Tradition and high-tech pair up for new opera

Tradition and high-tech pair up for new operaANN ARBOR—Live actors and singers join with computer-generated characters in “vidGod,” a unique operatic work by University of Michigan duo Stephen Rush and Michael Rodemer.

With staging and book by Rodemer, assistant professor of art in U-M’s School of Art and Design, and music by Rush, associate professor of music in U-M’s School of Music, live actors and singers on a real stage combine with computer generated characters acting on a projected set to premiere this work in U-M’s Video Studio
“vidGod” is in part electronically mediated, employing surveillance cameras, 3-D computer-animated sets and virtual dancers, lasers, and touch-sensor sample players. The music is scored for synthesizers, samplers, turntables, amplified trashcans and hubcaps, traditional instruments, and voices.

Rush’s music, played by members of his Digital Music Ensemble, is by turns powerful and dark, playful and teasing, or apocalyptic, as the action of the work develops. Rodemer’s libretto conjures a dystopian society of the not-so-distant future, where street people develop a cult around the ubiquitous video surveillance cameras. Conflicts ensue.

This production has been funded by U-M’s Office of the Vice President for Research. For more information about the opera, visit http://www.umich.edu/~rodemer.

Stephen RushSchool of Art and DesignDigital Music EnsembleOffice of the Vice President for Research