Opera is given so little attention in the national press.
Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations.
When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is.
If I felt that one of my operas did not come off I would certainly say so.
The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there is a completely new public for opera that's grown up outside of the traditional core opera public.
It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.
I don't know how any of my operas will play in 20 years. It will have a lot to do with the fashions of the time and what people respond to.