NEA Opera Honors: Interview with John Adams

[@jean-francoisbrunet2031]

Just a detail: the "surreal play by Jean Cocteau, called The Eiffel Tower", is probably the ballet, on a libretto by Jean Cocteau, called "The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower" (Les mariés de la tour Eiffel) on a music by Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc et Germaine Tailleferre. (I find it stunning that this obscure piece from 1920 would have been played in Woodstock, Vermont in the early fifties. Must have been a fairly sophisticated place!)

[@FeonaLeeJones]

I think John Adams is an exceptional orchestrator. That is his strongest strength. I was never really impressed with his use of harmony, though harmonielehre is the exception because it shows sophisticated use of harmony.

[@JafuetTheSame]

19:54

[@MrProphetMan]

my wish comes true, but still, is still not enough time to ask him all I would, thanks anyway! keep exposing this MONSTERS to the children please! Real composer, real artists, real human being, exploring the potential of the human consciousness, humans like him, advance the race, but are not even known, dark times we live in... but still beacons of light guide the ones that seek the path that few dare walk...

[@troensspring2650]

His assessment of Mozart's genius is so far off it's not even worth arguing about. Mozart's level of exceptional genius was not aided by the social context of universally accepted or conventional style.

[@troensspring2650]

@Lunar Orbit Genius need not have anything to do with causing controversy (fyi- some of Mozart's music actually did cause controversy). I hold the position opposite to Adams, as do many others: The very fact that Mozart was writing within the constraints of style and wrote the highly original and innovative masterpieces that he did speaks directly to his genius.

[@troensspring2650]

@Jerf Hankell I think you missed my point. I was speaking to Adams's idea that Mozart had it easier - in terms of the demands of genius - because there was a standard style in the classical period.