Projects

Experiments in Real Time Opera

ˈäp(ə)rə, Opera, आप्र / ओपर, 歌劇, ઑપેરા, საოპერო, ΛΥΡΙΚΗ ΣΚΗΝΗ, دار الأوبرا, օպերա, operë, опера, অপেরা, wasan kwaikwayo, אוֹפֵּרָה, ooppera, ஓபரா, オペラ, 

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တေးသံစုံကဇါတ်

PRET A CHANTER

A Real Time Opera

'PRET A CHANTER™' is the ultimate political work as in 'Politi' the life of the city. It is a post-internet,post-cyborg real-time opera that seeks to blur the bounderies between art and life, vocalisations (including singing and different languages but no speaking), different cultures, different economic and post-economy systems and different psychologies.

 Anyone who steps over the threshold of 'PRET A CHANTER™' must abide by the rules set out below. Anyone who enters 'PRET A CHANTER™' must succumb to the experiment that is opera.

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CAFE MANIFESTO

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1/ NO SPEAKING. ONLY VOCALISATIONS OTHER THAN SPEAKING ARE ALLOWED.

2/ THE NUMBER 2 IS NOT ALLOWED.

3/ IN THIS CAFE, SPEAKING IS CONSIDERED TO BE ANTISOCIAL. THOUGHTS EXPRESSED IN SPEECH ARE CONSIDERED TO BE AS TOXIC AS SMOKE FUMES SO FOR THIS REASON SPEAKERS WILL BE ASKED TO STAND OUTSIDE UNTIL THEY ARE FINISHED.

4/ ALL LANGUAGES REAL AND IMAGINED ARE WELCOME.

5/ ALL FORMS OF VOCALISATION ARE WELCOME. THIS INCLUDES WHISTLES, GROANS, BARKS ( AND ANIMAL SOUNDS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS BOTH REAL AND IMAGINED) BURPS, GRUNTS, ULULATIONS, SNORES, VOCAL MULTIPHONICS, OVERTONES, MOANS AND YODELS.

6/ PRICES FOR FOOD AND DRINK ARE SET ACCORDING TO CREATIVITY.

7/ IN THIS CAFE YOU ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE REAL TIME PERFORMERS IN LORE LIXENBERG'S REAL TIME COMPOSITION 'PRET A CHANTER™'.

8/NO PRE COMPOSED SONGS ARE ALLOWED AT ALL.

9/ YOU ACCEPT YOU WILL BE FILMED AND RECORDED.

10/ TOILETS ARE ON THE RIGHT.

11/ ABSOLUTELY NO SPEAKING IN THE TOILET, YOU WILL LET OFF THE ANTI SPEAK DETECTOR.

'THE SINGTERVIEWS - PANIC ROOM'

Cosmic Encounters

In four billion years the sun will turn into a red dwarf, explode and die taking its whole solar system including earth with it.

It's really sad to think that one day no living being would be able to hear a Beethoven symphony or Bach Cantata, so the Panic Room is in fact an imaginary artistic Arc where the opera singer knows she will die, collects as much music and operatic mementos as she can and chooses one person to have one last conversation about music and art.

The piece was created during a residency in Venice, that could be seen as one of the seats of European artistic achievement and due to rising water levels Venice is sinking, it seems to be an allegory of this cosmic event. When one visits the artistic treasures of Venice one is aware of their fragility in this way and that when it does eventually sink many great works of art will be lost to us for ever in the same way on a cosmic scale all the artistic achievement of Man will evaporate.

There is nothing new about the interview, however in THE PANIC ROOM - The Singterviews™, I explore the idea of the sing-terview and establish a character called PANIC, whose only mode of communication is singing. I like the idea that operatic singing that was developed to amplify the natural voice is used in a very intimate way. The opera technique at first is quite strange and distancing, but slowly during the singterview becomes accepted as the mode of sonic transport. There are set question where cells of music have been composed and become embellished according to the direction the interview takes. Panic Room seeks to explore the idea of a very private space made public, surveillance, and the interview form. 

There is nothing new about the interview, however in THE PANIC ROOM - The Singterviews™, I explore the idea of the sing-terview and establish a character called PANIC, whose only mode of communication is singing. I like the idea that operatic singing that was developed to amplify the natural voice is used in a very intimate way. The opera technique at first is quite strange and distancing, but slowly during the singterview becomes accepted as the mode of sonic transport. There are set question where cells of music have been composed and become embellished according to the direction the interview takes. Panic Room seeks to explore the idea of a very private space made public, surveillance, and the interview form. 

PANIC ROOM -The Singterviews™ takes two forms, the live version which is a full evening real time opera:

Act 1: Spy - the audience is observed unseen via CCTV cameras placed throughout the venue.A new age meditation soundtrack is played and over it,unseen, the character PANIC sings a soothing live vocal. Slowly the audience realise that they are being individually addressed,even as they wash their hands or order a beer.during this process an audience member is selected to go into the Panic room with me to be interviewed with the premise that this is the last conversation they will ever have.

