Composer John Adams and director Elkhanah Pulitzer join Steven Winn for an hour-long conversation on Zoom. Register here.
John Adams is one of the most-performed living composers of opera, and his upcoming premiere at SF Opera, Antony and Cleopatra, based on Shakespeare's play and other sources, is the hot ticket in the early 2022 season. Creating this new work with him is Elkhanah Pulitzer, who has had an interesting career on her own (directing Adams's works at the SF Symphony and LA Phil, among many other things). Together, they'll share stories about their evolving collaboration on the opera, which began early on with a lunch in Berkeley, and discuss behind-the-scenes details of the opera's gestation and production. They'll talk about how the opera's big themes speak to contemporary times, including themes of celebrity and public versus private life; the decision to frame the opera as a critical inquiry into the way that Egypt and Cleopatra have been represented and imagined by Western writers over the centuries; and the daring movie-influenced 1930s design of the show. This is sure to be an engaging and lively discussion, so if you've got a question that you're dying to have Adams and Pulitzer answer, you'll want to make a reservation to see SFCV writer Steven Winn interview them live.
Steven Winn is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and critic and frequent City Arts & Lectures interviewer. His work has appeared in Art News, California, Humanities, Manhattan, Symphony Magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle.