SEATTLE — Final rehearsals are underway at Seattle’s McCaw Hall for a new show debuting this weekend for Seattle Opera. It's a revolutionary take on an art form that is steeped in tradition, but they hope it could catch the attention of a new audience.
Seattle Opera's repertoire is known for an impressive selection of shows, but this week it's their final rehearsals on a new show. It’s a production that’s only been seen in a few cities, and it's quite unique.
“It's going to be different than anything you've seen on stage before,” performer Sarah Mattox explained.
The stage is filled with video screens, and the star wears jeans and a black mock turtleneck for the whole show.
“I will be Steve Jobs on stage,” John Moore explained.
The opera is called “The Revolution of Steve Jobs,” and if you think the topic sounds different, wait until you hear the music.
Garrett Sorenson is one of the original cast members of the show and recently won a Grammy for his role as Steve Wozniak. He remembers going through the music and trying to figure it out when the opera was first completed.
“Then finally it hits me that it's a regular American blues groove just a little bit jazzy,” Wozniak said.
It's a challenging role for Moore, the show's star, who is onstage for nearly all of the 90-minute performance. It requires an intensity that helps him relate to the focus that Jobs' was known for.
“There are elements of the drama that are sort of heightened in such a way that the pressure's on and that changes how I am as a person,” he said.
There are so many elements that make the opera special, but cast members say there’s still enough of the traditional pomp and passion for pleasing the most dedicated opera lover.
“There's a lot of people who might not normally come to the opera, who took one look at this and said that's one I have to see and they're not going to be disappointed,” Mattox said.
Moore said he learned the music for the show listening on his iPhone and reading the score off of his iPad. He doesn't think there's anything odd about taking Jobs’ story to stage because it's one that speaks, or rather, sings to all of us.
“If you can afford a phone and internet service, you can afford a more in-tune life a more beautiful life, and he did that,” he explained. “So, he deserves an opera, and he deserves all the rewards.”