Tom's Opera Talk

Fellow composer Tom Baker gives a lecture called “The Unadorned Composer and the Extravagant Art of Opera” at Jack Straw Productions on June 11, 2008. Part of his talk includes quotes from Seattle composers who compose operas. His questions were intriguing so I include them here.

I am in the midst of Kidnapping Water composing and auditions, so my answers to his query were brief:

Why opera? and Why now?
superstar passion : rarefied voices : unwitting pain
21st century american privilege necessitates extreme humanity

Is it opera? In what sense?
trained voices sing their narratives as if nothing else mattered

What kind of stories do you want to tell? Why?
stories that should survive neglect