March 13, 1999: Scene One
Live Premiere of scene one of the original score by composer George Oldziey, at the SXSW Interactive Festival opening event.
Starring:
Claire Vangelisti as honoria
Bruce Cain as Bookish
Melinda Brou as Sandy
Oliver Worthington as .rez
Eric Peabody as the Oracle
with Varushka, Rachael, Christine & Tom as human embodiments of servers
The press release:
February 28, 1999
Internet opera of the Austin Technopolis sings open South by Southwest
Cyberspace and Austin, Texas -- "When life dawns on a glowing screen and worlds emerge from in between" - With these words a dark baritone voice evokes the power of Internet interaction and sings open the 1999 South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Conducted by composer George Oldziey a passionate swell of operatic voices will engulf the postmodern decor of the SXSW opening venue to premiere music by Wing Comander composer George Oldziey for Scene One of the first tele-collaborative Internet opera. Ten minutes of the cyberopera, Honoria in Ciberspazio, opens the South by Southwest Interactive Kick-Off party in the atrium of GSD&M, 828 6th Street, Austin, Texas on March 13th, 1999 at 6:30 p.m.
Four operatic voices melodically exchange electronic messages hoping to attract meaningful Internet relationships -- the essence of the featured section of the first Internet Opera. The opera's story continues when the lonely characters engage upon idealized Internet loves and must confront the risks and passions of programmed chaos. Austin's high tech community and musical avant garde provides the perfect environment to create the first Internet opera. The full opera will be completed in Spring 2001.
The SXSW preview of Honoria in Ciberspazio is proud to present Claire Vangelisti (Soprano), Bruce Cain (Baritone), Oliver Worthington (Tenor), Melinda Brou (Mezzo) and Eric Peabody (Bass) singing the roles of the lonely lovers and the Oracle. The singers are real, not virtual. The story is real, too. The Internet is the medium of creation and delivery for this timely, multi-authored opera.
"After three and a half years of collaborative work the Internet opera is ready to go international. We are negotiating with several representatives of European opera," says opera impresaria Honoria. Honoria, known occasionally as Madelyn Starbuck in real life, is obtaining a Ph.D in Networked Interaction at The University of Texas at Austin while working with the new WholeFoods.com ecommerce site as online community conceptualist. "Doctoral research and my job, together with our cyberopera keeps me busy," the impresaria admits, "but the cyberopera spins off a vitality of its own. Honoria in Ciberspazio is representing the City of Austin in the Global Bangemann Challenge award in Sweden this summer. We'd love to win this prestigious award in the category of technology and culture for Austin!"
"After working with creative contributions from online citizens from all over the world, our core team is extending its infrastructure to Europe," says technical director Knut Graf who joined the project from Germany, "we are now in a position to forge relationships with Austin business leaders to take our unique Internet opera to the next level." To showcase the combined efforts of the Music Captital of the World with Silicon Hills technology the internet opera invites Austin multimedia developers to integrate their most powerful interactive components into the cyberopera's performance phase for the 2001 premiere in Spain.
Extensive documentation of Honoria in Ciberspazio can be found at http://www.cyberopera.org, an award winning website.
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Honoria in Ciberspazio
the first Internet opera
Media Contact:
honoria, 512-469-9399
honoria@mail.utexas.edu
honoria@wholefoods.com
Honoria in Ciberspazio is funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts and in part by the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission.
Please see our production timeline chart and read about the previous performances:
March 21, 1998: Come to Me
Live Performance of the aria, with multimedia performance elements and choreography by artistic director Bryan Green, as part of the Austin Dance Ensemble presentation of Dracula and Other Works at the McCullough Theatre at The University of Texas at Austin. $12 admission.
The press release:
High brow, high tech, high Texas
CYBERSPACE and Austin, Texas -- The world's first tele-collaborative Internet opera will burst into song on March 21st, 8:00 p.m. from the McCullough Theater on The University of Texas at Austin campus. honoria in ciberspazio, is the cyberopera recently selected as a semi-finalist by the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Arts and Entertainment Awards along with ABCNEWS.com, ESPN SportsZone, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Under the artistic direction of Bryan Green, virtual and sensually real dancers tell the operatic story of hope-filled humans passionately attracted to their digital lovers. The cyberopera is a tale of Internet love incorporating high-tech stage sets and advanced Internet-based information delivery systems driven by the opera's cyberspatial plot.
As a GII Semi-finalist, honoria in ciberspazio has been distinguished for innovation, producing real and valuable results, and for powerfully demonstrating the potential of the Internet that we hear so much about. Vice president Al Gore has cited the GII Awards program "An innovation that is vital to our country's future."
The cyberopera's original libretto integrates common and not-so-common experiences of people who send their electronic avatars out onto the Infobahn. The opera's content reflects the chaotic and emotional situations that one finds in electronic social exchanges in virtual communities, mailing lists, and chat rooms. Cyberopera impresaria, Madelyn Starbuck, also known as honoria, tells us that operatic themes are all over cyberspace. "There's deceit, transgender, mythmaking, drama, tragedy, and comedy," she says.
"The opera's plot is a product of the highest and purest form of collaboration" says the cyberopera's director of operations, Richard MacKinnon, "by using electronic communication, it is blind to contributors' location, appearance, politics, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference,religion, or other lifestyle choices."
As an important high-technology hub, Austin is the perfect incubator for this particular opera because the cyberopera is designed to celebrate the social impact of rapidly evolving technologies. "We have brought opera to the Internet," says Starbuck, "Now we are going to bring the Internet to the opera."
