Introducing THE ARTWORK OF THE FUTURE by Eric Moe and Rob Handel, a lighthearted science-fiction opera about robot-loving artists and art-loving robots; about obsession and distraction, fame and obscurity, human and machine, change and end, the last days of humankind.
Photo credit: Whitney George
THE ARTWORK OF THE FUTURE
65’, 4 singers (soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone), 7 instruments (violin, viola, cello, clarinet/bass clarinet, piano, keyboard, percussion)
synopsis
The Artwork of the Future begins with a TEDtalk (the first operatic portrayal of a TEDtalk, perhaps). The charismatic speaker preaches a romantic dedication to work, citing the examples of immortal artists like Bach and Van Gogh, whose efforts have remained part of the human experience long after their deaths.
The speaker doesn’t know it, but he has changed the life of the TEDtalk sound technician, Spearmint Lodge, art-school grad and wholly unrecognized maker of “spectator-triggered musical robot installations.” Spearmint wanders the city, turning these ideas over in his mind. As dawn approaches, he stumbles into an all-night coffeehouse and meets singer/songwriter/barista Najeen Teflo. She contracts his new religion like a virus, and they return to his squalid apartment to begin a life of total dedication to their art in spite of the apathy shown it by the rest of the world.
As time passes, however, their conviction begins to wane. They become haunted by a desire to know for certain that their work will finally be recognized three hundred years in the future. As fate would have it, Najeen has met a physicist, Amalia Habitué, working at the margins of science, whose lab has cracked the secret of time travel.
Spearmint and Najeen arrive in the future at the Guggenheim Museum, which proves to be, in fact, full of their work, honoring them as prophetic artists. There are, however, no people in the future. A robot docent explains that all the humans died out, barely noticing, while noodling with their phones, that this was happening.
Returning to the present, the lovers find themselves fiercely divided about what to do. She wants to abandon their dreams of immortality and devote their energies to saving humankind. He doesn’t see a problem with a future populated by robots, so long as the art survives. Will Spearmint and Najeen be torn apart? And can this species be saved?
background
Rob Handel (libretto) and Eric Moe (music) got their feet wet as a collaborative team with Valkyrie Suite (2012), a mini-opera commissioned by Pittsburgh Opera Theater. The basic premise: Wagner’s nine Valkyries reincarnated as a hotel-room trashing, pizza-gobbling, beer-swilling women’s bowling team. Moe and Handel mightily enjoyed all the resulting incongruities, probably most of all the incongruity of basing a ten-minute piece on a five-hour one, from Sturm und Drang beginning to serene and magical apotheosis. The present project grew out of their eagerness to work together again on a full-length opera.
Given their common interests in comedy and science fiction — combined with an amused obsession with the grandiosity of Richard Wagner - they settled on THE ARTWORK OF THE FUTURE, with themes of apocalypse, time travel, artificial intelligence and their intersection with high art. Time travel itself is a subject that music, of all the arts, is exquisitely equipped to handle. (Plus there’s the challenge of creating a genuine Gesamtkunstwerk der Zukunft, an appealing prospect for any composer).
With its efficient performance forces – four singers, seven instrumentalists, electroacoustic tech and video – ARTWORK portrays six characters and a sweep of 300 years. The opera was premiered in May 2023 by Fresh Squeezed Opera at the HERE Performing Arts Center’s Mainstage Theater (NYC) with soprano Emily Solo, mezzo Brittany Fowler, tenor Omar Najmi, and baritone Daniel Klein, with stage direction by Dara Milina and music direction by Alex Wen. Full credits can be found in the Media section.The opera and production were enthusiastically received by critics and audience alike.
