Miika Hyytiäinen’s mini-web opera premiered in Glyndebourne

 Composer Miika Hyytiäinen and director Jaakko Nousiainen have created a web opera that connects Glyndeboure Opera to three opera houses in Berlin.

You Are Here is a location specific opera by composer Miika Hyytiäinen and director Jaakko Nousiainen. The work creates a novel abstraction of the concept of the opera house by connecting interior spaces of Glyndebourne Opera to exterior spaces of the three opera houses in Berlin, Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper and Komische Oper. You Are Here was encountered as a set of six visual artworks, placed at Glyndebourne Opera house, that each contain a QR code, which can be activated with a smartphone camera. The codes connect to short opera videos, forming a virtual peephole between Glyndebourne and Berlin.

You Are Here premiered on 24th October at Glyndebourne Opera as part of Opera and the Media of the Future initiative that was launched at a two-day event held at Glyndebourne on 24th and 25th October. The event was aimed at both academics and opera/media professionals. The event consisted of a mixture of empirical / theoretical presentations and case studies, with examples of artistic work with new media, including the presentation of two mini web operas (You Are Here and RUR) commissioned specially for the event. The other opera, RUR by electronic artist Martin Rieser and composer Andrew Hugill transforms the way in which operatic works are produced and consumed. Audiences were engaged in active participation through Social Media, and the roles of the collaborators in a production were changed.