teamLab's kaleidoscopic laser light scenography for opera 'turandot' lands in tokyo

teamLab creates a light-infused opera experience

Art collective teamLab’s scenography creates a light-infused opera experience in a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s final opera Turandot, slated for a Tokyo performance from February 23rd to 26th, 2023 at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. The Tokyo performances follow the world premiere, which took place at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva last June 2022. For this production, teamLab worked extensively with Stage Director Daniel Kramer to curate a scenography that would unite Kramer’s interpretation of Turandot and teamLab’s artistic prowess.

teamLab adopts virtual light planes to create the feel and look of three-dimensional light sculptures above the stage, amplifying the chaos a scene might call for. Other times, the projected lasers are hazy, subtle, and abstract, creating a sense of pure calm and tranquillity, while infusing haunting beauty and trepidation. The scenography extends the opera out into audience space to create the feeling that the audience is in, and a part, of the performance.

images courtesy of teamLab | header photo © Magali Dougados

When the stage rotates, an ethereal realm shows up through the kaleidoscopic, diamond-shaped light play, alluring the audience to its seductive yet suggestive visual of trickery and deception. The staging helps a character deal with his complexes and fears as he goes through a strange, disorientating, kaleidoscopic world.

teamLab Architects produced ideas and plans for the stage with simple yet enticing geometry that was enhanced by teamLab’s digital light artworks. The revolving set makes use of glass and acrylic, reflective surfaces, and combinations of soft white and stretchy black materials. Singers perform in spaces that have different visual qualities due to the reflection and absorption of light.

photo © Magali Dougados

Immersed in the sculptural space of light

Over the course of five years, Kramer and teamLab discussed and considered lots of notions, new interpretations, analogies, and symbolism, as well as how each scenario would be visually expressed. teamLab’s light sculptures and digital art transcend the idea of opera and produce an immersive operatic experience, at times igniting a frenzy and at other times portraying a delicate subconscious realm.

The cast is immersed and unified in the sculptural space of light, and the boundaries between the stage and the audience are ambiguous, transporting the audience into the opera space along with the cast. With Kramer’s arrival in Tokyo, rehearsals for the production began on January 18. Standing before the entire cast, Kramer commented on his bold new interpretation of the classic opera.

rehearsal during geneva show | photo © Magali Dougados

‘This is a gigantic, thrilling piece of opera, conceived with teamLab – whose technology does not belong in the normal opera house! To be able to work with teamLab and Puccini – at his best, at the end of his life, the last notes he wrote as a human being, an artist truly at the height of his wisdom – it is an incredible opportunity to do this art form that we committed our lives to on the largest global scale possible,’ says Kramer. ‘Let us give people the most unbelievable Turandot of their lives. We need new opera audiences now more than ever – and this opera makes the young audiences say ‘I didn’t know opera could do that!’’

photo © Magali Dougados