The Appia Project and the Operatic Gesture

The APPIA PROJECT (hereinafter P.A.) represents the implementation of theories and the development of procedures in the form of a work. The work that follows presents these moments in the production of the performance, which make it possible to identify analogies and tensions with the defining characteristics of the field of experimental opera. This operatic installation was presented within the ENCLAVES performance held at the Colón Experimentation Center (CETC).

By combining the rites of the creative process with operatic gesture, a visual–sonic performance was activated, beginning from a scene from Tristan and Isolde, performed in gala form, surrounded by the icon of Wagner and the Colón as the temple of unity.

The principal characteristic of this staging is that it was performed by actors who do not know how to sing, who do not know how to read, who do not know German, and who do not know how to play an instrument. Directed by a chronometer, they deploy sensitive and symbolic readings, following schemes and markings in an unreadable score that indicates a probable, ancient, and mysterious music.