Opening Reception

Opera has always incorporated the latest technology when it became available as it transitioned from the royal courts in Italy to the sophisticated modern venues designed for the large audiences of today. With the abundance of new staging technology—digital projection and LED walls specifically—one can expand the opera art form to aspire towards Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) to include moving images to the performance, not just as a scenic device but as a part of the narrative.

Along with documenting this transition, Howard Lukk will be creating an opera to push on the boundaries of this traditional art form. A sample of this new ‘total work of art’—a short ‘silent’ film—will be shown, accompanied by a newly composed piece of music, to provide an insight to the ‘Gothic Opera’. Incorporating a mixture of classical, nu-metal rock music, classic ballet, modern dance, and projected images; the narrative is told through song, dance, and moving images completely absent of the spoken word.

Story

Anna and Connor, struggling with being outsiders in a small town, run away to the big city and get immersed in a Gothic lifestyle. Their relationship turns upside down when a ‘vampire’ in the Goth community comes between them and puts Anna on a downward spiral, forcing Connor to come to terms with a responsibility he never anticipated.