Death and the Powers, Tod Machover's acclaimed, large-scale "robotic" opera set to a libretto by U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, was released by BMOP/sound on September 14 as an SACD, with audio mixed by Tod and recent alum Ben Bloomberg. The disc includes both a stereo and a 5.1 surround side, with access to a download of a fully immersive Dolby Atmos version, marking the first time this music can be fully appreciated free of the constraints of a technologically complex live stage performance. Led by conductor Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) performs the opera with electronics from the MIT Media Lab and some of today’s top vocalists, including renowned baritone James Maddalena (Met Opera, Houston Opera, San Francisco Opera).

This CD provides an ideal opportunity to savor the richness, subtlety, variety and originality of Machover’s music for Death and the Powers, called—among many descriptions—“passionate” (Wall Street Journal), “compelling” (Boston Globe),  “deeply serious” (Opera), “tremendous emotional impact” (Opera News), and “sheer genius” (Boston Herald).  And as David Patrick Stearns wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Death and the Powers doesn’t point the way to a  new era of opera. It’s there. Now.”

Listen to samples from the Death and the Powers CD

•  Scene 1 (Simon and the System)
• Scene 4 (Evvy’s Touch)
• Scene 5 (Nicholas and the Robots)
• Scene 6 (The World Reacts)
• Scene 6 (Simon’s Light)
• Scene 6 (Miranda: I Miss Having a Father)
• Scene 8 (One Last Time)

Death and the Powers was developed at the MIT Media Lab and premiered in 2010 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo under the Patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco. It was recorded in 2011 in Massachusetts, following its American premiere in Boston, by BMOP and the American Repertory Theater.

A finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, Death and the Powers is a mature reappraisal of the temptations and dangers of artificial intelligence—it is, Machover says, “about morality, physicality, and the potential (and limitations) of human connection through technological magic into a form where sounds and words, objects and actions, humans and machines all amplify each other in powerful and often unexpected ways.” It tells the story of Simon Powers, a rich and powerful businessman and inventor, who wishes to perpetuate his existence beyond the decay of his physical being. Using his vast resources, Powers “downloads” himself into his environment, turning every object in his surroundings—books, furniture, walls, etc.—into a living version of himself, called The System. His family, friends and business associates are left to figure out how this transformation impacts their relationship with him and their ability to move forward with their own lives and legacies.

The themes and concerns of Death and the Powers seem even more relevant and resonant than when the opera premiered a decade ago. “Simon Powers’s remote connection from within The System doesn’t seem so different from what our Zoom-life has become, filled with endless frustration but also surprising intimacy,” Machover says. “We have been constantly reminded during the pandemic of the brevity and fragility of life, and of the importance of living fully now, since there might not be the ‘more’ or the ‘forever’ that Simon Powers seeks.”

Widely recognized as one of the most significant and innovative composers of our time and celebrated for inventing new technology for music, Machover merges man and machine—literally—in this one-act opera, which has been hailed as a “must-see for anybody who cares about the exciting new techno-driven directions music theater is taking in the early 21st century” (Chicago Tribune). 

Related media

• Death and the Powers website
• Death and the Powers synopsis
• Booklet from the CD, with notes on the piece/project and full libretto
• PBS NewsHour spot on Death and the Powers
  
• Another PBS NewsHour spot with other related Powers video clips, including Ben Bloomberg, Peter Torpey, Vocal Vibrations, and more
• Death and the Powers at the Dallas Opera, 2014
• "Future Opera for Robots and People Too," OpenMind|BBVA
• "Hollywood designer urges focus, creativity before technology," MIT News
  
• NPR interview with David Barnett and Tod Machover
• MIT News profile of Garrett Parrish, an Opera of the Future UROP
• "Disembodied performance," MIT News
• "Death and the Powers Makes US Premiere," School of Architecture + Planning