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THE OFFICIAL POSTER

THE SNEAK PEEK

THE DATES

Exercises on The Presence of Odradek

Sunday May 10, 2020 at 7PM EDT (World Premiere)

Sunday May 24, 2020 at 8AM, 2PM & 7PM EDT

THE TOOLS

PROGRAM, Programme, program, 프로그램

TUTORIAL VIDEO: HOW TO USE VR

THE BACKGROUND

Featuring Chanan Ben Simon, Malena Dayen, Ariadne Greif, and Georgia Usborne

Music by David Rosenmeyer

Directed by Malena Dayen

Choreographed by Troy Ogilvie

Video and Tech Design by Sangmin Chae

Images by Guadalupe Marin and Donghwi Han

Bare Opera in collaboration with CultureHub presented a new experimental opera based on Franz Kafka’s The Cares of a Family Man. “Exercises on The Presence of Odradek” is a live, online presentation of excerpts that will ultimately be presented in a live world premiere performance of the full opera. Directed by Malena Dayen, conducted and composed by David Rosenmeyer, designed by Sangmin Chae and choreographed by Troy Ogilvie, The Presence of Odradek is an original piece that combines dance and opera with interactive technology. On May 10, 2020, the exercises on the new work premiered in a live online event. On Sunday, May 24, 2020, three more live online performances streamed to accommodate increasing demand in all of the global time zones - 8AM, 2PM, and 7PM EDT.

Playing with Kafka’s text and with poems by Avot Yeshurun the work explores how art is able to give presence to an absence. Absences fill our world; ghosts of ancestors, secrets untold, and emotions too big for the conscious mind to process find in this performance a space to exist, without renouncing their absence-ness.

David Rosenmeyer created the piece for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, chamber orchestra, and pre-recorded material. Improvisations by singers around the world and Lotte Lenya’s telling of Kafka are combined with live performances in a beautiful, catchy, and haunting score. 

THE BUZZ

“Odradek blows out the walls of the operatic experience, an exciting bright light in the midst of our shared #COVID19 moment. Congratulations to both teams of creatives, an exceptional tech meets opera meets visual art experience/virtual reality calling card for your respective companies; The Presence of Odradek appeals to different audiences for different reasons across the performing arts, fine arts and technology spectrums. The last time we were this excited about a new opera was when @mas0nbates & Mark Campbell’s “(R)evolution of Steve Jobs” opened in Santa Fe.” - James Mowdy, Opera Innovation

"At one point, one vocal line gets repeated over and over, the sound effect decaying and fading the initial recording more and more to express the passage of time and the loss of memory of that initial performance. It’s this kind of constant musical experimentation that keeps “The Presence of Odradek” ever-fascinating." - David Salazar, OperaWire

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“The experience is designed with the intention of having viewers interact with their screens and shift them around to explore all the unique visual perspectives offered up throughout the performance. In one moment, you might see a singer performing with a second popping up just above him or her; to access that view, audience members can touch on their devices or remotes to shift the vantage point in either direction.” - David Salazar, OPERAWIRE

WHAT Did my RSVP with DONATION SUPPORT?

100% of your donation - excluding Eventbrite’s processing fee of 2.5% - directly supports paying the artists and creators for The Presence of Odradek and also Bare Opera's future productions. The contribution is also 100% tax deductible, as Bare Opera is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization.

Donate with your RSVP for the May 24th performances and get an OPERATIC SHOUT OUT in a video made by Bare Opera artists in the week following the event!