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A proposal for an opera for 2009 from the Lappetites

The Lappetites is laptop group, a forum, linking sonic and digital processes in a multispeaker playground. Founded in 2002, currently its members are AGF (DE) Eliane Radique (F), Kaffe Matthews (UK) and Ryoko Kuwajima (JP). They have performed internationally and released: Before The Libretto CD (Quecksilber 2004), contact: lappetites@lappeties.com

Fathers or how he made me and what became of that.

Father is a 21st century opera made by the Lappetites working different perspectives on different lives through acousmatic composition, moving image and male opera singers, local to each performance.

During three years researching the lives of their fathers, a high ranking officer in the East German Army, an English arable farmer born on the land he still works, and a Korean business man emigrated to Japan, the Lappetites have filtered the musical genres, dance and costume from these times and places, to present a rich and melodic drama through voice, cutting edge audio processing played from a centralized playing pool.

Through nine chapters, the opera will reveal a stranded tale unfolded through an architectural map of a man living through the Cold War witnessing the fall of socialism and the loss of his belief structure: a man going to the same Saxon church on the corner for 76 years and a man of two nationalitites, both Korean and Japanese, defending one but living within the confines of the other.

CHAPTER 1 childhood / society
CHAPTER 2 work / methods of survival
CHAPTER 3 the father - daughter axis
CHAPTER 4 spirituality/ idols/ rules
CHAPTER 5 love
CHAPTER 6 the current
CHAPTER 7 body maps
CHAPTER 8 the differences
CHAPTER 9 illusion and reality

PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS / Institution of Lappetites opera
A production team including
A director/dramaturgh ????
A designer
A sound engineer capable of installing and running multichannelled sound systems
A video magician
male singer(s) form the country where the opera is staged

TECHNICAL
3 X beamers and screens
8 x channel sound system and stereo Bass bins.
1 x 24 channel analogue mixing desks with 4 prefade aux sends and 8 group outs
The audience will be within the large circle surrounding us
They will be able to walk around or sit in one spot
The multi-channelled sound system will surround that
The 3 video projection screens will be beside each other at one end of performance space



RESOURCES
1. Maps of where fathers were born.
use maps as scores, as images, as timing structures, as routes.

2. Geographical locations.
the longitude and latitude of where our fathers were born? Connect them?
what does this make? Where do we fit in? do any patterns/numbers appear? Does any of this inspire any music?

3. Performance
The lappetites individual responses to the chapter requirements produce music and image and performic events, re: SONIC GRASS

4. Interaction We individually choose whether we exploit real time image to sound /triggering linking possibilities, eg Jitter

5. Lights and atmospheres designs

6. Language