Digital opera debuts

A new-age opera combines digital art projection and an exploration of female sexuality this weekend.

The first half of the opera, “Annunciation,” depicts the idealized view of womanhood through virginity and childbearing. The second half, “Visitation,” is devoted to concepts like sexual violence, victimization and recovery.

“It’s multi-faceted,” said IU alumnus Tim Nelson, the show’s co-director. “It’s about how well we can fuse opera with technology ... and how women are
objectified in society.”

Nelson encourages the audience to form their own ideas.

“My style and approach is that I don’t tell the audience what to expect,” he said. “Hopefully it creates a dialogue about women as sexual and secular objects.”

The show features two vocalists, the Jacobs School of Music’s New Music Ensemble and works by George Crumb and Francois Couperin.

The theater will be filled with projections of digital art created by co-director Margaret Dolinsky, whose professional background is in virtual reality.

“It becomes a multi-sensory experience,” Dolinsky said. “There’s so much that happens in opera that it approaches this ideal of total art.”

David Dzubay, musical director of the New Music Ensemble, said the performers actually interact with the projections.

“It seems to be along the lines of an experimental opera,” he said. “Opera integrates so many different arts. ... It is really an extension involving technology.”

The move to the operatic stage has allowed new features, such as the facial detection system that can take images of audience members and place their image within the projections.
“The interaction with live actors and the interaction with the audience has expanded my notion of interactive art,” said Dolinsky.

‘Annunciation + Visitation: Operatic projections of her sexual insight’
When 8 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday
Where Buskirk-Chumley Theater
More Info The IU New Frontiers Program presents a new-age opera with experimental staging and digital art. The show is free for everyone.