OPERA ANTARCTICA

FIRST LIGHT SYMPOSIUM

1-3 July 2019

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania in Hobart

Opera Antarctic Symposium: FIRST LIGHT is an initiative of CALE Creative Fellow, Professor Mary Finsterer. In early July 2019, this two-day symposium brought together experts from the fields of music, humanities, cultural studies and science to research intersections between these disciplines and explore novel ways of reimagining them that are relevant to contemporary concerns specific to the continent of Antarctica. More specifically, the symposium offered an opportunity for librettist, Tom Wright and composer, Mary Finsterer, to connect with science in a quest to envision the opera, ANTARCTICA, in an authentic and fascinating way drawing upon the extensive research that has been undertaken of this most mysterious continent. "It is my intention of to create an interdisciplinary work that articulates and integrates science across the various structural levels of the composition and in doing so, explore music’s uniquely affective power to reveal science to itself in unexpected forms.” the composer explains.

More broadly, participating researchers were able to develop an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional network, and establish a collaborative research which will satellite around the opera, ANTARCTICA. Entitled CIRCUMPOLAR, this collaborative research will examine the transformational capacity of music and science in the form of an installation.

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