John Adams on Creating Opera for Our Times

well I think anybody that follows operas is pretty much aware that Opera is is uh you know an artistic vehicle of the past you know that basically people want to hear operas written in the 19th or early part of the 20th century but I believe that it is really still a living organism and that if if it if it really has meaning for people it needs to speak to their contemporary experience and certainly the composers that we associate with Great opera whether they be Wagner or to be sea or Mozart Beethoven Fidelio they dealt with the deepest issues of human existence and I think that the the themes that are in my operas do that for our time certainly the atomic bomb is expressive of The Human Condition in a way that no other symbol could possibly do that and the death of klinghoffer which is you know terribly controversial and probably continues to be is about terrorism and it's about intolerance and that you know all we have to do is open up a newspaper or log on to the internet to experience that in the most painful terms Nixon and China's you know a little more easy going has a little more humor but that's uh not only is that about people in power and their Strange Behaviors but it's also about the Collision of the two concepts of how people might live their lives you know whether whether they live them by unfettered you know neoliberal Market values which is what life is like here in the United States or the idea that everybody should have his or her own share and nobody should get you know wealthy which which is ideal communism which you know has never really been achieved that's a really interesting theme and that's what Nixon and China is about so um these things that you know they've absorbed me even if I weren't a composer thinking about them but being able to find expression for them in this Fantastical world of Opera it's been you know it's a lot of work but it's also really just been probably the greatest experience of my life as a creative [Music] being [Music]

Channel: John Adams

Views: 1,293

Keywords: john adams, adams, composer, adams composer, nixon in china, death of klinghoffer, doctor atomic, opera composer, contemporary classical music, terry riley, arvo part, steve reich, philip glass, phillip glass, living composer, verdi, opera, einstein on the beach

Id: OSn8yPXFKQ0

Length: 3min 1sec (181 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2023