Alternate Visions

May 5, 2007
Field:

Screening, Media Artwork, Performance

Location:

Grand Luxe Hall, Western Front

Time:

5:00 p.m.

Description:

Western Front hosted a virtual performance of a new French/English opera, Alternate Visions, live streamed from a live stage production in Montréal. This bilingual opera by Vancouver-based composer John Oliver and librettist Genni Gunn was produced by the Montréal-based performing arts organization Chants Libres with a cast of seven vocalists and a musical ensemble. Its closing night was broadcasted live to Vancouver, apropos to its staging of an encounter mediated by cyberspace. 

In the opera, two single people develop a relationship over the internet and decide to step out of the virtual and meet in person at a high-tech karaoke bar, the setting of Alternate Visions. Misunderstandings multiply ad infinitum, raising questions of the perception of reality and the culture of identity. In a space where musical styles merge, real and virtual universes collide, and robotics and intelligent skin mingle, the work asks, “what happens to human carnal relations?”

Video documentation available upon request.

Related People

Western Front is a non-profit
artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.