美国国家公共电台 NPR Sing Different: Steve Jobs' Life Becomes An Opera

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Steve Jobs has been the subject of movies and books, but his complicated life and the ubiquitous objects he left behind also turned out to be the stuff of opera. Ten years after Apple released its first smartphone, the story of the genius behind the company comes to stage - the stage of the Santa Fe Opera tonight. Naomi Lewin reports on the premiere of "The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs."

NAOMI LEWIN, BYLINE¹: Mark Campbell is one of the most prolific² librettists in contemporary American opera. But as he recently told an audience at the Guggenheim Museum, not everyone thought this project was a good idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARK CAMPBELL: I've had a number of socialist⁴ friends of mine saying, why would you write an opera about Steve Jobs? He was the worst capitalist. And I'll say, reach in your pocket. You probably have an iPhone there.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (As character, singing) Tap, get the news. Tap, set a date. Tap, book a flight. Tap, stay in touch. Tap, stay in shape.

LEWIN: The idea came from composer Mason Bates. And though his librettist³ was initially⁵ skeptical⁶, too, the 40-year-old Bates was convinced he'd found the right subject for his first opera.

MASON BATES: Steve Jobs' life was complicated and messy. He had a daughter that he didn't acknowledge for many years. He had cancer. You can't control that. He was, while a very charismatic figure, quite a hard-driving boss. And his collisions with the fact that he wanted to make everything sleek⁷ and controllable, yet life is not controllable, is a fascinating topic for an opera.

LEWIN: Rather than creating a chronological⁸ life story, librettist Mark Campbell says the two collaborators opted⁹ for a fragmented narrative¹⁰ to reflect the man and his machines.

CAMPBELL: Steve Jobs did have a mind that just jumped from idea to idea to idea. It was very quick. And we wanted to tell an opera that is also very quick, that jumps around.

LEWIN: "The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs" shifts back and forth¹¹ in time over the course of 18 scenes. And Bates created a different sound world for each character. Since Jobs played guitar and spent much of his time dealing¹² with electronics...

BATES: Steve Jobs has this kind of busy, frenetic, quicksilver world of acoustic¹³ guitar and electronica.

(SOUNDBITE OF MASON BATES OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

BATES: His wife - completely different space of these kind of oceanic, soulful strings¹⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

SASHA COOKE: (As Laurene Powell Jobs, singing) You know what you need. You really need some rest.

LEWIN: Other characters include Jobs' partner, Steve Wozniak, and the Japanese-born Zen priest Kobun Chino Otogawa, who led Jobs to convert to Buddhism¹⁵ and served as a mentor¹⁶ for much of his life.

BATES: Kobun, the spiritual adviser¹⁷, has an almost purely¹⁸ electronic world with prayer bowls and processed Thai gongs.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

WEI WU: (As Kobun Chino Otogawa, singing) Karma can suck.

(LAUGHTER)

WU: (As Kobun Chino Otogawa, singing) What'd you expect? Simplify doesn't mean be selfish.

LEWIN: As often happens when his compositions premiere, Mason Bates will be seated among the orchestra musicians playing a pair of laptop computers.

BATES: Yes, they are Macintosh. No, I'm not sponsored. And I'm triggering sounds. I'm actually playing rhythms, everything from electronic beats to the sounds of early Apple computer gear to processed prayer bowls.

(SOUNDBITE OF MASON BATES OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

LEWIN: The opera's structure reinforces Jobs' notion of connecting the dots by looking backwards¹⁹. And the set echoes his creations, says the opera's director, Kevin Newbury. After a prologue²⁰ in the iconic garage where Jobs' ideas first took shape, the garage walls explode into six moving cubes with screens which look a lot like iPhones.

KEVIN NEWBURY: We're doing something called projection²¹ mapping where all of the scenic²² units have little sensors²³ so the video actually moves with them. We wanted to integrate it seamlessly into the design because that's what Steve Jobs and Apple did with the products themselves.

LEWIN: Jobs' sense of design was enormously influenced by Japanese calligraphy²⁴, including the enso, a circle that depicts²⁵ the mind being free to let the body create.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (As character, singing) In Japanese calligraphy, the enso is basically a circle.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (As characters, singing) A circle.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (As character, singing) Drawn²⁶ in one or two continual strokes.

LEWIN: The Mason Bates says that also figures in the opera's title, "The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs," with the capital R in parentheses²⁷.

BATES: Of course, there's the revolution of Steve Jobs in his creations and his devices. There's also the evolution from a countercultural hippie to a mogul of the world's most valuable company. And there's the revolution in a circle of Steve Jobs as he looks at the enso, this piece of Japanese calligraphy, and finds that when he can kind of come full circle he reaches the kind of completion that he sought so long in his life.

LEWIN: A life marked by a struggle to find the balance between life's imperfections and the drive to create the perfect thing. For NPR News, I'm Naomi Lewin.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (As characters, singing) Simplicity²⁸.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #3: (As character, singing) Simplicity. Simplicity.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

3 librettist   

n.(歌剧、音乐剧等的)歌词作者

参考例句：

• The musician and the librettist were collaborators. 音乐家与剧作者通力合作。
• Italian-born American composer and librettist whose operas include The Medium(1946) and The Consul(1950). 梅诺蒂，吉安卡洛生于1911意大利裔美国作曲家和歌剧词作者，其歌剧作品包括女巫（1946年）及领事（1950年）

4 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

7 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

8 chronological   

adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的

参考例句：

• The paintings are exhibited in chronological sequence.这些画是按创作的时间顺序展出的。
• Give me the dates in chronological order.把日期按年月顺序给我。

9 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

10 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

13 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

14 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

15 Buddhism   

n.佛教（教义）

参考例句：

• Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
• Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。

16 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

17 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

18 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

19 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

20 prologue   

n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕

参考例句：

• A poor wedding is a prologue to misery.不幸的婚姻是痛苦的开始。
• The prologue to the novel is written in the form of a newspaper account.这本小说的序言是以报纸报道的形式写的。

21 projection   

n.发射，计划，突出部分

参考例句：

• Projection takes place with a minimum of awareness or conscious control.投射在最少的知觉或意识控制下发生。
• The projection of increases in number of house-holds is correct.对户数增加的推算是正确的。

22 scenic   

adj.自然景色的，景色优美的

参考例句：

• The scenic beauty of the place entranced the visitors.这里的美丽风光把游客们迷住了。
• The scenic spot is on northwestern outskirts of Beijing.这个风景区位于北京的西北远郊。

23 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

24 calligraphy   

n.书法

参考例句：

• At the calligraphy competition,people asked him to write a few characters.书法比赛会上，人们请他留字。
• His calligraphy is vigorous and forceful.他的书法苍劲有力。

25 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

26 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

27 parentheses   

n.圆括号，插入语，插曲（ parenthesis的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Irregular forms are given in parentheses . 不规则形式标注在括号内。
• Answer these questions, using the words in parentheses. Put the apostrophe in the right place. 用句后括号中的词或词组来回答问题，注意撇号的位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。