When I did “X,” I wrote everything by hand. I thought it would be good to have it in the computer, so I could have flexibility: If I were doing it with an orchestra of 10, say, I could easily could do the reduction. It would be useful.
So I input the largest version I could think of, of what the piece could be — excerpts, so it could be done in concert. I had almost finished with the excerpts, which was like half the opera, and Yuval Sharon called me. He was going to be taking over at Detroit Opera, and said one of the first things he…
