Operatic Scavenger-Hunt Begins in Luxembourg City 

Production company Volleksbühn's project shares the diversity of opera through augmented reality across Luxembourg City

Beginning in March 2024, Volleksbühn company’s Opera GO project is an operatic scavenger-hunt, which takes audiences on a journey through Luxembourg City through a series of shows set across outdoor and indoor locations.

According to pizzicato, the project was created by Anne Simon during a discussion with her long-term collaborator Anthime Miller (who is the project’s musical director) on how to take opera “to the streets,” and using technology to democratize its access by creating an entry point through pop culture. 

Created as a walkabout event, the shows combine live performance and extended reality (XR) with the use of participants’ individual smartphones and earphones.

Recorded with orchestra, the live music in the program is loosely based on Ambroise Thomas’ Le songe d’une nuit d’été and Mozart’s Zauberflöte at the De Gudde Wëllen bar. 

The show begins with Shakespeare’s Falstaff character celebrating the arts at his favorite local bar, before Mozart’s Queen of the Night appears. The latter’s operas have gone and the audience is set on a quest through the city to retrieve them. 

Tasks in the journey include passing through a virtual maze, and entering into a magical forest when the correct rhythm and beats are applied. 

Opera GO’s use of XR offers an enhanced awareness of the theater experience and invites audiences to interact with the material, even if they have no prior knowledge of the genre.

Upcoming shows are on March 23 and 24, 2024, and on April 10–12, 2024. Tickets are €20, and €8 for students and theater professionals. Kulturpasses are also welcome. Bookings can be made via email at: [email protected].

“It is also meant to [be educational] and on how opera is built,” Simon told Ara City Radio. “[For instance], if it weren’t for Wagner, we wouldn’t have Hollywood music like it is today … and you recognize that through interacting with the music. [This project is] really just supposed to be fun and an exploration of [opera].” 

Opera GO was created in collaboration with Lucilin, De Gudde Wëllen, CNA, and Ecole de Musique Régionale Dudelange, with the support of  Filmfund Luxembourg, Oeuvre de Secours Grande Duchesse Charlotte, Ville de Luxembourg, Fondation Indépendance, and the Ministère de la Culture.