On May 2, 2025, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center Opera House under the direction of Tomer Zvulun and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya staged a magnificent production of the (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, an opera by composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell. The accessible music is lush and sonically complex with an undercurrent of minimalist textures. The cast excel in their abilities to deliver soaring melodies and well-articulated lyrics, often with multi-syllabic words that ring clear. One must assume the singers are subtly mic-ed because the Washington National Opera Orchestra is large and includes additional instruments like harp, celeste, saxophone, guitar, and laptop electronica that might otherwise cover the voices. The well-organized set is complicated, with screens, platforms, stairs, and projections that remind back-in-the-day tech conference-goers of the stage setup around which the real-life Steve Jobs strutted and proclaimed his groundbreaking personal computing devices.
No doubt, Jobs was a genius, but he wasn’t a nice person. He lacked empathy. He told his girlfriend Chrisann to get an abortion when she announced they were pregnant. He didn’t want “it”, and he was too busy. He drove his employees to work beyond their physical limits. He insulted Woz, his best friend and partner, until Woz quit their project. Serving as counterbalances to Jobs’ bad behavior were his early interest in Zen Buddhism and his later development of a life-threatening disease (a rare form of pancreatic cancer). Jobs died in 2011 at the age of 56.
Mark Campbell elegantly weaves the elements of Jobs’ life into a postmodern series of events that jumps around in time and is enhanced by a Noh theater practice that seats characters on stage to allow them to be ready quickly to move into place. It’s clear that Director Tomer Zvulun was in synch with Campbell’s desire for seamless flow. However, as with any postmodern creation, that flow depends partly on audience effort. This means the audience needs to familiarize themselves with the 17 nonstop scenes plus prologue and epilogue of the synopsis. A smentor in Zen Buddhism. Kobun died in 2002 trying to save his daughter from drowning. Campbell brings back Kobun as a spirit guide periodically through the story.
While every singer in the opening performance did an excellent job in handling the challenges of this complex score, Wei Wu in reprising Kobun, the character he created for the world premier staged by the Sante Fe Opera in 2017, was exceptional. The combination of his commanding but modulated bass baritone voice and his delivery timing made the character of Koban stand out against the larger-than-life Steve Jobs.
the (R)evolution of Steve Jobs runs in 6 performances from May 2 through 10 2025.
Karren LaLonde Alenier
