MUGEN(夢幻)_an immersive opera

The dreamer realises that he is sitting with his arms folded next to a woman lying on a bed, and she quietly confesses to the figure that she will soon die. This surreal encounter with the woman doesn't faze the dreamer, and he asks her when she will die and whether she has to die. She confesses that she cannot change her fate and that she would like to ask the figure to bury her after her certain death. He is instructed to dig her grave with a large shell, bury her in it and erect a gravestone with a fragment of a fallen star. Finally, he is to wait in a hundred-year vigil for her self-proclaimed return. The dreamer follows her instructions and begins to count the days that pass as the sun moves from east to west. After some time, he wonders whether the woman has betrayed him. Unexpectedly, a white lily begins to grow from the fresh grave. At the end of its blooming period, he finally knows that 100 years have passed.

When reading this text, I asked myself: "Whose unconscious is it?".

Mugen is an immersive theater based on Natsume Soseki’s short story, it combines surrealistic dream narration from Noh theater with time-disintegration of western opera performed at the Immersive Arts Space in Zurich

TEAM

music and concept paul taro schmidt

choreography ivana balabanova

dramaturgy leonard lampert

dancers coko de windt & oscar cuellar

scenography julian holz

costume design & makeup carolina misztela

interactive live visuals weidi zhang

art design olga antonova

light design & programming chi him chik

immersive sound programming & mixing engineer daniel eaton & jonas fullemann

photography ardennes fatimah ornati & paul taro schmidt

cinematography juan pablo salazar

videography benjamat hess, juan pablo salazar, oliver kimber

project manager olena iegorova

with generous support from kanton zurich, ernst gohner, sis stiftung

MUSIC

narration emi oshikawa

sho naomi sato

vocals salome cavegn, aleksandra sucur

double bass azuna oishi

percussion barbara ribeiro

piano paul taro schmidt

voices ardennes fatimah ornati, dmitry smirnov, aleksandra sucur, chi him chik, saiko sasaki, stephan teuwissen, olga antonova

strings max bailie, alessandro ruisi, gretta mutlu, oli lanford, helene clement, anne beilby, kirsten jenson, colin alexander

recorded by john barrett

recorded at abbey roads studio 2

protools operator marta di nozzi

music mixed by jakob eisenbach