Mozart vs Machine

An electronic essay collage opera mashing-up Mozart, electronic sound and video.

Mozart vs Machine is a high-octane mash-up of Mozart opera, electronic sound and video projection, bringing some of history’s most iconic artists together in a theatrical sci-fi-gameshow encounter.

Alone in his Manhattan research laboratory, Raymond Scott, the father of electronic music, is developing a machine to generate random musical patterns. When one of his devices accidentally tears a hole in the universe it distorts time and brings him face to face with classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

What follows is a fantastical journey through ideas of art and ownership, time and music shaken up through unexpected directions and random chance, culminating in a surreal, vaudevillian show trial. All with a little help from film-pioneer Georges Méliès, Lewis Carroll’s logic games, and composers John Cage and J S Bach.

In Mozart vs Machine, composer Dominic Robertson (the artist formerly known as Ergo Phizmiz) pieces together ideas and notes from across history into an irreverent collage of music and theatre that blurs the boundaries of opera and performance art. Think you know Mozart? Think again…

  • Dominic Robertson Composer / Libretto
  • Frederic Wake-Walker Director
  • Bryan Benner Raymond Scott, John Cage
  • Rebecca Bottone Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Charles Rice/Julien Van Mellaerts Referee, J S Bach
  • Christopher Stark/Katherine Tinker/Zubin Kanga Keys/ Musical Director
  • Peter Cant Associate Director
  • Kitty Callister Designer
  • Ed Borgnis Technical Designer
  • Claire Childs Original Lighting Designer
A slick, confident production from Mahogany Opera ... brilliant performances
The Scotsman
A pop art performance riot which – like its subjects – plunders everything in sight
Product
a totally-absorbing and totally-original work … blurring the boundaries of opera and performance art
Planet Hugill

15 November 2017

Exeter Phoenix

11 November 2017

soundfestival, The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

28 September 2017

The Yard, London

26 September 2017

Norwich Arts Centre

More

21 September 2017

The Cube, Bristol

19 September 2017

mac, Birmingham

17 September 2017

HighTide Festival, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh

3 February 2017

Profound Sound - presented by Folkestone Fringe, Folkestone Quarterhouse

Partners

A Mahogany Opera Group production

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Developed through Mahogany's Various Stages programme with generous support from Arts Council England and Sound and Music.

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