CONFESSIONS. Erdvinė opera tamsoje

CONFESSIONS

Spatial opera in the dark
 

Concept and composition – Spatial Opera Company: Rūta Vitkauskaitė (Lithuania / UK), Åsa Nordgren (Sweden), Jens Hedman (Sweden)

Performers: Åsa Nordgren (soprano, soundobjects), Rūta Vitkauskaitė (violin, soundobjects)

Producer Operomanija
 

Opera “Confessions” was inspired by an interest in spatial electronics, in particular – the spatial acoustic sound and its impact upon the human imagination. Therefore, the authors have decided to create a spatial opera in the dark, focussing on the expansion of possibilities offered by the acoustic surroundings. The Cristian idea of the seven deadly sins serves as the basis of the libretto.

The seven parts of the “Confessions” are concerned with the seven cardinal sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. “Confessions” combines diverse ideas of creative experiments cherished by the authors for a long time: performance of music in the dark, incorporation of other human senses (smell, touch) along with alleged complete removal of the visual aspect. However, in the opera, the latter is in fact the most activated factor in the listener’s imagination – through abstract audio images and concrete pre-recorded sounds that produce strong imagery linked to feelings, sensations or objects.

In 2016 opera “Confessions” was awarded Golden Stage Cross for the best music and Lithuanian Composer’s Union’s prize Musical Nail of The Year. Opera was presented in various concert halls, theatres and as part of different festivals in Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, the Netherlands and the UK.
 

Critical response

Confessions is over an hour long challenge to place-time-sound-sense experience and its limits, i.e. the theatre of senses and imagination, when the relationship between spectator-viewer and the observed-performer is reversed: face covering mask here belongs to the viewer, who voluntarily waives his/her ability to see.

Rima Jūraitė, Teatro žurnalas
 

The viewers are balancing between increased alertness due to corporeal experiences and the dream induced by the raging imagination.

Gražina Montvidaitė, 7 meno dienos
 

Sometimes, despite the “switched-off” vision, the performance might result in an overload of sensations. People heavily rely on vision in their everyday life, so when they lose it a natural sense of insecurity arises, along with increased alertness and vulnerability.

Julia Weber, musikultur.com
 

In an unbroken continuity of sound and action Confessions maintains a chameleonic approach to style, blending passages of music that echo 19th-century grand opera with elements of wholly contemporary noise music.

Neil Luck, The Drama Review
 

Hard to describe sounds, noise and musical passages caress and attack, tempt and amaze the ear, stimulating imagination to create diverse, though not always the most pleasant or comfortable images (those are sins, after all).

Goda Dapšytė, 370

Instructions for spectators: the spectators will sit blindfolded in the dark (blindfolds will be handed out before the performance). The sensations of the audience will be actively provoked. There is the only special “Pink chair” in the audience, it is free of charge, and the person who will win a competition will get it. The occupant of the seat will experience a set of extreme acoustic surroundings, smells, tastes and touches. Those who wish to get this seat need to make a sincere confession of one sin until April 10, 2024 on info@operomanija.lt. The person will be contacted and he/she will have to sign a contract.

Warning: there is no age limit but the parents who bring young children should be sure that the children will be able to spend an hour blindfolded, silent and without any contact with their parents.

Premiere: April 17, 2015 at the Column Hall of the Trades Union House during the 6th contemporary opera festival NOA (New Opera Action)

Duration: 63' (no intermission)

Supporters: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality

Tickets distributed by Bilietai.lt