MacKinnon and Starbuck are seeking to infuse the cyberopera's development with venture capital and corporate sponsorship as each production showcases high-tech information delivery in the service of high art.
The honoria in ciberspazio "Come to Me" aria, featuring soprano Janet Davidson in the role of honoria, will be performed in conjunction with Austin Dance Ensemble's collage of performative works. Tickets are available through UTTM by calling 477-6060.
Since 1995, honoria in ciberspazio has benefited from The University of Texas at Austin infrastructure to develop the cyberopera's design in which electronic communication theory and high operatic standards are woven together in an artistically innovative showcase for the rapidly changing technological delivery of information. honoria in ciberspazio is currently a non-profit project under the umbrella of Women and Their Work in Austin, Texas. The target audience of honoria in ciberspazio encompasses anyone who has ever fallen in love.
Contact:
Richard MacKinnon, 512-469-9553
spartan@actlab.utexas.edu
March 9, 1997: Come to Me
Guerilla live performance & Webcast from the tradeshow of the 1997 South by Southwest Multimedia Conference.
Starring:
Janet Davidson as honoria
Bryan Green as her digital clone
Adrienne Meza singing the magical shift
Ben Oehlschlager as Bookish
Matt Groves as .Rez
Music composed by George Oldziey
Lyrics by Scotto and by Judy
Sponsored by Industrial Strength Network
Thanks to Nigel Who? Fashion and Art, Texas.Net, Shell Oil, Austin Digital Media
A video of the specifically-designed live performance was transmitted on the net. It was received by a worldwide audience using CU-SeeMe and Apple Quicktime TV Software. The webcast was made possible by Industrial Strength Network and by the University of Texas at Austin.
Here is the event's press release:
Guerilla Opera Smuggles Aria into SXSW Multimedia Tradeshow
AUSTIN--The technologically-inclined and passionate folks from the cyberopera _honoria in ciberspazio_ will be returning to the airwaves or netwaves from the showroom floor of the South by Southwest Multimedia Conference to be held in Austin, Texas this weekend. "We'll have singers and dancers while everyone else has CD-ROM players and disk drives. We're going to smuggle high culture into multimedia!" exclaims Impresaria Madelyn Starbuck also known as honoria.
The performance will feature soprano Janet Davidson, choreographer/dancer Bryan Green, music from the original score by George Oldziey, and libretto received electronically from virtual collaborators known only as "Scotto"and "Judy." The virtual curtain goes up at 3pm (Central) March 9th in front of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLAB) booth. The live performance will be simulcast internationally on the Internet via CU-SeeMe and Apple Quick Time Conferencing. Internet reception of the performance is free to the public. Information about the Internet reception of the webcast and the necessary free software will be available on their website at http://www.cyberopera.org/.
Contact:
Richard MacKinnon, 512-469-9553
spartan@actlab.utexas.edu
October 23, 1996
Webcast of video introducing "Come to Me" score by George Oldziey starring dancer Elaine Dove with Bryan Green and Adrienne Longnecker.
April 30, 1996
Webcast. Excerpts were sung by Baritone Angelo Gomez and Soprano Martha McCarroll; narration by Kanchan Limaye; Italian Rant told by Mafalda Stasi; .rez dance Bryan Green; .rez voice Vicente Fores.
Live webcast made possible by Apple Computer, Inc. and The University of Texas' Computation Center. Performance design and costumes by Nigel Who?
December 9, 1995
Webcast. Starring Sandy Stone as the Cyborg; Linda Montano as Sandy Stone; Scott Alton Dulaney as honoria; Geoffry Thomas as bookish; Movement art by Bryan Green; injected into the Net from the home of Sandy Stone through CU-SeeMe magic.
The Opera was also presented at 5cyberconf, the Fifth International Conference on Cyberspace in Madrid, June 28, 1996 and at the First International Conference on Virtual Reality in Valencia, November 7, 1996.
Report of the presentation of honoria in ciberspazioat the First International Conference on Virtual Reality November 7, 1996
by Richard MacKinnon
_honoria in ciberspazio_ was selected as the special closing event for the "I Congreso Internaccional de Realidad Virtual" at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain. The event showcased George Oldziey's original composition for Act I, Scene 2, "Come to me: The Birth of a Clone" which sets to music the thrill, angst, and frustration arising from falling in love with a virtual lover.
The international audience was treated to a 15-minute introduction to the cyberopera by renowned Spanish Shakespearean scholar Dr. Vicente Fores. Dr. Fores joined the cyberopera in the Spring of 1996, bringing with him his world-class talent in the translation of verse. Following this introduction, a taped interview with Allucquere Rosanne Stone and honoria was displayed on a large screen. Stone is the director of Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLAB) at the University of Texas at Austin. A mentor to honoria and a personality upon whom one of the cyberopera's characters is based, Stone discusses the important role _honoria_ plays in uniting high theory and high art in the pursuit of love on the Internet.
Following the interview, a live dancer on stage in Valencia was integrated with a simulated Internet broadcast of another dancer in Austin. Dancing to the dramatic and longing chords of Oldziey's music and a live vocalist singing Fores' translated Spanish libretto, the effect was an entrancing, dancing duet wherein one dancer was "real" and the other was "virtual."
Just one in a series of events showcasing the talents and potential of _honoria_, the presentation in Valencia provided the fledgling opera company with the opportunity to introduce cyberopera as a new and important art form in the age of "distance-art" - dispersed audiences, hybrid performance areas, and artist telecollaboration.
