Spatial Opera Company
The members of Spatial Opera Company — composer/performer Rūta Vitkauskaitė (Lithuania), soprano Åsa Nordgren (Sweden), and composer Jens Hedman (Sweden) — first began collaborating in 2010, united by an interest in heightening audiences’ non-visual senses during operatic performances. This has led to a body of work that fully immerses the listener within sonic environments.
For over a decade, the Company have been working on experimental sound explorations, exploring surround-sound and perceptions of diverse sound vibrations. They meet regularly in Lithuania and Sweden for opera development and creation.
In 2013, they premiered their first work, ‘Deep Ocean’ (originally entitled ‘Whale Opera’).
Joining forces in 2015 with the independent Lithuanian production house Operomanija, led by Ana Ablamonova, the Company further developed their approach, completely negating visual senses for ‘Confessions’. Additionally, rather than relying primarily on the natural acoustics of performance spaces, this opera employs technological means to distribute sounds via a multichannel, surround-sound speaker arrangement.
With their second opera, ‘Mediation Opera’ (2019), Spatial Opera Company have delved deeper into the healing and mentally impactful properties of sound, researching the effects on both body and mind.
Embarking on further in their explorations, the Company are further looking into the intricacies of reverb and resonance. Research from scientific and spiritual perceptions (especially acknowledging the importance of sound and music in pre-historic communities) and developing a work which could transform our modern listener into more acoustically aware mind-space. The end result of this research will be a VR opera (3D and surround-sound), pre-recorded in some of the most acoustically intriguing places in Europe.
Spatial Opera Company works were presented in various venues across Sweden, including the Geige (2012) and Norbeg (2013) festivals; multiple performances across Lithuania including the NOA festival; in the Round Chapel (London, UK), Rotterdam Operadagen (NL), Leipzig Buchmesse, and other venues across Europe. In 2016 the group was awarded The Golden Stage Cross from the Lithuanian State and The Musical Nail of The Year from The Lithuanian Composers Union.
Deep Ocean (2013)
An earlier piece, Deep Ocean explored the sounds of underwater whale communication. Initially staged within an abandoned mine site at the Norbergfestival in Sweden, the Company used the heavily reverberant space there to create the effect of a diffused sonic environment, creating a feeling as if the listener was inside an aquarium. The work was later presented at as part of a Human Threads exhibit, hosted by Artlink Scotland at Tramway in Glasgow, and was a combination of whale song, voice and violin. It is one of the first works by SOC, which has now developed into multiple experimental opera projects, all based on the idea of spatial-sound travel.
Duration: 30 minutes.
Format: concert (live and electronics) in a reverberant space (or added reverb)
Performers: 3 (soprano, violin, electronics)
Confessions (2015)
Confessions was inspired by an interest in spatial-acoustic sound and its impact on the human imagination. It is a spatial opera performed in the dark, focusing on the expansion of possibilities offered by the acoustic surroundings. The seven parts of the Confessions are concerned with the seven cardinal sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. ‘Confessions’ combines diverse ideas of creative experiments: incorporation of other human senses (smell, touch) along with a complete removal of vision. It engages abstract audio images and concrete pre-recorded sounds that produce strong mental imagery which are linked to feelings, sensations or objects. Produced by Operomanija in 2016, ‘Confessions’ was awarded the Golden Stage Cross and the Musical Nail of The Year award from the Lithuanian Composer’s Union. It has been performed in various venues and at different festivals in Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
Duration: 63 minutes
Format: music performance (live with electronics) for 43 blindfolded audience members seated in a circle, surrounded by 7 speakers and lights.
Performers: 3 (soprano, violin, multi-instrumentalist)
Producer: Operomanija
Photo slide: Ilmė Vyšniauskaitė, Jurgis Sakalauskas, Martynas Aleksa, Ana Ablamonova
Meditation Opera (2019)
The interactive ‘Meditation Opera’ is a community experience, which includes separate mindfulness and sound awareness training in the evening, to be followed by a music performance in which our audience takes an active part. The opera is an artistic movement through various meditation and mindfulness techniques, exploring Chakra frequencies, an awareness of breathing, yoga and bodily sensations, a tribal ritual exploring the symbolism behind colours and the elements of water, fire, earth and air. The idea was developed at a summer-residency at DAR Druskininkai, with a trial performance in Merkines Piramide, Lithuania in 2019. It premiered at Halland Opera & Vocal Festival (HOVF) in Halmstad, Sweden, in February 2020.
Duration: 60 min. workshop + 60 min. performance
Format: instructions for audience on yoga mats for workshop; instructions and music performance (live with electronics) for audience on yoga mats for opera, surrounded by 4 speakers and lights.
Performers: 3 (soprano, violin, multi-instrumentalist)
Photo slide: Malin Arnesson, Rūta Vitkauskaitė, Michael Idehall
