FULL THE FURIES: A LaptOpera (Anne Hege) Stanford 2022

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: The Furies: A LaptOpera  
• Composer: Hege Anne   
• Libretto: Anne Hege    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: CCRMA Stage, Stanford University, California  
• Recorded: November 12, 2022
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Shauna Fallihee, Sidney Chen, Anne Hege, Alice Del Simone, Seth Arnopole, Elena Georgieva, Camille Noufi, Curtis Ullerich, Nette Worthey, Matt Wright, Seth Arnopole, Elena Georgieva
• Conductor: Cole Thomason-Redus  
• Orchestra: Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk)  
• Choreographer: Carrie Ahern, Catie Cuan   
• Stage Director: Carrie Ahern, Catie Cuan   
• Stage Designer: Ge Wang  
• Costume Designer:   
• Lighting Designer: Constantin Basica, Jenessa Joffe Conductor Cole Thomason-Redus  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Ge Wang  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  PROGRAM NOTES

  (What is a laptop orchestra, you ask?)
  The laptop orchestra is a large-scale, computer-mediated ensemble that explores cutting-edge technology in combination with conventional musical contexts—while radically transforming both. This unique ensemble format comprises laptops, human performers, controllers, and custom multi-channel speaker arrays designed to provide each computer-based instrument with its own acoustic identity and presence. The orchestra fuses a powerful sea of sound with the immediacy of human music-making, capturing the irreplaceable energy of a live ensemble performance as well as its sonic intimacy. At the same time, the orchestra makes use of the computer’s capabilities to experiment with sounds, instruments, and new forms of musical expression. Offstage, the ensemble serves as a unique laboratory and classroom that explore music, computer science, interaction design, composition, and live performance.

  The Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) presents the first-ever “laptopera”. The Furies: A
  Laptopera is a retelling of the Greek tragedy Electra. Blending a number of versions of the
  Electra story including works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Jean-Paul Sartre, this
  retelling explores central questions regarding how communities escape from cycles of
  violence, the role of guilt and shame in community identity, personal responsibility, how
  justice interfaces with cycles of violence, and redemption. The artistic medium of the laptop
  orchestra both serves to recast the traditional instrumental role in a new kind of operatic
  medium (the “laptopera”) that reimagines the potential of instrument building to support
  dramatic elements and character relationships—while simultaneously positing questions
  about technology in our lives presently, both in its promise to help us flourish and in its perils
  to perpetuate and amplify the existing cycles of violence in our world today.

  Synopsis

  Generations of violence have besieged the House of Atreus. For King Agamemnon and his
  wife Clytemnestra, this begins with the sacrifice of their firstborn daughter, Iphigenia, as
  demanded by the Oracle to give favorable winds to Agamemnon’s fleet as they left Argos to
  fulfill their duties in the Trojan war. While the King is away, Clytemnestra and her lover,
  Aegisthus, conspire to murder her husband on his return. After the murder, Aegisthus and
  Clytemnestra cast out Clytemnestra’s secondborn, Orestia, who is found and raised by a
  wealthy Athenian family. Clytemnestra’s third child, Electra, remains in Argos as her mother
  and stepfather’s servant.

  Act I: Orestia returns to Argos with her tutor and attempts to find someone to help guide
  them. She encounters Electra and her maids performing a ritual at Agamemnon’s grave and
  offers to help. Clytemnestra interrupts the ritual. She demands that Electra complete her
  tasks quickly. Electra complies and covertly asks Orestia to come to the annual ceremony that
  afternoon. Orestia agrees to attend and then, alone, sings a prayer to Agamemnon.

  Act II: The townspeople hurry towards the annual Rite at the Rock, a ceremony honoring the
  death of Agamemnon and acknowledging the guilt shared by the community. Aegisthus is
  furious that Electra is late. Clytemnestra attempts to calm him, and they proceed with the
  ritual without their daughter. Electra interrupts the ritual and suggests they dance and
  celebrate living rather than guilt. All agree and begin dancing joyously until the ghosts of
  Argos noisily disrupt the ritual. The townspeople, full of fear, follow Aegisthus back to the
  palace. Electra remains, and Orestia explains that they are, in fact, sisters. Electra convinces
  Orestia that to seal their bond and unite them as a family, they must avenge Agamemnon.

  Intermission

  Act III: Castle guards hear ghostly sounds while on patrol. Aegisthus dismisses the guards and
  remains with Clytemnestra, wondering how much longer they must bear the weight of their
  guilt. Clytemnestra retires to bed, and Aegisthus sings a prayer to Apollo, asking for guidance.
  Orestia interrupts this prayer, killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. The Furies—old gods tasked
  with imposing moral law—prepare to avenge this crime, and the two sisters flee to Apollo’s
  temple for protection.
  .
  Act IV: Huddling by the altar in Apollo’s temple, Electra and Orestia hope to escape the wrath
  of the Furies. The Furies, however, surround the sisters and perform a vicious ritual. Electra
  and Orestia realize they have failed to create the new family they had hoped for by avenging
  their father. They are alone in the world. The ghosts of Agamemnon, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra,
  and Aegisthus join the Furies in a final ballet in the hopes of finding an end to this cycle of
  violence.

   

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