Alternate Visions

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.