MORTALITIES grants you access to the underworld. The companion of Death takes you by the hand, and carefully you step out onto a long, creaking bridge and walk to the other side.
MORTALITIES is a virtual reality opera that explores the boundaries between life and death, between the living and the virtual. The combination of VR and opera provides an opportunity to step into the opera itself and become immersed in the music and the singers' voices. Four guests are admitted at a time for this exclusive experience, which is both physical and virtual. Following an initial ritual, you physically walk through a large, live installation where a multisensory death opera unfolds.
The Virtual Reality performance ‘MORTALITIES’ stretches the opera concept beyond all convention. But the experience, carried by Ursula Andkjær Olsens poetry, is fantastic.
Inspired by the necroaesthetic aspects of death, the company has developed six versions of death for you to visit. You travel through the cold, the heavy, the dirty, the distorted, and come close to total decomposition—before life rises from the ashes once more.
The libretto by Ursula Andkjær Olsen is set to music by SØS Gunver Ryberg, giving the opera singers’ voices a new expression within an electronic universe. The visual expression is created by Ninna Steen. In collaboration with MANND and Quad Studio, she unites the physical world with the virtual universe. The concept was created and initiated by director Rebekka Bohse Meyer, who wishes to explore the potential of virtual reality in opera in Denmark through MORTALITIES.
Rebekka Sofie Bohse Meyers' music dramatic work ‘MORTALITIES’ is a VR-experience of the very fine, and I can only hope that the development will continue - also outside the realm of death
● Jakobe Performing Arts, led by Artistic Director Rebekka Bohse Meyer, is an artistic company creating music theater and performative formats, with a particular focus on interactivity and audience participation. The company creates works at the intersection of opera, performance, games, and mixed reality, exploring how new formats can expand traditional genres and engage audiences. Jakobe Performing Arts works across disciplines and in collaboration with festivals, theaters, and art institutions, driven by an ambition to find and develop new ways of communicating and experiencing music.
Live singers: Katinka Marie Frida Bohse Meyer, Kirsten Voss.
VR singers: Anne-Kristine Skov Andersen, Kirsten Voss, Stephen Yeseta,
Mathias Monrad Møller, Mikkel Tuxen.
