Peter Sellars wanted to know more. He was in San Francisco a few years ago, attending a performance of “The No One’s Rose,” a fascinatingly idiosyncratic work of music theater that featured some of his favorite artists, from the American Modern Opera Company, and a score by the young composer Matthew Aucoin. One section of the piece stood out: “Deep Water Trawling,” a setting of a poem by Jorie Graham that felt both human and not, both natural and spiritual. Most important, it seemed to have brought out something new, and special, in Aucoin’s writing. After the show Sellars, who at 66 has long been a reigning opera director, asked Aucoin, “What was that?”

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Persons: Peter Sellars, ”, Matthew Aucoin, Jorie Graham, Sellars, Aucoin Organizations: American Modern Opera Company Locations: San Francisco