SUPER digital dreams (2023-24)
Chamber opera for 4 voices, electronics and video
Artistic presentation of the habilitation at Mozarteum University
Three Artificial Intelligences (AIs) are at work, reconstructing what opera might have been and meant to humans. They have old backups to work with, but these backups are fragmented and far from being a complete opera archive. Nonetheless they need to do the job. In order to do so, they need to learn how to sing—and maybe feel too?
They encounter the problem of feelings in opera and their relationship to different levels of ‘realness.’ Is it important to show real feelings in opera? And if so, how? What is the difference between feeling and displaying? Does displaying mean the feelings are fake? And if we still feel them, does that matter? What is the reality of a feeling on or off stage? In a speed run, the three AIs learn what it means to sing, to touch us and to feel—and thereby blur the boundaries between the dream of feelings, and the feeling of feelings. They move between and explore different realities and different ways of feeling, touching, and singing, reconstructing the dreams of real operatic feelings from fragmented digital backups.
Concept, Composition, and Direction: Laure M. Hiendl
Libretto, Dramaturgy: Yana Thönnes
Stage, Video: Lenni Hofer
Costumes: Marina Calabrese, Laura Trilsam
Singers: Maria Teresa dos Santos, Ami Mizuno, Berenike Tölle, Ingvill Statle Skjørten
Rehearsal Director: Lisa Fornhammar
Duration: approx. 60 minutes
Video credit: © 2024 University Mozarteum Salzburg
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Salzburg, AU
February 4th, 2024