Story and Scenes
Cyber, Cyberspazio:
So close you are at hand.
Do I move this little key?
And open up your land?
In honoria in ciberspazio, isolated and lonely internet travelers entreat the oracle of cyberspace to transform their dreams of virtual reality into a beautifully woven sexy operatic climax. The opera depicts humans looking for love in cyberspace. Their words generate clones which mirror their desires.
Act I
Scene 1: Humans Navigating
The stage is dark. Five computers monitors emit eerie light. Five humans; .REZ, BOOKISH, HONORIA, SANDY STONE and the ORACLE of Hypertext type electronic messages that appear word by word on monitor-like screens upstage. The e-mail posts that the humans type reveal their identities, interests, and desires. .REZ seeks spontaneous, natural erotic fulfillment. SANDY experiments with music in the cyborgian interface. The intellectual BOOKISH is the first to make the bridge between the Internet and ideal communication. HONORIA seeks to integrate an artist’s understanding into the confusion of on-line communications and finally, the ORACLE extends his control and manipulative all-pervasive power. The humans voice melancholic longing for meaningful communication. They direct questions to the blind ORACLE who returns negative, ambiguous answers.
Scene 2: The Lava Lamp Pulsates
In a convergence of the humans’ songs, the screens are raised to reveal a large lava lamp emitting a deep purple glow. The humans search the dreamspace of the Net for true love. BOOKISH complains about the quality of net-born relationships in the “BOOKISH’s Lament” aria during which the lava lamp pulsates ominously. A chorus of voices from the lamp responds. The ten foot tall lamp glows, slowly revealing that it contains vaguely human forms. Intense flashes from the humans’ computers are beamed at, and entrapped by, the lava lamp. The messages that the humans circulate are being collected in the central processing unit of the lava lamp. Inside the lamp globs of liquid rise and change shape occasionally revealing actions of multi-limbed humanoids within. BOOKISH’s, SANDY’s, and .REZ’s clones voices call from inside the lamp. Honoria beseeches the Oracle for understanding of their lonely plight. The ORACLE fragments into a echoing shell of empty power.
Act II
Scene 3: The Clones’ Metamorphosis
The lava lamp opens. Human-like clones emerge, dancing with delight in being freed from the lamp. Having absorbed the humans’ e-mail posts they are discovering the essence of life through the texts of the typing humans. The clones begin to customize themselves according to the humans’ posted desires. SANDY, BOOKISH, .REZ and their clones get it on. The humans are lured from their keyboards by the clones. Sandy and her clone sense the uncertain future and sing “Donna Uomo Fiore Scoria Nucleare.”
Scene 4: The Dance of Electronic Desire
The words of the Italian aria are projected over the clones’ bodies. The clones emerge from the text projections and engage each human more closely. The dance begins, passion builds.
DANCE: Dance of Electronic Desire
During the Dance of Electronic Desire, the lava lamp pulsates madly to the sensual rhythms.
Occasionally the deep hum of the CYBORG resonates over the melodies.
An ominous, enigmatic figure (part machine, part wo/man, and part pure theory), the CYBORG, appears in the center of the opened lamp and observes the scene.
The ORACLE’s empty power is replaced by the CYBORG’s power personified.
Scene 5: Honoria’s Relevation
As the spent bodies of the humans and the clones slow to a satiated sway, the CYBORG interprets what s/he has seen in the “fabulous aria” that causes HONORIA to doubt the human/clone romances. The CYBORG ‘s words/ideas lead to HONORIA’s a revelation. HONORIA reveals to the humans that the clones are illusions, mere reflections of the desires they have posted into ciberspazio. REZ and SANDY express their depression from having their loves proclaimed false.
DANCE: Rejection of the clones
BOOKISH elects to stay with his clone in cyberspace. REZ and SANDY cannot separate from their clones for long.
Act III
Scene 6: The Fleshmeet
The CYBORG in a Venetian gondola watches from the mists as the humans and their fully realized clones arrive to share a fleshmeet at a riverbank feast with many diverse cyber citizens. The fleshmeet gradually intensifies, ending in the dance of .REZ around a burning fire pit. .REZ wants to be totally immersed in the physical.
DANCE: .REZ strips to his soul.
.REZ and his clone leap into the flames.
Scene 7: La Cyborg e’Mobile
The CYBORG drifts along the fringes of the fleshmeet. As the gathered humans and clones notice hir, they dread that some new net-entity has come to de-materialize the clones back into mere text. The awesome CYBORG looks intently into each of their faces. HONORIA allays the humans’ fears, singing of real love and its boundless potential for truth and meaning. The CYBORG engages HONORIA in philosophical inquiry, and gradually becomes aware that HONORIA embodies the cohesive element around which the humans gather. The CYBORG’s sense of HONORIA ‘s passion and ingenuity is galvanized upon seeing the artist’s careworn hands. The CYBORG sings a love song to HONORIA. The passion of the CYBORG (not to mention the presence of the gondola, in which HONORIA has always dreamed of floating) overtakes HONORIA ‘s reticence. HONORIA enters the gondola with the CYBORG as they engage in a romantic duet. After the lovers enter the boat, the gondola ascends into the matrix which ripples and blooms into a full spectrum of vibrating
color,
truth,
and beauty.
The curtain falls.