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| Alastair White: #CAPITAL |
Wikipedia defines the Metaverse as ‘a loosely defined term referring
to virtual worlds in which users represented by avatars interact,
usually in 3D and focused on social and economic connection.The term
metaverse originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, and is now often linked to virtual reality technology, and beginning in the early 2020s, with Web3.’
In 2023, the worlds of opera and the Metaverse collided when Alastair White’s sixth fashion-opera, #CAPITAL, premiered at Metaverse Fashion Week 2023. The event took place within Metaverse Labs’ platform Dragon City, in bespoke fashion-opera house, the House of Synergos, designed by Sybarite architects (real-life architects working in a virtual/digital world).
When Alastair told me about the premiered last year, it was an event that you could only really appreciate if you had the right technology, if you could be [Virtually] there.
But thanks to the wonderful people at Tête à Tête, those of us who live in a simple digital 2D world, can appreciate something of the event. #CAPITAL is being presented digitally, a Vimeo video, on the Tête à Tête website. The video presents a particular experience of the event, we are watching someone participate rather than being there ourselves, but it give us the feeling of the Greek amphitheatre-inspired opera house along with the astonishing fashion show curated by the events producer, Gemma A Williams.
The video begins with a discussion with Alastair White, and Gemma A Williams, plus Simon Mitchell (architect and co-founder of Sybarite), the architect of the bespoke fashion-opera house. As anyone who knows Alastair [see my 2021 interview with him], will understand, the discussion becomes fascinatingly theoretically challenging, talking about all sorts of advanced concepts and making us realise that there might be more to the arts and to musical theatre than simply an orchestra, singers and an opera house.
#CAPITAL itself is an astonishing solo performance from soprano Kelly Poukens who has featured in several of Alastair White’s other operas, along with a performance from dancer/choreographer Zara Sands. And the video includes the opera not once, but twice, thus giving us two different views of the same reality.
I still miss the visceral thrill of hearing and seeing a performance live but this gives you a taster of what opera in virtual reality might be.
Full details from the Tête à Tête website.
