Created by Tod Machover, an MIT-based composer who grew up with an engineer father and a pianist mother, the show boasts big-name talent. The librettist is former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky, and the lead will be sung by James Maddalena, who sang the part of Nixon in the celebrated opera “Nixon in China.” The show is funded by Prince Albert II of Monaco, and will open in Monaco next year before a U.S. tour. Machover says his aim is to use futuristic technology to make music more accessible. But he also wants an opera that’s about family, mortality and the meaning of life. By the ending, there may not be a dry monitor in the house.
