The Tokyo performance of the android opera “MIRROR,” composed and produced by Keiichiro Shibuya, will take place on Tuesday, June 18th, at Ebisu The Garden Hall. The first part of the Tokyo performance will feature two excerpts from the new opera “Super Angels,” originally premiered in 2021 at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, a collaboration between children and androids.

With less than 14 days until the performance, it has been decided to debut a new piece incorporating AI composition, marking a completely new endeavor. The first prototype of this AI-composed orchestral piece, “Who Owns This Music?”, created in collaboration with Tokyo University professor Takashi Ikegami, a 20-year collaborator of Shibuya, will be premiered as the overture of the first part. This work challenges the very concept of composition and authorship, as the vast amount of music generated by AI is edited and transformed by Shibuya, while the orchestral musicians are given the freedom to interpret the score’s phrasing. This overture symbolizes the “opera without a center/human” that the android opera concept seeks to embody.

Regarding this work, Keiichiro Shibuya commented:

“AI enables expansion beyond merely assisting human intelligence. This tendency and potential are particularly pronounced in the fields of music and art, and collaboration with AI will continue to exist in various forms as a major theme. Moreover, AI erases boundaries, nullifying the dichotomies of music and visual art, adults and children, and even disabilities. It represents an essential approach as a new form of artistic expression and a connection between technology and science, and I want to take on the challenge of practicing this within the realm of Gesamtkunstwerk (total art).”

“The world is steadily heading toward its end. The android opera consists of simulations and variations of that end and what comes after. Even if the world ends, isn’t it enough if the process and what follows are beautiful? Isn’t imagining that and celebrating it with never-ending entities like androids and AI something humanity can do right now? Presenting this as a stage work, even as the concept of the composer is coming to an end, is something I felt I could do. That was the feeling I had when creating this work.”

The visuals projected on the screen are produced by the young creators of “Dentsu Lab Tokyo,” led by up-and-coming artist Yuma Kishi. Using two generative networks developed by Kishi himself, AI learned more than one million images of angels, and the generated angelic imagery was used to create the visuals. The costumes for the children are provided by the brand “HATRA,” with whom Kishi collaborated on the “DXP2 (Digital Transformation Planet 2)” exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Like the visuals, the costumes are designed with AI-generated angel images, further enhancing the resonance between the visuals and the costumes. Additionally, for this performance, the Slovakian shoe brand “NOVESTA” has generously provided sneakers for all the children, contributing to the costumes.

Participating Artists

First Part: Super Angels excerpts.

• Concept, Composition, Piano, Electronics: Keiichiro Shibuya
• Lyrics: Masahiko Shimada
• Vocal: Android Alter 4
• Chorus: White Hand Chorus NIPPON
  (Voice Conductor: Hiroaki Kato, Sign Conductor: Erica Colon)
• Solo Violin: Rena Nagano
• Orchestra: Android Opera TOKYO Orchestra
  (Concertmaster: Tatsuki Narita)
• Android Programming: Shintaro Imai
• Video: Yuma Kishi
• Costumes (White Hand Chorus NIPPON): HATRA, NOVESTA

Second Part: Android Opera MIRROR

• Concept, Composition, Piano, Electronics: Keiichiro Shibuya
• Vocal: Android Alter 4
• Shomyo (Buddhist Chanting): Koyasan Shomyo (Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Taiko Kashihara, Hoshin Tani, Shoei Kametani)
• Orchestra: Android Opera TOKYO Orchestra
  (Concertmaster: Tatsuki Narita)
• Video: Justine Emard
• Android Programming: Shintaro Imai

Performance Details:

• Title: Android Opera TOKYO – MIRROR/Super Angels excerpts.
• Date: Tuesday, June 18, 2024, Doors Open: 18:00, Start: 19:00 (Sold Out)
• Venue: Ebisu Garden Hall (1-13 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0062)

Credits:

• Organizer: ATAK TOKYO CO, LTD.
• Co-organizer: Osaka University of Arts
• Support: TV Asahi
• Special Android Support: Art Science Department, Osaka University of Arts
• Production Support: Communication Design Center, Dentsu Lab Tokyo, Flex Co., Ltd.
• Planning, Production, and Management: ATAK TOKYO CO, LTD.
• Special Sponsor: PwC Consulting LLC
• Sponsors: POLA Inc., Sowa Delight Co., Ltd.
• Supported by Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture