He is already the subject of two feature films and a bestselling biography, but the ongoing lionisation of Steve Jobs is about to get rather more highbrow, as an opera about his life is announced.
The Revolution of Steve Jobs will be staged by Santa Fe Opera in the US in 2017, and will follow the Apple founder as he confronts the cancer that would go on to kill him, taking in “the events and people in his past that shaped and inspired him,” according to Associated Press.
It will be written by Mason Bates, a composer in residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who is known for blending classical and electronic instrumentation; the librettist is Mark Campbell, who is writing a “non-linear” narrative.
The opera company describes Jobs as “an innovator who simplified communication with sleek devices, but who paradoxically learned that complex human relationships require more than one button to work.” Jobs was known for an exacting perfectionism and a fractious personal life, as he founded Apple, was fired, and then returned to shepherd the iMac, iPod and iPhone to unprecedented global success.
His story is next to be told by West Wing and The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin, in a film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs. It too avoids the safely linear story of most biopics, instead being set backstage at three Apple product launches over the years.
The film, simply titled Steve Jobs, will premiere at the New York film festival on 3 October.
