In the Wings

The title of Tod Machover’s new opera, Schoenberg in Hollywood, will likely be reframed as a question by many audience members, e.g. “Schoenberg in Hollywood?” What could the inventor of the musical revolutions of atonality and twelve-tone music possibly have to do with Hollywood?

Tod Machover, the composer behind Schoenberg in Hollywood, wrote this fascinating and insightful note for the program book of the opera's World Premiere production with Boston Lyric Opera. Read on to learn more about Machover's inspiration, process, and the personal meaning behind this new work.

Karole Armitage, stage director of Schoenberg in Hollywood, has spent her entire career re-inventing herself ... “I never sought to have a ‘career,’” she says. “Instead I always follow my curiosity and I’ve always been willing to try something no one else was doing.”

Schoenberg seriously considered a career as a painter. This aspect of a protean talent (he was also a renowned teacher, critic, and an important writer on music theory) opens new and revelatory insights into the complexities of this iconic creator.