Shana Moulton has an alter ego named Cynthia, an agoraphobic hypochondriac who lives in her own virtual environment.
Cynthia is the main character of Moulton’s multimedia one-act opera, “Whispering Pines,” which follows Cynthia’s character through elaborate hallucinations and surreal fantasies. The opera opens at Memorial Hall tonight.
And as part of the Loading Dock series, the audience and the opera’s performers will share the Memorial stage.
The opera is a product of the collaboration of Moulton — a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley who received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and wrote the script — and Nick Hallett, the opera’s composer, who said the show goes beyond the traditional idea of an opera.
“I think it operates on different levels,” he said. “Her work to me is referencing the notion of a soap opera, and that opens itself up to the notion of opera.”
Hallett said that he first met Moulton when she was making her way into performance art. After he saw her work, he knew that he wanted to collaborate with her on a performance piece.
“Her works are very musical in how the stories get told,” he said. “Music offers so many different ways to help tell the story.”
Although “Whispering Pines” is called an opera, Hallett says that the term opera can often be threatening.
“Don’t be scared of the word opera here, it’s really something different,” he said.
