Opera at LA Union Station

[CHamilton]

Wireless headphones turn LA’s Union Station into an opera stage

An opera performance typically only requires three things: A virtuoso cast, an orchestra and an attentive audience. However, the needs of Invisible Cities, a high-tech experimental opera from The Industry and LA Dance Project include multiple antennas, an elaborate control room wired with fiberoptic cable, and dozens of wireless headphones.
That’s because the original production is performed in a public space — specifically, Los Angeles’ historic Union Station.

As an audience member participating in Invisible Cities, here’s what you get: A pair of Sennheiser headphones, tuned to a frequency broadcasting a sharp yet fragile symphony, while all around you, performers (wearing microphones and wireless headsets) mingle and wander the Union Station terminal and outdoor patios. To follow the story of Marco Polo describing his explorations to Kublai Khan, you follow actors who intrigue you, letting the audio guide you to various unexpected tableaus, all of them eventually cumulating for an epic finale at the ticket counter.

As a person who happens to be catching a train or bus from Union Station, here’s what you get: The opportunity to watch a bunch of people wearing headphones as they follow around opera singers, who are inexplicably singing into the vast space of the terminal.

 

[Dave Van]

The day I visited LA Union there was a fashion show being put on in the old ticketing area. (10/15/13 IIRC) We saw the set up and models hanging around.......nice show even though we left before the evening 'show'!!

 

[CHamilton]

The mysterious, invisible opera in LA's Union Station

Calvino's 'Invisible Cities' unfolds as a wireless dream

Except for all the antenna farms, it looked like a normal night at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles: skater kids ran to the Gold Line, shoeless transients read yesterday’s Times, businessmen yakked into phones. But in the opulent dining hall off the main concourse an orchestra tuned up for the opening strains of Invisible Cities, the operatic adaptation of Italo Calvino’s 1972 novel. As the music began with a flurry of timpani and discordant woodwinds, guests in the room heard a perfectly balanced stereo mix on Sennheiser HDR 120 wireless headphones.

 

[the_traveler]

When I start singing at LAX, for some reason there is a stampede of people leaving as quickly as possible!