September 1, 2015

We strive to make our ExCITe Center activities part of civic life in Philadelphia. This includes several unique partnerships with the arts and culture community. This month, we've featured our friends at Opera Philadelphia, where I have the privilege of serving as resident technologist. I'd like to thank everyone at Opera Philadelphia and Drexel who enabled this unique collaborative opportunity for our institutions.

The reason for this collaboration is simple: Technology has always been a part of Opera. According to a popular 18th Century music textbook, opera consists of three key elements: singing, music, and machines (referring to stage technology). In fact, Richard Wagner built an entirely new theater at Beyreuth to realize his cinematic visions for opera. Today's productions integrate technology both onstage and behind the scenes for lighting, staging, and special effects.

Opera Philadelphia, like ExCITe, is an organization that firmly believes artistic and technological innovation go hand-in-hand. And it's a group that isn't afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. We believe opera is not an antiquated medium, but a tremendously vibrant and dynamic source of creative expression. Opera Philadelphia has made an extraordinary commitment to producing not only new operatic works, but also to experiment with new venues, presentation formats, and yes, technology, to foster a new community around this medium, where music, stories, and voice can combine to convey the human condition in more compelling ways than any other.

We've all experienced the profound impact technology has had on the accessibility and distribution of music. We live in an amazing world, where we have the entire history of recorded music at our fingertips. But we still seek out live performance because it remains an entirely different experience. My first live opera experience was the Barber of Seville, which I saw in college at the Academy of Music, and I've been hooked ever since. Opera singers today are world class athletes... It takes enormous physical skill and training to fill a large hall with unamplified voice, over a large orchestra. Where else can you experience that? And in combination with some of the most creative theatrical designers and artists anywhere, all coming together to tell a story? If technology is to play a role in the future of opera, I want to be there to experience it firsthand.

If you're familiar with ExCITe, you know we believe that great art inspires great technology (and vice versa). It's an absolute privilege for us to continue our partnership with Opera Philadelphia, as we explore  the intersection of technology and world-class opera production.

Youngmoo Kim, Director