Asia Topa: Opera for the Dead - Review
Remember or forget, a haunting and hypnotic cyber-opera
Opera for the Dead (祭歌) is an experience that defies easy categorisation, fusing sound, movement, and technology into a deeply immersive meditation on death and memory. Created by composer and Guzheng artist Mindy Meng Wang and sound technologist Monica Lim, this contemporary Chinese cyber-opera offers a multi-sensory journey through grief, spirituality, and the digital echoes of ancestry.
The performance had the audience standing within the space itself rimmed with speakers hanging from the ceiling, each cradling mandarins and bells that vibrated with the sound, creating a physical resonance that reverberated through the room. The effect was hypnotic, as though the air itself carried whispers of the past. The audience was invited to move freely, allowing each person to craft their own journey through the performance’s evolving visual and sonic landscapes.
The music was striking in its contrasts. A solo cello, raw haunting vocals and chants, a percussion solo and an instrument that looked like a guzheng, brought an emotional intimacy that grounded the spectacle in something deeply human. The shifting projections and moving platforms transformed the space continuously, dissolving the boundaries between performer and observer. One moment, the performers stood frozen within their illuminated ‘boxes,’ ethereal figures caught in the tension of time. Next, their boxes were covered in projects of gardens and temples, taking us into the spaces of remembrance from Chinese culture.
Throughout the performance, Opera for the Dead grappled with the contradictions of mourning, the personal and the public, the eternal and the ephemeral, the ritualistic and the technological. The libretto, weaving poetry and chant, carried the weight of ancestral voices, invoking the longing for reunion across realms. The refrain "Let us meet again" became an aching plea, repeated like a mantra against the inevitability of loss.
The most affecting moments were the interplay of sound and silence. The performance dared to dwell in stillness, allowing the audience to experience the discomfort and beauty of transience. The final sequences, where voices receded into the digital ether and the speakers vibrated to the extent that they ‘hollowed out’ their wares onto the ground, left a lingering void, an absence that felt all too real.
By blending tradition and innovation, Opera for the Dead lingers long after the performance. It does not merely depict grief; it embodies it, allowing us to hear, see, and even feel the weight of remembrance in the air around us.