Adam Guettel always writes the music first. The composer used to dread writing lyrics, he tells me. They just didn’t come as naturally as the music did, and they always took him so much time. When he ...

Adam Guettel craves control. Journalists arriving for interviews without tape recorders have even known the composer-lyricist to proffer his own digital device. "I turn it on and say, 'I'm going to ...