Opera, as always, embraces technology

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Deus ex machina has been something favored in opera from the start, and as much more than just a cheap plot devise. A god not only came out of the machine to solve a plot conundrum in Baroque opera, god really was in the machine. And especially in France, where spectacle was, along with Louis IV, king. Stage machines were at least as big a draw as Rameau.

In fact, opera was pretty much the first high-tech art form. When Wagner came along in the 19th century, he spoke of gesamtkunstwerke, or the concept of a total art. And opera is no technological slouch even in these days of CGI and video games.

So it is also no fluke, or joke, that Opera America has asked the head of the MIT Media Lab to address its national meeting in Boston next week. Here is where you can find out more.

-- Mark Swed