Robot Opera Is Less Madame Butterfly, More ” Oops I Dropped a Butterfly Screw” [Robots]

Don’t be alarmed by the reality we’re writing about opera on Gizmodo. We’re not secretly donning velvet smoking jackets and pearls (aside from Kyle ). Death and the Powers features nine life-sized robots-or, ” OperaBots,” …plus the odd human.

It’s been 10 years inside the making, but from this September in Monaco, MIT’s Media Lab Professor Tod Machover and 60 of his students/volunteers shall be working on the show, with Prince Albert II being an honorary patron and supporter of the opera. Nothing like the royal seal on a nice section of avant-garde entertainment to get the blood rushing to the top, eh?

While it’s mostly the nine robots inside the chorus for you to bring the punters in the course of the doors, the animated set (including, ahem, a musical chandelier) and even several human singers chucked in for good measure, all come together to tell the tale of Simon Powers, a wealthy businessman who wants to go away a robust legacy behind, turning himself from a human into a ” System.”

There’s real talent working behind the curtain here, not least within the kind of production designer Alex McDowell, who also worked on Minority Report, Watchmen and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Check out the trailer below for the opera, on the way to be debuting on the 24th of September. [ Death and the Powers via Laboratory Equipment via Botropolis ]

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This post is tagged: charlie and the chocolate, charlie and the chocolate factory, laboratory equipment, professor tod machover, wealthy businessman