AH! Keening Parasites from CalArts Music on Vimeo.
One of the most anticipated works in REDCAT’s new season is the world premiere of AH! opera no-opera (Sept. 16-18). Presented by the Transatlantic Arts Consortium’s project A Counterpoint of Tolerance, the production combines language, theater, music with an interactive audience experience—that starts now.
David Rosenboom, composer-performer and dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, and poet-writer Martine Bellen developed an interactive opera generator in the shape of a mandala (wheel of life) that houses 13 interlinking stories with movable parts and pathways.
Ten composer-performers have come together to investigate—through musical collaboration—“human conditions in the new era of globalization.” These collaborators of AH! are: Iván Caramés Bohigas (Spain), Michael-Thomas Foumai (US-Hawaii), Alex Kotch (US-North Carolina), Claudio Maldonado (Argentina-Patagonia), Vedran Mehinovic (Bosnia), Natalie Oram (UK), Doo Jin Park (Korea), Jerónimo (Jxel) Rachenberg (Mexico), Diana Syrse Valdés Rosado (Mexico), and Xiaolang Zhou (China).
The AH! website launched last week and asks visitors—called “Creative Engagers”—to help create the live experience in September. These visual and auditory offerings will be collected with the intention of making them seen and heard in the AH! performances.
Here are two ways to contribute:
- Create Words: Submit a brief, four-line poem, perhaps in response to a line in the AH! stories found in the interactive mandala (or not), to become part of AH! words.
- Create Sounds: Upload a brief sound snippet, perhaps in response to AH! media you have experienced on this site (or not), to become part of AH! sounds.
These offerings will be available to audience members and others who can’t attend AH! opera no-opera at REDCAT before and after the actual opera, further breaking down the wall between audience and performers.
Keep reading 24700 for more updates on AH! opera no-opera.