I think the composer and production staff of an opera have a real responsibility to use visual elements of all kinds to make clear to the American audience, at any rate, exactly what is going on.
I think one of the greatest enemies in the use of technology, however, is the idea that if you use the technology you have to throw other things out of the window.
I think a lot of composers get into trouble just making up a plot and expecting an audience to follow that.
Well, opera began with an intent to resuscitate Greek drama, that is, modern opera as we know it.
I think I was first to do live performances on a modern electronic sound synthesizer.
Nevertheless, one doesn't have time to think, oh, well, this is a quarter tone sharp, or flat.
It's music ultimately that matters in opera, and opera is a piece of music reaching out as a vision in sound reaching out to the world.
I'm thinking in terms of a point of departure, a field of action for performers to express an expressive need of mine which hopefully the context of music would convey.
The way that I got involved with microtonal music was, frankly, through jazz.
We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.
Well, the very best operas are the ones written by the very best composers.
I've just simply used what I've used because of the great, great expressive potential of it.
We need to have as broad a range as possible, because life itself has that kind of range.
Well, let me, first of all, say, that as a microtonal composer, I've never been much of a theorist.
We need it to capture the energy of contemporary life.
In other words, I think that if an audience listens to something as an experience of how in tune it is or something of that kind, that the whole point is somehow being missed, and the music has failed.
I really write for people.
It's not important to me to found a school; it's not important to me to have disciples.
I want the audience to be so involved in the sweep of the music.
However, yes, especially as one gets older, you know, you really hope that your music will become more generally available, even though some of the performances might be riddled with faults.
