Death and the Powers: Redefining Opera

In the tradition of Brain Opera and Toy Symphony, Death and the Powers is a groundbreaking opera project that aims to innovate in a variety of technological, conceptual, and aesthetic ways. To dramatize the physical environment coming "alive," Machover, in association with Cynthia Breazeal and production designer Alex McDowell, will create the world’s first robotic stage, as well as numerous autonomous robots that compel the audience to suspend disbelief about the line between animate and inanimate. In addition, an ensemble of physical objects–embedded in the stage set and surrounding the audience -- will create a new kind of Hyperorchestra: technologically empowered but richly palpable. The opera will premiere in Monte Carlo in Fall 2007 and then tour worldwide.

Death and the Powers proposes a totally new approach. Rather than sterile projection screens, objects on stage -- from huge to tiny -- will move magically to delight the eye and imagination, while performers will be naturally extended by set and robots. Instead of aggressive sound amplification, the "sonatronic" robotic instrumentation will fill any space with acoustically energized music, capable of reaching each listener, to tickle or engulf. And while "Powers" will present an experience that could only be fully enjoyed in a live theater setting, a virtual version of the opera is also being created. This will allow anyone to participate in the development of the opera, to explore and customize an on-line virtual "System," and to be "present" at any worldwide live performance. This combination will enhance the excitement and "power" or being in the theater for live performance, while extending the project's impact through time and space.

STORY LINE: Simon Powers was a great man, a legend who wanted to go beyond the bounds of humanity. He was a successful inventor, businessman, and showman. During his life, he accumulated unimaginable wealth and power. He is the founder of the System, a human organism material experiment which investigated the transduction of human existence into other forms. His work was heralded as revolutionary and genius, but his ideas and experiments also had implications that mainstream society found objectionable. He has received thousands of hate letters. To many, he is considered a pariah. Reaching the end of his life, Powers faces the question of his legacy: “When I die, what remains? What will I leave behind? What can I control? What can I perpetuate?” He is now conducting the last experiment of his life. He is in the process of passing from one form of existence to another in an effort to project himself into the future. Whether or not he is actually alive is a question. Simon Powers is himself now a System. Powers must rely on his family to complete the experiment. The strains on the family come to a head, as Evvy, his third wife, withdraws more and more from the real world in a desire to join Simon in the System. Miranda Powers, Simon’s young daughter by his first wife, is fearful of losing touch with the real world, and tries desperately to keep her father connected to the suffering of others in the world. The family also includes Nicholas, who is Simon’s protégé, the son he never had. Nicholas is the ultimate product of Simon’s manipulation. Nicholas holds the knowledge on how to project Simon to the future. Like a puppet and somehow incomplete himself, he is devoted to completing Simon’s final experiment. Simon’s transition into The System creates global havoc prompting a visit by representatives from The United Way, The United Nations, and The Administration, as well as a parade of the world’s miseries -- the victims of famine, torture, crime, and disease. This story is framed by a quartet of “rolling, lurching, and gliding” robots who have been commanded in some future time to perform this pageant, and who – in a Prologue and Epilogue – attempt to understand the meaning of death.

Death and the Powers will be a highly innovative and unusual opera, groundbreaking in musical language and materials, scenographic technique, and performance technology. It will be a one-act, full evening work scored for a small ensemble of specially designed Hyperinstruments, and will include a robotic, animatronic stage – the first of its kind – that will gradually “come alive” as a main character in the drama. The opera will have broad appeal, compelling to opera lovers as well as to young, adventurous audiences, and will be adaptable to presentation in a very wide range of performance venues.