Thierry Tidrow: Prothesen der Autonomie – eine Sci-Fi Oper
This work was awarded the first prize of the Berliner Opernpreis 2018 competition. The aim of the project is to reflect on and rethink opera heritage and the female roles which have defined this genre.
It is the year 2180 and we live in a post-utopian matriarchy. The fundamental of the constitution is the protection of emotional and psychological integrity: any kind of damage, harm or trauma must be radically prevented. A whole new world of products has been designed and implemented in order to create riskless intimacies, as human suffering must be prevented at all costs. We witness a performing robot gain consciousness through the performance of three canonical, pre-programmed heroines. We see her constant struggle in her subservience to her programming, in a set which displays objects of a seemingly pleasant society. As we slowly proceed in the story and see the various roles of the robot, we find ourselves in the midst of a revolution against a strict ideological system. Through a lean and carefully curated quartet (vln, vlc, acc, synth), the music is as multi-layered as our heroine, evoking a lush orchestra, alarming error messages, and through an emotional soundscape, support our main characters slowly unfolding ‘awakening’.
