'HEROpera is a waving clash opera with intergalactic fembots, soundboms and snippets of cultural codes.
This futuristic ~ stream of consciousness ~ experiment gets you into trance, makes you sweat and makes you laugh.
It’s crazy, bold, reckless, stirring, and shiny at the same time.

Trickster plays with the boundaries of opera, sound, language, gender, technology, human kind and whatnot.
Through their stereotype mix up, language mash up and mind twisted ad hoc performances you experience a whole new set of aria’s!

Don’t mis out on the beautiful space desert projections and sparkling costumes.
It’s fun, it’s fem, it’s 5 of them!'

by: Maaike Bol (writer)

Photo's by Koos Siep

Photo's by Koos Siep

Zag vanavond in Ostadetheater in Amsterdam de werkelijk adembenemende voorstelling: HEROPERA door TRICKSTER. Verwarrend, vernieuwend, verwonderend!
Te goed om te missen, dus GAAN!

Facebook post by :Robin Kolleman (visual artist)

'The performance was so gripping I forgot to photograph so go and see it in real!!'

Facebook post by Karin Arink (visualartist)

Pictures by Annelous van Toor

Pictures by Annelous Van Toor

HERO/PERA is an improvised, ‘ad-lib’ performance deconstructing the concept of opera and challenging traditional ideas about heroism and storytelling. Sparked by speculative fiction and rooted in various disciplines, TRICKSTER plays around with the cultural and visual codes of opera, practising the relational, the messy, the spontaneous, the unpredictable. Instead of tragic heroines who sacrifice or annihilate themselves, this opera stages five women who can conjure up something on the spot, and are not afraid of not knowing (yet). Non-heroism and the unseen therefore also takes in a big space in this collective 'work' (operare). While venturing into a post-normal future, all TRICKSTERs are collaboratively and simultaneously the actors, singers, writers, scenographers, composers and technicians of this show.

‘HERO/PERA’ is een dialoog met onzekerheid. We zullen ons een weg moeten voorstellen uit deze post-normale tijden. Onze menselijke toekomst af van de omvang van onze vindingrijkheid. Omdat onze verbeelding vaak ingebed is en beperkt tot onze eigen cultuur, zullen we verbeeldingskrachten moeten vrijmaken uit de rijke diversiteit van (on)menselijke culturen.

HERO/PERA is een 'ad-lib' performance waarin het operamedium wordt gedeconstrueerd en traditionele ideeën over heldendom en storytelling op de snijtafel worden gelegd. Geworteld in verschillende disciplines en geïnspireerd door speculatieve fictie speelt performance collectief TRICKSTER met de culturele en visuele codes van opera. In plaats van tragische heldinnen die zichzelf opofferen, brengt deze opera vijf vrouwen ten tonele die ter plekke iets kunnen fabriceren en niet bang zijn voor het (nog) niet weten. Non-heroïek, het ongeziene en het normale krijgen daarom ook een plaats in dit collectieve 'werk' (operare). Zich wagend in een post-normale toekomst, zijn ze gezamenlijk en gelijktijdig de acteurs, zangers, schrijvers, scenografen, componisten en technici van de show.
... een futuristisch operadrama verweven met onvoorstelbare aria's door zowel mensachtige computerstemmen als computerachtige menselijke zangers.

“Without war there are no heroes."
"What harm would that be?"
"Oh, Lavinia, what a woman's question that is.”

- from: Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin


HERO/PERA (revisited) is a dialogue with uncertainty. Our human future depends on the extent of our ingenuity. Because our imaginations are often embedded and limited to our own culture, we will have to release imaginations from the rich diversity of (in)human cultures. In order to develop creative, complex and collaborative competences, we need to revise both our idea of ​​the "self" and our position within a larger planetary structure.

HERO/PERA is an improvised, ‘ad-lib’ performance deconstructing the concept of opera and challenging traditional ideas about heroism and storytelling. Sparked by speculative fiction and rooted in various disciplines, TRICKSTER plays around with the cultural and visual codes of opera, practising the relational, the messy, the spontaneous, the unpredictable. Instead of tragic heroines who sacrifice or annihilate themselves, this opera stages five women who can conjure up something on the spot, and are not afraid of not knowing (yet). Non-heroism and the unseen therefore also earn their spot in this collective ‘work’ (operare). While venturing into a post-normal future, all TRICKSTERs are collaboratively and simultaneously the actors, singers, writers, scenographers, composers and technicians of this show….. a futuristic operatic drama intertwined with inconceivable aria’s by both human-like computer voices and computer-like human singers.

TRICKSTER member, Composer Barbara Ellison, was given the space within the Gesamtkunstwerk HEROPERA to use and develop her recent work “CyberOpera a Trans-Human Opera in Three Acts” as a musical basis for HEROPERA.