“The world of classical music is still figuring out what to do with virtual reality, an emerging technology that can be buggy and burdensome,” writes Joshua Barone in Friday’s (7/5) New York Times. “But there is a breakthrough in Michel van der Aa’s ‘Eight,’ a so-called mixed reality work … currently on view here at [France’s] Aix Festival… ‘Eight’ is an opera taken in through a virtual-reality headset. In about 15 minutes, with a genre-bending score that verges on pop (the singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke is featured), it tells a poetic story of an old woman looking back on her life…. As viewer, you are very much part of the piece…. There’s nothing gimmicky about ‘Eight,’ in part because the medium is fully integrated with the concept of the piece…. Mr. van der Aa said, … ‘We need to step in and offer an extra layer to these experiences for them to make sense. Otherwise I’d much rather go to a concert hall.’ … Mr. van der Aa’s … 2002 chamber opera ‘One’ featured the soprano Barbara Hannigan singing alongside virtual versions of herself. ‘Blank Out’ … also at the Aix-en-Provence Festival this month, incorporates 3-D film.”
Posted July 10, 2019
