World Premiere of Android Opera® “MIRROR”
composer SHIBUYA Keiichiro and Alter 3 return to the UAE for a spectacular opera marvel at Expo 2020 Dubai
Dubai, UAE, 15th February 2022: Japanese musician and composer SHIBUYA Keiichiro of Android Opera will present a world premiere of his new Android Opera®︎ MIRROR at Expo 2020 Dubai at 18:30, on Wednesday 2nd March 2022, at the Jubilee Stage. Presented by Japan Pavilion Expo 2020 Dubai, Alter 3, the android performer will be surrounded by SHIBUYA Keiichiro piano and computer, monks led by Eizen Fujiwara, a performer of the 1200-year-old Buddhist music called Shomyo, as well as a 45-member NSO Symphony Orchestra (UAE).
“MIRROR” is a culmination of Shibuya’s work, which explores a new model of artistic harmony by combining a diversity of peoples and cultures, the latest technology and the oldest traditional Buddhist music. Complementing Shibuya’s piano, electronic sounds and NSO Symphony Orchestra, Alter 3 will sing AI-generated texts accompanied by Nanzan Shinryu Shomyo, the voices of Koyasan’s Buddhist music.
French visual artist Justine Emard, who has collaborated with SHIBUYA Keiichiro for many years, will oversee visual projections focused on real-time facial expressions of the android. The visual effect is maximized with diffuse lighting effects projected throughout the venue and onto the android. Mixed with 3D images of temples and shrines in Koyasan, the impressive filmic lighting on Alter 3, complemented with extraordinary digitally composed electronic sounds is an experiential model of harmony that never existed before.
