The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at SF Opera

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is the first opera written by local composer Mason Bates and it depicts the life story of the Apple Corporation co-founder who died in 2011 at age 56. A couple of Hollywood movies were made soon after his death: the 2013 Jobs with Ashton Kutcher and the 2015 Steve Jobs with Michael Fassbender, followed by this opera which premiered in 2017 in Santa Fe. (Pictured above is baritone John Moore as Steve Jobs. All production photos by Cory Weaver.)

The work was supposed to appear in 2020 at the San Francisco Opera, which was a co-commissioner, but the pandemic shut it down. Three years later and six years after the premiere, the opera has finally arrived. Since I was not attending with particularly high expectations last Wednesday, there were quite a few happy surprises, including the interior-lit sliding panels created by set designer victoria Tzykun and lighting designer Japhy Weideman. With the addition of projections, they set up 19 separate scenes without pause, and the 16 backstage carpenters/props people did a great job keeping it smooth.

The other happy surprise was the musical score by Mason Bates (pictured above) who is also performing electronics on two MacBook Pros in the orchestra pit. I liked the first couple of pieces that Bates composed for the San Francisco Symphony a decade ago, but his mixture of electronics and traditional orchestral instruments started to sound like a one-trick pony. This nearly two-hour score, however, is constantly inventive, propulsive or lyrical when needed, and the entire orchestra often has a shimmering quality that was quite beautiful.

The libretto by the ubiquitous Mark Campbell has his usual strengths (clear, approachable narratives) and faults (glibness, a lack of poetry, and overall banality). The narrative jumps around in time, but the basic story is of a restless genius who is cruel and unforgiving with other people but finally becomes a better person through the love of a good woman. This is also the plot of just about every cheesy Hollywood biopic ever made. Bille Bruley gave a fun performance as high school buddy and actual engineering genius Steve Wozniak, and John Moore as the title character has a decent baritone and was tireless over the course of two hours. He kept grinning broadly thoughout the opera, though, as if to make the character more likeable but it just looked weird. After the last six years of white bro billionaires like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Gates running amok, Jobs's actions look as much sociopathic as heroic these days.

One of the joys of seeing the opera here is that it somehow manages to convey the feel of the Bay Area's Peninsula which not long ago was farmland and small towns and discreet wealth. Now it hosts the technological monster known as Silicon Valley, but it is still an extraordinarily beautiful place as depicted in a few scenes set in "The hills around Cupertino." A Zen Buddhist priest, Kōbun Chino Otogawa, ran a Tassajara Zen Center satellite in the upscale town of Los Altos, and became a guru to Jobs throughout his adult life. The role is perilously close to a magical minority teaching our white hero wise truths, but the extraordinary bass Wei Wu is so commanding and enjoyable in the role that he wipes away most reservations.

Sasha Cooke plays Laurene Powell Jobs, the good woman who turns our hero around. At least Bates composed some wonderful music for her near the end, but it felt like a waste of her great talents.

The most successful sections of the opera are the production numbers involving the small chorus, including "One Device" in scene one. Sasha Cooke's final aria tells us that Steve really wanted people to put down their iPhones and look up, which is absurd. I thought, "Right, Steve, you don't get to open Pandora's Box and then say sorry about that." There's one more performance this Saturday night at the War Memorial Opera House, and it is worth seeing.