DON GIOVANNI – Concert of the Vocal Chair
Concert Hall, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Warsaw, Poland, 2013
interactive visualizations: meg janus, Marta Teresa Szamburska
The idea of providing auditory sensations with an image was born as a result of a cooperation between the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Inter-University Multimedia Program. We decided to experiment in connecting audio and video with the help of modern technology, video mapping, and making image respond to sound in real time. Selected fragments of two operas: The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni became an inspiration for us to create a staged area.
Don Giovanni is music. Because (music) is much more abstract than language, but expresses this generality not in the abstract reflections, but in a concrete directness. Soren Kierkegaard
The visual background of Don Giovanni is an abstract chessboard full of meanings and symbols. This is the chessboard where Don Giovanni, the main character, plays his game of chess. Words are the starting point, not always capturing the target message. Sound and images may tell us more, but they do not form a clear interpretation. The psychological complexity of the characters led us to present their characteristics through a shape, signs, forms, black, and white. The developing events are interwoven with real and abstract motifs. The chessboard starts living a life of its own, and under the watchful eye of a force majeure, draws the characters into its game…
