The Haus der Musik (House of Music), a sound museum run by the Wien Holding company, is offering visitors a unique music and stage experience from October 2012 onwards, the virto|stage project, featuring two virtual stage models where both children and adults can experience opera from the perspective of the actual performers.

“As a modern, interactive sound museum, we are famous for constantly offering new and innovative ways to investigate music,” explains director Simon K. Posch. “The pioneering virto|stage project will not only add an installation that is unique around the world to our existing display, but will also give us a leading role in the international debate about new ways of actively using multimedia to increase access to music and opera.” The interactive installation spread over the entire fourth floor of the Haus der Musik is being set up in collaboration with the media artist Johannes Deutsch, the music strategists Nick & Clemens Prokop, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the soprano Natalia Ushakova and the interaction designer Stefan Schilcher.

When music, song and vision become one

The virto|stage 1 will transform an entire floor in the Haus der Musik into a virtual, interactive and multimedia theatre where the opera zeitperlen, which was specially composed for the project, will be performed. Visitors will see how the interactive combination of music, song and vision actually works, experiencing opera from the perspective of the performers. As soon as you enter the virtual opera house, you see yourself faced with boxes and galleries on a huge screen. You are immersed in a fascinating world of sound, guiding what happens on stage by moving your hands, legs or whole body and thus becoming a stage director yourself. In this way, the principle behind the sound museum of enabling music to be experienced with all the senses will be implemented in a novel way.

Making opera attractive

All over the world, various attempts are being undertaken to make the 400-year-old art form of opera attractive for future audiences. With the ‘zeitperlen virto|stage’ project, contemporary artists are developing a complete work of art that does away with conventional ideas of genre and in which the visitors themselves become an indispensable part of the staging. Media artist Johannes Deutsch says: “Artists have the duty to take on and develop modern art forms, such as media art.”

‘Zookonzert’ for kids

There will be a second, similarly constructed stage especially for children, where children’s author Marko Simsa will present his virto|stage work Zookonzert, with the youngsters deciding themselves what happens on stage. “This fantastic installation will take the Haus der Musik onto a new level,” says Wien Holding managing director Peter Hanke. “Together with other sponsors, Wien Holding is investing a total of around € 500,000 in the project.”