvulun
To say that we are all impacted by Steve Jobs is an understatement. I think about this as I talk on my iPhone, listen to music with my AirPods, connect with the world in text, or watch a video on my iPad. Hundreds of millions all over the world do the same every single day. Steve Jobs completely transformed the way we think about the world, how we think about knowledge, how we communicate, and how we access music. However, for all that—or perhaps because of that—he was a very complex person, an icon representing the intersection between technology and art. He embodied a radical dichotomy of absolute contrasts: a barefoot hippie yet also a sophisticated yuppie, a Zen Buddhist yet also a power-wielding CEO, an artist, and a businessman. It is this dichotomy that our opera captures so well. The music, by composer Mason Bates, offers an immediate connection to contemporary audiences. He moves flawlessly between classical style of lyrical beauty, techno, and electronics in a singular soundscape. The opera he wrote is modern, yet melodic and easy to connect with. Just as importantly, Mark Campbell, the librettist, brilliantly portrays the man who would take a break from his ambitious quest to change the world of technology to go for long walks in the mountains to find stillness and meditate.
OREL COHEN
The most striking idea for me as I read Walter Isaacson’s illuminating biography of Steve Jobs was an introduction of a concept that was unique to Jobs: RDF—Reality Distortion Field. RDF is a refusal to accept the limitations that stand in the way of one’s ideas. Through this lens, reality could be bent to one’s own will, taking what was impossible and making it possible. Jobs defied the concept of what was “impossible” again and again, forcing his vision on what would often seem like a lost battle. Apple’s Think Different campaign from 1997 summarized it best: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” The RDF concept was Jobs’ superpower, his greatest strength. This power allowed him to single-handedly transform multiple different fields. He was able to change the world because of his reality distortion field. If somebody said to Steve, “You cannot do this,” he would say, “Oh yeah, I can’t? Well, here’s how we are going to do it. And by next week.”
atlantaopera.org | @theatlantaopera
