Opera, the paradigm of a “total work of art,” has always directed attention across music, text, image, and the human body. This talk draws on Amy Stebbins’ work to explore how contemporary opera navigates multiple sensory channels through both traditional and emerging technologies. She discusses two completed operas that demonstrate strategies for guiding audience attention, before introducing her current project, Parallax. This opera-in-development combines live music, archival materials, and immersive technologies to recover the overlooked histories of women astrophysicists at Yerkes Observatory. The talk reflects on the possibilities and challenges of extended reality (XR) in shaping perception and designing audience centered immersive opera—ultimately positioning opera as an exemplary art form for our present day.

Speaker's info:

Amy Stebbins is a writer, director, and scholar working at the intersection of opera, theatre, and new media. She has created productions, installations, and hybrid works, including VR and film–orchestra collaborations, for institutions such as the Bavarian State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her research and writing explore acting theory, identity, new opera, and the performative dimensions of prisoner rehabilitation, with publications in Seminar, Critical Social Policy, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Zeit Online, and in volumes including Music in the Digital Era (Rombach, 2024) and Theatre and Internationalization (Routledge, 2021). She has taught at leading universities and conservatories in Europe and the U.S. and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is currently part of the UKRI-funded Immersive Opera project at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.