Act 2: Panic Room - PANIC and interviewee are in the panic room as the world ends and PANIC has a set of questions that she asks the interviewee about art,life and death. 40 mins into the interview the singer gives the interviewee a sweet poison pill and they peacefully die in their sleep to the sweet strains of an orchestra playing backward as the panic room fills with smoke and tips gently over the event horizon of a black hole. 

The second version of this takes the form of several short 10/15 min 'Singterviews™' with different people some of whom I know, some complete strangers, that are on PANICROOMTV YouTube channel. A box set DVD of The Singterviews™ will come out in 2017 on the £@B label.

The live PANIC ROOM was premiered at the Ikon Gallery Birmingham as part of 'The Voice and the Lens 1' festival in 2012, and then went on to the 'Tete a Tete' festival at the Riverside Studio in 2013, 'Die Alte Schmiede' in Vienna 2013 and Kings Place 2014. It also appeared several times at La Plaque Tournante in Berlin.

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ADIPOSE

Live Art Opera

Adipose' is a live art opera that calls into question and re-examines the subject of fat. It is also a cautionary tale. It is an exploration of the dystopian present. It is a comedy.
A woman in the occident can be many things but the most important thing she must not be is fat. Fat is feared, people are repulsed by it, they are repulsed by themselves when they perceive themselves as fat. Sometimes people can't even bring themselves to say the word fat and the words, plump, curvy, ample, shapely or just 'big' replace it.
The cyborg extended body of the internet age is even more redundant if it is fat. The pressure on female performers today to conform is getting worse and worse. Even Michelle Obama has been accused of being a man because she doesn't conform. To be a woman in the public eye is to court instant disapproval and disdain unless your measurements and proportions are 100% in accordance to unrealistic digital and cyber images of the perfect flower of femininity. We now compete not only with each other, but also with images of women who don't, can't, never did, never will, never could exist.
Imagine how seductive it would be then if in a faustian pact, you could transform yourself into the vision that our society wants to see. You could have it all with one mephistophelean wish. But what if that wish goes to far? You will lose yourself completely and dissolve away.
This is the dilemma and tragedy of my anti- herione, the opera singer,  'Adipose' as she eats and sings and runs and  eats and sings and runs and dies.
First performed at 'THE VOICE AND THE LENS FESTIVAL 2' at Rich Mix in London 2013, its a through composed live art opera, with live performance and singing against film,  with a flesh screen and a lot of cake.

INNANA&CARA

A 'Real Time Opera' for vocals, hairdresser and amplified sissors

The Sumarian goddess Innana like Persephone goes into the underworld. Only unlike Persephone who is rather a victim and not the mistress of her own fate. Innana actually plans her trip. She goes into the underworld almost as an adventure and has a get out plan. She takes with her a hairdresser and manicurist.
Persephone on the other hand must be rescued. She eats only a paltry six pomegranate pips in six months and in punished for this by having to return every half year to the underworld also condemning the whole of humanity to six months of harsh winter. Persephone could be regarded as the original mythological anorexic. 
Innana&Cara is piece based on this Sumarian myth and is in uniform and involves a lot of contact microphones. It was premiered at SowieSo in Berlin in summer 2016 as part of Blanc regina's 'Strange Umbrelles' series with Lucy Evans on scissors.

LETHE ---...---...---

In Memoriam

The ancient greeks believed in the underworld having 5 rivers. River Styx, the river of hate that you had to put a coin in the mouth of the deceased so they could cross safely........and then Lethe river of forgetfulness.
The ancient Greeks believed that for the soul to be reincarnated that it had to bathe in the river Lethe to forget the previous life and be born into another and the ritual act of bathing has always been a symbol of rebirth and renewal.
I use morse code because I'm interested in the idea that when you send a sound signal into the atmosphere, you don't actually know where it will go or who will hear it. Also that it never disappears. The sound wave just goes on and on until it dissipates more and more and joins white noise. I'n the jewish faith its is said that you don't die if your name is remembered. I want in this opera that the audience get the opportunity to turn the names of their loved ones into morse code to send into the ether, the name will never entirely disappear and so the loved one will never really die, part of them is forever alive in this sound wave.
Its also a homage to my dad who was in the army in India working with the Radio Squadron at a time when morse code was at the very forefront of communications technology. I suppose you could think of this as an immersive version of 'the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'.
An opera in 3 acts going back to the very first form of opera that is based in ritual.
This is not a religious piece, its a real time opera atheist grief ritual. Grief is an emotion that is often hidden or not allowed full expression. This real time opera uses the formula of the different stages of grief that is common to all humans. Grief, with love, death and birth is one of the great commonalities shared by all humans, maybe even all living creatures.