OPERA SOUNDWALK

Presentation

Focusing on Georg Friedrich Händel's "Julius Caesar," OPERA SOUNDWALK aims to immerse Opera in an installation through holophonic audio and layered voice dramaturgy. A sonically augmented reality leads to a dystopian ambiguity of intimate relationships with place, the path through it, memory, and potential future.

Rather than a theater, OPERA SOUNDWALK takes place in a historic venue representing the temporal or political power, such as a castle, an abbey or a palace, where participants walk while wearing headphones, entering a hyper-realistic sound elsewhere. The absence of visual technology, coupled with advanced audio ones used in both production and audience experience, places emphasis on hearing and listening.

OPERA SOUNDWALK operates on four main dimensions:

1. The experience revolves around Händel's "Giulio Cesare" and divides the opera into fragments which are then re-composed by adding voices describing the rooms crossed by as well as the opera characters and score elements.

2. Technological innovation improves the use of binaural microphones during the live recordings, ambisonic processing and sound software/hardware like SPAT and Raspberry Pi technology to create an immersive audio universe.

3. The soundwalk is specifically tailored to each location's unique characteristics and spaces. Visitors will easily connect their personal smartphone to bone-conducting headphones, provided on-site: these devices rest on the temporo-mandibular joint, transmitting sound to the eardrum through an imperceptible vibration, leaving the ear cup free. The relationship between external and internal listening becomes predominant, offering a contemplative cinematic experience where reality is manipulated and transformed by sound.

4. Finally, OPERA SOUNDWALK is accessible and engages the blind community, drawing on their auditory experience and offering sighted users an entirely powerfull experience, emphasizing the centrality of sound as a means of learning about the world.

Artistic Team

Project leader - Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, born in Italy, based in Paris (France) - composer and sound artist, IRCAM associated artist 2019/23. He develops the projects in terms of dramaturgy and sound design: he also coordinates the technology development with the teams of IRCAM and Ornithology Productions. Conductor - Ottavio Dantone - Italian - cembalist and conductor. Artistic and Music Director of Accademia Bizantina and Music Director of Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano and Trento. He is a consultant for music development (baroque music) and conducts the recordings of the opera “Giulio Cesare” by Händel. Giulio Cesare - Vocal cast foreseen for recordings in Bolzano /March 2025: Marie Lys, Raffaele Pe, Delphine Galou, Filippo Mineccia, Nicolò Balducci, Davide Giangregorio, Clemente Antonio Daliotti, Enrico Torre Accessibility Managers: 1) Giuseppe Comuniello, a blind dancer, began his journey in dance in 2009 with Virgilio Sieni. He works as a performer with national and international choreographers and is the author together with Camilla Guarino. 2) Camilla Guarino trained in dance and completed her studies in theatre at University of Bologna, then studied dramaturgy with a master's degree at Silvio d'Amico Academy in 2019. Giuseppe and Camilla collaborate together to create poetic audio descriptions for dance for other artists, festivals and theatre seasons. Orchestra Haydn Orchester - it was founded in 1960, both as a regional reference point for musical appreciation and education and as an ambitious project aimed at integrating Trentino-South Tyrol into the wider European and international cultural networks. Today this is a must-have ingredient of all Haydn Foundation projects. Curator and Coordinator - Emanuele Masi, Performing Arts Manager

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