New York Classical Review
Top Ten Classical Performances of 2023: Honorable Mention - Best AI-Futurist Opera
- David Wright
What musician or visual artist doesn’t wonder if their works will be appreciated 300 years from now? In The Artwork of the Future, a 70-minute opera by composer Eric Moe and librettist Rob Handel, a conceptual artist and his songwriting girlfriend travel in a time machine to the Guggenheim Museum of the future, and happily find his art on the walls and her music being piped in. There’s just one problem: The highly appreciative audience consists entirely of…robots.This visually dazzling sci-fi production from Fresh Squeezed Opera, premiered in May, used catchy rhythms and singable atonal tunes to muse wittily on the purpose of art and the fate of the human race.
https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2023/12/top-ten-performances-of-2023/
Opera News
The Artwork of the Future at HERE
– Joanne Sydney Lessner
Artists frustrated with lack of recognition often soothe their bruised egos by imagining that after death, their works will be discovered and revered, granting them posthumous fame or, even better, Shakespeare-level immortality. The Artwork of the Future, a wildly imaginative new opera by Eric Moe, presented by Fresh Squeezed Opera at HERE (seen May 16), riffs on this emotional salve in ways both comical and thoughtprovoking. What if the artist’s dream comes true—but there are no humans left alive to appreciate the art? To answer that question, Rob Handel’s witty, Douglas Adams-esque libretto fuses fantasy, science fiction spoof, wish fulfillment, and warning.…
For all its wackiness, the opera’s message is clear: art needs humans to interpret it as well as create it. With the incursion of AI into our society, it’s more urgent than ever that we remain mindful, lest we carelessly give up control of our environment. As the robot docent observes, “There’s nothing sadder than a species that can’t help itself.”
https://operanews.com/in-review/2023-08-the-artwork-of-the-future-at-here/
Seen and Heard International
Eric Moe’s The Artwork of the Future at Fresh Squeezed Opera pits humans against robots
– Rick Perdian
Eric Moe’s The Artwork of the Future may be zany, but it is also timely. The roughly hour-long opera, with a libretto by Rob Handel, delves into the hot-button issue of humans versus artificial intelligence. Fresh Squeezed Opera’s mission is to produce new works that resonate with contemporary audiences, and it hit the bull’s-eye with this one.…
Scored for strings, clarinet, percussion, piano, keyboards and electronics, Moe creates an eclectic soundscape that is never lacking in terms of musical interest or depth. He writes some evocative, melodic passages for strings and clarinet. Extended passages of engrossing electronic music propel the time travelers on their journey. In the final scene of the opera, the percussionist goes wild in an explosion of sound, underscoring Shirl’s ecstatic cries that there is indeed hope for humankind.
New York Classical Review
Back to the robotic future with Fresh Squeezed Opera’s whimsical premiere
– David Wright
A more sober version of Shirl could be your member of Congress this week, trying to figure out how to keep Artificial Intelligence algorithms from busting loose and running the show by themselves. So give Fresh Squeezed Opera an A for timing.
High marks all around, in fact, go to this lively production, brought in at a brisk 70 minutes by stage director Dara Malina and conductor Alex Wen….Moe’s tuneful,rhythmically infectious, and futuristically atonal score for eight players bubbled with energy.
Opera Wire
Fresh Squeezed Opera 2023 Review: The Artwork of the Future
A Refreshing Neo-Classical Opera with a Stellar Cast of Singers
– Jennifer Pyron
Eric Moe’s overall composition for this opera did an excellent job weaving together this bold narrative. He created an otherworldly sense of eerie wonder with ease. It was sci-fi adjacent, but it was also a strategic consideration that he took as a composer to make this a well-thought out composition. There was a carefree flow that I enjoyed listening to and experiencing both through the singers and musicians. I felt that everyone involved really enjoyed working together and focused on having fun!…
When Shirl remembers how to turn off the robot that controls her, at the close of the opera, all hope is restored. “People of Earth! Heed my call! I have a message of hope!” she proclaimed. This was the moment that everyone came back to the reality at hand and had to make a choice. Do we continue living as we are now? Or do we do something different in order to change our own self-destructive ways? “The Artwork of the Future” depicted the potential desolation of humanity and championed the lasting awareness of what art is and can be for future generations to come. Fresh Squeezed Opera has opened everyone’s eyes.
https://operawire.com/fresh-squeezed-opera-2023-review-the-artwork-of-the-future/
email Eric Moe:
emoe@pitt.edu
relevant websites:
