"Der Mozartautomat" is a chamber opera by Paul Hertel premiered in 2021. The plot is about Mozart being the product of a madman who created an automaton in the 18th century, using a technology that is now lost.
Contemporary opera
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This is a thread to debate about contemporary opera. The opera that is being composed in our own days.
Of course, the obvious question is: "what is the limit of our own days?".
For the sake of this thread, let's define contemporary opera as any opera written after 1980. This gives us more than thirty years, and is a reasonable time for a genre that tends to think in centuries.
Perhaps some TC members that are fans of Opera, are not very familiar with the latest new things in the genre. Or they are afraid only avant-garde Opera is being composed now. We will see that this is not the case, not by any means. There are new operas for (almost) everyone to enjoy, no matter what is our personal taste.
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Philippe Manoury, (Tulle, 1952) is a French composer living in the US, with some important success in his career. He has been working with electronic music, as well as large orchestras.
In the field of Opera, his best known piece is K, premiered the year 2001, in Paris. This is relatively short opera, that was the recipient of several awards in France. It's based on Kafka's Der Prozeß (The Trial), and it's quite interesting:
This year Manoury has premiered his fourth opera, La Nuit de Gutenberg, in Strasbourg.
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It seems rather nice as far as the instrumental music goes, but the vocal treatment can be suspected, something like the usual sprechgesang for the male singers, and the high coloratura roles for females.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl...ry-opera-national-du-rhin-bande-annonce_music
Of course, the obvious question is: "what is the limit of our own days?".
For the sake of this thread, let's define contemporary opera as any opera written after 1980. This gives us more than thirty years, and is a reasonable time for a genre that tends to think in centuries.
Perhaps some TC members that are fans of Opera, are not very familiar with the latest new things in the genre. Or they are afraid only avant-garde Opera is being composed now. We will see that this is not the case, not by any means. There are new operas for (almost) everyone to enjoy, no matter what is our personal taste.
Philippe Manoury, (Tulle, 1952) is a French composer living in the US, with some important success in his career. He has been working with electronic music, as well as large orchestras.
In the field of Opera, his best known piece is K, premiered the year 2001, in Paris. This is relatively short opera, that was the recipient of several awards in France. It's based on Kafka's Der Prozeß (The Trial), and it's quite interesting:
This year Manoury has premiered his fourth opera, La Nuit de Gutenberg, in Strasbourg.
It seems rather nice as far as the instrumental music goes, but the vocal treatment can be suspected, something like the usual sprechgesang for the male singers, and the high coloratura roles for females.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl...ry-opera-national-du-rhin-bande-annonce_music
761 - 780 of 806 Posts
Fine, let's see the results.
There are already some operas about Turing:
There are already some operas about Turing:
Really, the main objective of this thread is to share in TC just how many different composers, and in how many different styles, we can find writing contemporary opera.
So, I plan to mention quite a few more composers and operas. I try not to be judgmental in this thread (though, surely, some composers and some pieces attract me much more than others), but of course discussion and debate are also welcome.
Alain Turing is one fascinating figure among 20th century scientists.
He invented the mathematical entity called "Turing machine", an imaginary computer that was one of the basis of computer science. He was also behind the "Turing test", to determine if a machine was able of independent thinking. Turing's idea, of a typically English pragmatism, was to use a group of human beings that will interact with the machine during several hours, using an interface that will mask its physical identity. If, at the end of the process, the machine had been able to convince a majority of the members of the group that it was a human being, then it was really a thinking machine.
Using this concept, Scottish composer Julian Wagstaff wrote his opera The Turing test.
The Turing Test - An Opera by Julian Wagstaff
Also, Turing Machine Opera, by Eeppi Ursin and Visa-Pekka Mertanen, based on Turing's life, was premiered in Helsinki, the year 2008:
'Antony and Cleopatra' is not even a contemporary opera, as per the definition we are using for this thread, having been performed for the first time back in 1966... 
I understand the difficulty. Maybe you can try with "Batter My Heart" a beautiful baritone aria in John Adams's 'Doctor Atomic' to see if you have enough material available.
I understand the difficulty. Maybe you can try with "Batter My Heart" a beautiful baritone aria in John Adams's 'Doctor Atomic' to see if you have enough material available.
761 - 780 of 806 Posts
