The Welsh National Opera is bringing a free, no booking required virtual reality experience to Cardiff Bay. Situated in a shipping container designed by a designer for the National Eisteddfod, it offers an opportunity to be immersed in a VR reimagining of scenes from The Magic Flute and Madam Butterfly, the amalgamation of these two operas being aptly titled Magic Butterfly. The installation will be placed outside the Millennium Centre for four weeks. The WNO are clearly proud of the project, as the shipping container will be taken to Llandudno, then back to Cardiff from Sat 23 Sept – Sat 14 Oct, before being shown off around England and culminating in an appearance at the V&A in London in January next year.
Utilising Google Daydream technology, the experience will combine the use of motion capture, animation, and music to create a responsive VR session. Building from WNO’s 2016 digital light installation WNO Field, the company seems to be putting money where their mouth is in bringing opera into the 21st century. With the award-winning augmented reality and VR production agency REWIND hired to develop Magic Butterfly, it should be a rather polished experience.
The content of the experience is split into two rather different sessions. The first portion of the proceedings seems to stress the emotional reaction to opera through experiencing the visual and auditory power of an opera performance, featuring a recording of Un bel di from WNO’s own production of Madam Butterfly. The second half seems to focus on the physicality of opera. It is a more interactive fare, a recording of How soft, how strong your magic sound from The Magic Flute accompanying lion taming in a magical forest.
The differences in these two sessions showcase varied aspects of an operatic experience, and seem to appeal to various demographics. This is ultimately the driving force behind the project, being less an overt advertisement for the work of the WNO and more an effort to introduce what opera stands for to new audiences across the country. It should be a good time to experience some free VR, free opera, and perhaps feel a little more cultured upon leaving.
Magic Butterfly VR Experience, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Fri 14 July-Fri 11 Aug. Admission: free. Info: 029 2063 5000 / www.wno.org.uk
words EDWARD LEE
