Response to Marian's "Satyagraha Staging"

Not having had the pleasure of discussing the artistic aspects of Glass's Satyagraha in depth yesterday, I found it very interesting to read Marian's post about the class discussion on this topic. Particularly of interest to me was the concept of Satyagraha performed in the style of Disney's "It's a Small World" ride.

The first thoughts that I had about this idea go along with Marian's discussion of having an unlimited budget. The thought of some gigantic theme park-styled creation through with the audience travels during the course of several hours seems appealing if for no other reason than the uniqueness of the experience. With Glass's connection to the film industry, it is not even entirely unreasonable to conceive such feature being found at a park such as Universal Studios in Orlando. Given a limitless budget, I could see each scene as a multi-faceted experience, perhaps each scene housed in its own room. The most visual image I have is of the battlefield, with the audience vehicles weaving in and out of the factions on stage. By creating a set that is actually a multi-dimensional world for the audience to experience, you nearly guarantee that attention is held far more effectively than you might find in a more traditional staging of the opera.

These thoughts of budgetary grandeur aside, I do believe there is a slightly more feasible way to create a similar experience for an audience. If you do a broadcast such as the MET does with their HD broadcasts to movie theaters, that would create the basis for my idea. For anyone who has ever been to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, and has gone on the 4D ride in Ireland there, you will understand this concept. The film would involve 3D visual effects that could allow a perceived experience of traveling throughout the set, just as if you were in a vehicle riding among the performers. The added dimension, though, is that the seats are part of a rig that moves with what you are seeing. An example (sticking with the idea of the battlefield set): at one point, the perspective of the audience becomes an aerial one, where you are looking down on the scene unfolding beneath you: the seats actually tip forward, as if the vehicle you were in was pointed down at the set below. This also would allow more intricate perspectives for the audience than could be arranged in an actual vehicle: it would be far more difficult to have a real vehicle, perhaps on a track of some kind, soaring down from above the action. Movies would allow that to work easier.

This idea also seems fitting when considering the kind of imagery used in Koyaanisqasti, particularly the shots soaring over landscapes.