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How can we talk about musico-dramatic methods and models for operatic acting, and how do these relate to other kinds of acting? Observing the tendency of operatic professionals and peda-gogues to import concepts and ideals from theatrical and cinematic practices with non-operatic application of music, we reflect upon what possibilities and problems this discursive choice in-stils. Interestingly, while operatic practice predates many of the acting schools influencing opera today, there is an apparent lack of documented genre-specific and singer-centered methodology related to operatic acting. This observation has instigated a mutual exchange of reflections in parallel with our respective practical endeavors. As operatic practitioners, we come from simi-lar backgrounds as trained opera singers in the classical tradition, but with different explorative approaches as artistic researchers in music drama. In our view, a musico-dramatic acting methodology needs to address the core aspects of operatic acting. These aspects concern performative and interpretative as well as operative and cognitive skills. Turning our attention to the same issue from different positions has highlighted both common ground and the need for further development. By displaying the core arguments of our dialogue in annotated and recited form, we hope to raise new questions and ideas about musico-dramatic performance.

In his well-known thought experiment regarding artificial intelligence (AI), John Searle sketched out the philosophic idea of “The Chinese room” – a room in which comprehensible rules (a program) allow a person to perfectly correlate one set of unknown linguistic symbols (a question) with another (an answer) of the same unfamiliar kind. In our creation of an AI-based micro-opera for humans and machines, we have come to reflect upon our concept as an artistic response to Searle’s arguments and a mirroring complement to his debated figure. Our immersive and interactive opera was conceived as a modular series of musically paced meetings between individual visitors and a singing seeress in contact with the digital realm. As an analogy to the Delphic oracle, the seeress delivered AI-prompted answers to the visitors’ questions in real time, framed by poetical, musical, and theatrical structures. In Searle’s Chinese room, goal-oriented computational mechanisms remain detached from understanding during the linguistic operation. In our Delphic room, understanding is key for carrying out the aesthetic operations intended to artistically stimulate a coupling of intellectual and visceral information processing in open-ended and personal ways.

To probe into the artistic possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generating operatic elements, we have engaged in a practice-led inquiry as designers and artists. We took the process of prototyping a chamber opera with interactive features as our starting point, exploring how AI could work as a source of stimuli in opera productions, and how prototyping might add to the design and evaluation of AI integrated into an operatic context. Our core idea was to use AI to generate personalized lyrics in a dynamic opera libretto, based on input to the AI from individual visitors attending the operatic event. In response to visitors, the opera singer read and rendered the AI-generated text artistically in real-time and in a karaoke-like manner in accordance with the musical framework and the embodiment of the operatic character. Hence, the concept comprised both human-to-machine, machine-to-human, and human-to-human interaction. While some design elements stimulated the participating opera visitors, others stimulated the performing opera singer, supported by an informational framework composed verbally through a prototypical manuscript, audially through a prototypical accompaniment, and visually through a prototypical setting. The prototype was play-tested and evaluated in relation to our artistic intentions. The AI-based prototype added parameters to the artistic process such as sketching narrow AI for the operatic format and evaluating articulated qualities. Furthermore, we suggest that the conceptual artwork can be seen as an example of a contemporary turn in operatic evolution, with human performers forging not only bodily, but also intellectual relationships with machines.

How can microsocial rituals connected to a specific site be used as interaction templates for artistic purposes? And how can we distort such rituals artistically in order to make them memorable events? As artists, we regard distortion as the process that gives character and distinction to things and situations, as well as something that confuses and enriches information and interpretation. Through examples emerging from the operatic production Chronos’ Bank of Memories (2019–2022), set in empty shop stores with interacting visitors, we have recalled and fleshed out issues of rituality with distorted proportions. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, its production was interrupted and later on revived, which affected the work. This exposition covers aspects of both our artistic practice in general and this particular opera’s tendency to encompass distorted rituals. Commentary texts, images, and audio/video clips are arranged into an introduction and then three thematic strands in order to offer a reasoned overview of our work process.

How can live-performed chamber operas be conceptualized as immersive gameswith interactive features? This artistic study has resulted in a system model throughwhich degrees of immersion may be generated and analyzed from physical, social,and psychical stimuli. A differentiation of immersive modes has been made possi-ble by the framing of opera-making as game design. The findings indicate that so-called ludo-immersive opera could be developed into operatic chamber opera playfor self-reliant participants, constituting an intimate and alternate practice in whichdynamic game-masters may replace supervising directors. However, this practiceis entangled with the question of future training for operatic practitioners outsidethe mainstream opera format, and beyond both Wagnerian and Brechtian spec-tatorship. The shift from the traditional audience/performer relationship to a novelform of immersive interaction requires a new mind-set and preparation for operapractitioners, to encourage autonomy and active participation by individual visitors.Theoretically, the study connects recent innovations in opera to the aesthetic prin-ciples of the Apollonian and the Dionysian and positions ludo-immersive operain relation the these. The principles bridge immersion, opera, and game-playing,articulated by a reinterpretation of Roger Caillois’ taxonomy of play. The issue ofimmersion as an artistic aim in opera is highlighted. Moreover, artists’ and visitors’reciprocal participation in ludo-immersive opera is discussed in regard to its histor-ical context of operatic event-making and forms of presentation.The project explores the detailed consequences of perception and performance inchamber opera with ludic and immersive features, primarily inspired by live-actionrole playing. The main objective has been to investigate how operatic events can bepresented as immersive adventures rather than spectacles, and consequences thatthe integration of playing visitors in professional opera implies for artistic practice.In four operas created during the period 2016–2020, interventions and encountersbetween artists and visitors in musically driven situations framed by fictional set-tings have been staged and studied. The artistic researcher has iteratively beenengaged in action as opera singer, librettist, dramaturge, and director. Data from theresearch cycles include field recordings from the productions and reports from theparticipants in the form of interviews and surveys.

The development of operatic works that involve artificial intelligence (AI) is an expanding field of artistic inquiry. In order to test how AI-generated text can be used in a dynamic and responsive opera libretto, the prototypical micro-opera The Oracle was conceived and presented live at PlayLab in Skövde. The theme of the immersive opera was the myth of the Delphic oracle, with the twist that the seeress now was connected to the digital realm rather than a divine dimension. The conceptual prototype was designed with interactive features and included a rhetoric and metric model for real-time text generation, a basic musical structure, and an set design into which the participating visitors could enter one by one to meet the singing soprano oracle, who conveyed the computer’s message to the recipient. The process and the performances were documented and the design elements and the multi-sensory composition of The Oracle can be further elaborated in future artistic productions.

Tysta leken är en konceptuellt utforskande sång som utgår från ett ifrågasättande av den ritualiserade konsertformen inom konstmusiken. Syftet med det konstnärliga arbetet var att gestalta de sociala konventioner som återfinns i själva konsertsituationen. Genom att författa, komponera och framföra verket kunde temat artikuleras och bli föremål för kritisk diskussion. Arbetet resulterade i ett noterat verk med offentligt uppförande som dokumenterades genom videoinspelning.