This new robot opera by Ulrike Quade Company, in collaboration with opera director Lisenka Heijboer-Castañon and composer Stephanie Pan, draws inspiration from Orito, a character in David Mitchell’s novel “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”.
In the book, Orito is a midwife and the only non-prostitute allowed into the Dutch East India Company trading post on Dejima Island, Japan. She is taken to a monastery to assist with births. Upon discovering the grim fate of the children she helps deliver, she decides to fight back.
Our interpretation explores existential questions about life and reimagines society’s future. At its core, Orito is an act of feminine imagination, featuring five afab performers, a Bunraku-inspired puppet, and a 3.5 m KUKA robot.
Treating the KUKA as a musical instrument, Stephanie Pan’s composition blends expressive voices, synths, industrial beats, and machinery sounds into a soundscape that is both powerful and delicate.