"Death and the Powers": An opera with an app?
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A screened-in-Philly opera attempts to inject the art form with a little techiness.
From the "Death and the Powers" trailer.
The idea of putting my phone away during a performance has become second nature, especially at the old-school opera. But when I walked into the Franklin Theater at the Franklin Institute, in lieu of a program, I was handed a slip of paper with instructions on how to download the Death and the Powers app.
The opera was "simulcast," or presented as a live screening, in Philadelphia and nine other locations worldwide while the Dallas Opera performed the live show in Dallas.
Death and the Powers' plot is ridiculous and melodramatic: The rich and dying Simon Powers (portrayed by the charismatic baritone Robert Orth) opts to upload his essence into a mysterious and immortal computer program called "The System" to avoid death, and his family struggles with the idea of living with the knowledge that there exists an alternative. With winning lyrics like, "How can I be selfish / If I'm not even a self?" you get the idea.
The performance featured blinking lights and robots that looked like old-fashioned razors spinning to the sound of 80's-futuristic beeping. It reminded me of a pessimistic version of Epcot's Spaceship Earth. Director Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab worked together to construct the Death and the Powers app, meant to personalize the opera experience and create an environment appropriate for the dramatic sci-fi themes of the story.
Changing constantly, the app switched from falling lights and cloudy shapes that I could tap and vaguely change to video clips and images with lyrics or jokes. As far as apps go, it wasn't as particularly exciting or technically complex as I've come to expect with something advertized as novel. I was sneaking glances at the apps of the people around me, and it did seem as if their phones and iPads were doing something slightly different, but in general I found the app to be distracting. It pulled me out of the action more than it added another dimension to the experience.
The idea behind this innovation makes sense: the opera industry is stuck with an old-fashioned reputation, and it's hard to break into a younger demographic. Truthfully, most of the audience looked to be older people who probably love the opera with or without robots. I hope more modernizations like this continue to move forward, and truly Death and the Powers is a landmark for this new era of opera, but for now, just call me when there's a Wall-E opera.
