Europeras 3 & 4
Premiered at the Detroit Opera in Detroit, Michigan
March 8, 9 and 10, 2024
This season’s site-specific operatic experience pioneered composer John Cage’s Europeras 3 & 4, which broke apart European opera tradition and reassembled it as a collage. With pre-recorded music, live singers and pianists, stage actions determined through chance operations, and a digital Europera clock taking the place of the conductor, Cage’s unpredictable, entertaining light-and-soundscape challenged your eyes and ears. Europeras 3 & 4 were presented at Detroit’s historic Gem Theatre March 8–10, 2024.
“Cage created Europeras 3 & 4 entirely of recycled materials—arias that everyone was familiar with, classics from the European repertoire,” said Sharon. “The only catch was that they were all performed at the same time. Through chance operations, singers performed arias that they selected, while pianists played transcriptions of different operas, and phonographs were playing different recordings. The result was something new and original: an exhilarating, bewildering, wonderful work. There were many experiences happening simultaneously, more similar to an installation, or like when you came to the Michigan Theater to see Bliss in 2021—it did not have to adhere to our standard ideas of narrative or experience. It could be so many different things: a true collage of things we knew and loved.”
Music by: John Cage (a 70-minute collage of opera arias)
Director: Yuval Sharon
Photos by Detroit Opera / Austin Richey