The cyborg opera will be an immersive theater experience in the vein of “Sleep No More,” where it breaks down the barrier between audience and performer.
“You’re not watching it –you’re taking part in it. You’re actively participating,” Hallidonto explained. “Everyone wants experiential. They want an experience.”
The story isn’t linear; it treads through the phenomenological experiences of what it means to be human within a Post/Transhuman perspective. When participants enter the opera’s world there are two sets of paths. And each group has a different, evolving experience. The opera’s various themes are built from Hallidonto’s very personal universe.
“The forms and performances I do, some of it is quite dark,” he said. “From the hatred of the human body to the beauty of eating. Or the madness of tinnitus; all embodied in my eclectic dialogue.” Adding, “There’s a fine line between cheese and dark; so, I manage not to fall into the category of the cheese.”
The storylines focus on a glitch in a computer in a matryoshka doll.
“I’m obsessed with Russian matryoshka doll –because that’s a continuous line; it’s genealogy,” said Hallidonto. “We’ve evolved to the point we’re not even a human anymore; we are these massive objects out in space. And there’s a glitch in one of the computers. And what it’s done is bringing back elements of humanity from different periods of time. Whether it’s the neanderthal or total human cyborg or whatever.”
The reaction which Hallidonto wants to get from people is something between confusion and redirection “What is this? What have I just listened to? What have I seen? What have I just smelled? What has this just done to me?”
“It’s not about making sense, it’s about that experience,” he stated. “Opera, at its essence, is an epic poem. You go through these experiences from the opera, and you’re in this epic poem.” he said. “You’re part of the glitch – but you don’t know it as you’re going through it.”