Friday, November 07, 2008
Techno-Alchemy at the Opera
NYTimes.com: "Water, fire and field are all illusion, created by computers, infrared cameras, digital projectors and scrims. These uncanny scenes play out in a production of Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust,” which opens Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera and introduces an unprecedented level of technological stagecraft to the house."
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7 comments:
It was interesting to me watching the video provided by the times to see that the spectral didn't seem to be dwarfing the production itself but rather complimented it. I would be extremely interested in seeing this on the met scale.
This seems to be the first seamless integration of projections into a production of any kind. Every show with projections I have seen or worked on has always seemed distracting. With this newer technology, because it reacts to the performance it really seems to mesh and heighten the mood the way movies are able too.
The technology behind the whole sound activated set pieces is something that I'd actually like to see opera to witness in action. I almost hope that someday their will be set peices that will transform in reaction the the sounds that are being created on stage. This evolution in technology is something that I think will finally make opera a little bit more publicly appealing. People like things that do surprising things, and given the economy, this new theatrical device might be what opera needs to survive.
so... it's just an automated media server with a sensory feedback input rather than an SM calling the cues.
still, it's pretty interesting. light boards have been trying to do "sound to light" implmentations for a while now, and is sounds like the guys at the Met have finally got something working.
This sounds very exciting. The way that we can use new technology to push productions further into the realm of entertainment is fascinating, but it forces us to ask the question - how much is too much? Does it get to a point where we need to suppress the spectacle to be able to get the point across? I think that some times it's best to use minimalism to allow the story to breathe through - if not - we'd be seeing cirque shows for the rest of our lives, and I think i'd just about give up and quit if that was the case.
This article is much more clear than the one previously posted on this blog. This technology is quite amazing and I hope it continues to develop beyond a novelty into something truly used for artistic purposes.
This sounds really cool. It is nice to see that technology can play nicely with art. For the most part, it takes a while for new technology to be incorporated into the theater because we wait until it has become more mainstream so it doesn't distract the audience. That seems to be an important word for using technology in theater, distraction. Many theater artists and critics seem to think that too much technology will distract the audience. While it definitely has that possibility, there are ways that tech. can be used creatively and subtly.
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