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Invisible Cities

Artbound provides an exclusive look at the avant-garde opera, "Invisible Cities." Produced by The Industry, L.A.'s experimental opera company, in partnership with the L.A. Dance Project, "Invisible Cities" depicts the meeting between emperor Kublai Khan at the end of his life with the explorer Marco Polo, as told in Italo Calvino's fantastical book. An innovative production staged in the iconic Union Station, the opera utilizes wireless technology provided by Sennheiser, offering audience members headphones to hear the opera amid the normal "hustle and bustle" of the train station's everyday life. "Invisible Cities" is composed and adapted by Christopher Cerrone, directed by The Industry's founder and artistic director Yuval Sharon, with choreography by Danielle Agami.
 

 

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Artbound presents a one hour special focused on the avant-garde opera, "Invisible Cities."
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Here's a roundup of Artbound's behind-the-scenes features examining "headphone" opera "Invisible Cities."
Union Station is an ideal place to realize the opera "Invisible Cities," an adaptation of Italo Calvino's book about relationships between built environments and social and economic life.
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Dancers in "Invisible Cities" execute an array of moves in Union Station that range from rigorous solos to improvisational and hip-hop-like explosions, to glacially slow stances.
"Invisible Cities"
In composing the music for "Invisible Cities," Christopher Cerrone created many levels of orchestral detail that would evoke the elaborate and fantastical places that Calvino imagines.
The sound designer behind "Invisible Cities" explains the challenges of getting wireless technology to deliver the extraordinary sonic experience that befits the unconventional opera.
The possibilities opened up by wireless headphones are endless. The use of wireless technology in "Invisible Cities" creates a new operatic experience -- and maybe even expands the definition of opera.
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