Lady M

Sound Design & Electronics for the Lady M (2020) by the Heartbeat Opera @ EMPAC.

Through the eyes of opera’s most thrilling anti-heroine, Lady M is a nightmare-fantasia of Verdi’s Macbeth, featuring six singers, including a trio of soloists as the shapeshifting Weird Sisters, six instrumentalists, and electronic sound design. Stripping away the clichés that have accumulated around Lady Macbeth and her story, this version explores ambition, gender, and violence through a contemporary American lens. Music Director Jacob Ashworth, Arranger Daniel Schlosberg, and Sound & Electronics Designer Senem Pirler collaborate to breathe fresh life into Verdi’s music.

Event page: https://empac.rpi.edu/program/curatorial/residencies/2020/heartbeat-opera

“This New York opera company was scheduled to come to EMPAC at the end of our spring season to develop a new reordered and reorchestrated version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, here renamed Lady M. The company was to use their time at EMPAC to collaborate with sound artist Senem Pirler, creating the supernatural sound of the witches—manipulating their voices through electronic processing. In light of COVID-19, this collaboration happened online.”