Orbit – A War Series
Brigitta Muntendorf is one of the most influential composers of her generation. With Orbit - A War Series, she has created an impressive space oratorio for AI voice clones, 3D audio and electronics. Light effects, electronic sounds, voices and soundscapes from more than 40 loudspeakers surround the audience in this sensual and political ‘opera of the future’. While the history of opera has thematised experiences of violence and power between men and women for centuries, in this performance the musical spaces form the acoustic habitat of those voices that have left their bodies behind.
Premiered at the Venice Biennale in 2023, the work celebrates its Berlin premiere on 2 April at the Humboldt Forum in cooperation with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
Orbit - A War Series is a work commissioned by the Venice Biennale 2023, developed by composer Brigitta Muntendorf together with Moritz Lobeck in collaboration with d&b audio and the Ukrainian voice cloning company Respeecher. Artificial intelligence, sound synthesis and deep learning technologies create digital voices and vocals. They appear like physical objects in the room - in different constellations and at different speeds - and thus create a listening experience that appeals to our inner images.
The title is a reference to the New York artist Nancy Spero. Deeply moved by the Vietnam War, she examined the female body in the Vietnam War as a theatre of demonstrations of power and violence in her work series ‘The War Series’ (1966-70) with 150 pictures. Muntendorf takes up this theme and transforms it into a multidimensional listening experience of terrifying topicality.
Orbit- A War Series is a production of La Biennale di Venezia and ECHO Factory with the kind support of the Kunststiftung NRW, the Goethe-Institut and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
Brigitta Muntendorf's music theatre production Melencolia will also open the MaerzMusik 2025 festival at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 21 March, also in cooperation with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 April 2025 at 7.00 pm | Humboldt Forum
You can find more information about this event here.