P3D 3D Opera Glasses

[Harold Kaiman <hkaiman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This article is paraphrased from the March/April 1999 issue of Technology
Review(page 92).  I saw the article and thought it might interest others:
        "Over the years, 3-D movies have tended toward the cheesy. Then again,
Monsters of Grace, a self
styled "digital opera in three dimensions," does make use of cardboard
polarizing specs, albeit designer ones,
combining them with the latest in computer animation technology to create a
distinctly high-art multimedia event.
This production--now concluding a 28 city tour of North America-- reunites
designer-director Robert Wilson and composer
Philip Glass, whose 1976 collaboration, Einstein on the Beach, is a cultural
landmark.

        Though much praised abroad, Robert Wilson's theatrical meditations on
space and time have seldom been seen by American audiences
partly because of the expense of mounting them.  Producer Hedediah Wheeler
suggested a 3D digital animated film as a more portable means of disseminating
Wilson's vision.  Live performances by Glass and his musical and vocal
ensemble
accompany the 78 minutes of visuals, which constitute the first ever feature
length movie using 3-D animation.
        
        The procession of surreal imagery in 13 tableaux is positively
Wilsonian. The high resolution, 70mm film provides a reach even grander that
the stage-front-to-stage-rear palette of lighting effects and dream-like
pantomimes for which Wilson is known.
 
        The work is showing, beginning this month, in Los Angeles (where it
debuted last April), Portland, Sacramento, Berkeley, Ann Arbor, and Toronto.

        A computer-generated child pedals a bicycle seemingly out among the
glasses wearing audience at a slow pace.  A pure white ball of texture hovers
above the audience and mutates into a dozing polar bear.  A giant synthetic
hand juts out beyond the proscenium, appearing to originate just a few rows
ahead of the viewer.  In this truly
remarkable piece based on the 13th century mystical poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi,
the fingers floating this side of the theatrical arch (window?) are digitally
transcendent, in every sense."

Vincent Chan writes :
There are two performances, on Apr. 24 & 25th, 8:00pm at Roy Thomson Hall in
Toronto. 
You can check out a description at Toronto.com, or at www.roythomson.com.

  



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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 3289
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