.onion

Synopsis

This mini opera of 20 minutes was commissioned by Staatstheater Darmstadt, as one of the five selected composers of the Staatstheater Darmstadt Composers’ Competition. Designed to mimic the structure and methodology of a trailer (a series of excerpts from a movie or program used to advertise it in advance; a preview), the spectator is flung back and forth in indistinct time, floating over missing parts, and is perpetually in the midst of the (combined) action. 

The concept of the opera is a simulation of a YouTube series that explores the Deep Web - the unindexed and largely unregulated part of the internet normally hidden from view. Not only do you not know who's on the other end – you have no way of knowing whether any of what they offer is real. It is a place of suspended identities where criminals, activists and law enforcement officers swap appearances. The main character is a guide to the audience, with elements of websites typical of the Deep Web appearing on stage. At the same time, a hacker succeeds to hack the main character’s computer. The hacker is represented by a guitar player, which is “hacking” the amplification of the electric guitar, by using a bass piano string. He installs a “MEDUSA virus” - represented throughout by the soprano - on the computer of the protagonist, who increasingly oscillates between his spectatorship and virtual assimilation as his anonymity begins to fail.