As part of the 4th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera, One Ounce Opera is happy to announce the American Premiere of The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Robot, from composer Pedro Finisterra and librettist Edward Einhorn (both of which will be in the house opening night!). The cast — Julie Silva (Orgo), Robert LeBas (Kingo), Angela Irving (Calco), Brian Minnick (Cleano) and Carmen Johnson (Sally) — wiggled out of their robot gear to pen these questions for the creators:
Can you tell us how this whole story started, the forms that it took along the way (in searching, we noticed a puppet show!), and how all that happened?
Edward: I originally wrote the puppet play version of this story for a festival called NEUROfest, held in New York in 2006. The idea was that Orgo was a boy on the spectrum, or as it was more commonly called at the time, he had Asperger’s. It was performed as part of the NEOROfest and then performed again as part of an evening called Brains and Puppets, which included another puppet play about synesthesia. When Pedro and I were pitching ideas for our Opera Writing Masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, we picked this as one of our ideas. There were a few reasons–I knew Pedro was interested in stories for children and stories with a sci fi element. Pedro also was diagnosed with Asperger’s when young, so I felt he would be the perfect composer for it. The staff chose this idea for our project, and we went from there. The origin of the story is sort of hidden beneath it, but the story is just a story…it can live on its own, with or without the subtext about being on the spectrum.
Pedro: “The Boy Who Wanted to be a Robot” is the final project of a Master’s degree in Opera Making & Writing that Edward (as a librettist) and I (as a composer) did at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, United Kingdom, during the academic year of 2017/2018. After some time brainstorming ideas, we came up with four (some of them later on were used by Edward in some of his other projects) that we pitched to the heads of Guildhall’s opera department and they picked this one.Even though this piece is an adaptation of Edward’s puppet play, it almost feels to me as a reboot of a media franchise, as this version adds new characters and recycles some important plot events in different ways while still maintaining its essence (yes, Edward and I talked a lot about comic books, movies and video game franchises while brainstorming ideas for this project, as reboots are very common in these mediums). To add up to this, this is a piano version of the opera we presented in London, as the original one made use of an ensemble of 10 performers.
In both the opera and the play that seems to have inspired it, physical contact is not allowed between humans and robots (although Kingo seems to be exempt from that rule), and the robots seem to hold humans in lower regard. Is this simply a byproduct of their logical nature and emotional incompetence as robots, or is there something that happened in their world before this that led to this sort of hierarchical setup?
Edward: For me, the physical contact aspect of the story was partially inspired by the fact that children on the spectrum often have difficulty with physical contact. Temple Grandin famously created a hug machine for herself, so she fulfill her desire to be hugged without the discomfort. In the robot world, hugs are connected to an emotional element they simply find unnecessary. Much like the Wild Child who grew up in the forest, Orgo grows up unused to physical contact, which makes it uncomfortable for him. I was also playing off the trope of the robots or puppets who long to be human, because being human is superior (sometimes we call the show a Pinnochio story in reverse). So in my story, it is the robots who feel themselves to be obviously superior. And of course Orgo, as a child, wants to be like everyone around him, so he sees them as superior as well.
Pedro: Well… even though robots are in control of the world during the events of this opera, they are not necessarily “antagonists” to humanity. On the contrary: they have been trying to save humanity through eugenics because humanity almost got extinct. What is not clear is why they are doing it, as they do not rule themselves by human moral codes, nor feel emotions. Because humans feel emotions and robots are not programmed to comprehend them, only to behave and process information logically, they see these emotions as barriers for logic reasoning. A good example to illustrate this “amoral code” would be why Kingo (SPOILER ALERT) changes his mind regarding Orgo, as to him it’s more important not to create a “broken organic unit” than to save humanity. Although, him changing his mind about something reveals about him an almost human side… Who knows if Kingo is not a cyborg himself?! Or a robot upgraded with organic features. That could explain his motivations…Regarding physical contact, it’s not that touch isn’t permitted between humans and robots, but because human physical contact is heavily driven by emotional reasons (comfort, protection, empathy, sensuality, love, etc.), there is no point for robots to share physical contact for those reasons. I imagine that physical contact in robot society could be motivated more probably for the exchange of information/data, just like ants touch their antennas to transmit hormones that contain useful information for the rest of the colony’ survival.
Sally references there only being 500 humans left. Are those spread out across somewhere or are they all in the same location? Is she the only “real human” living in our story’s current location?
Edward: I always envisioned that there was a large outpost of humans in a few days walking distance away, and maybe a few others scattered around the planet. But of course that is fully up to interpretation.Pedro: If humans are not living all in the same location, I assume they at least have to live in a few communities that are aware of each others’ existences. That would be the reason why Sally is able to give a number to Orgo. There might be other surviving humans living in isolated communities, in which case this number would be higher, but there would be no way to know how much higher. I don’t know if she is the only human living in this story’s location, but I am sure that, if the robots chose her for this task, that must mean that, according to their algorithms, she alone is indeed the best shot for getting around this boy’s stubbornness!
Sally seems to be seeking connection as much as, or even more than, Orgo. What did you intend to be the primary drivers of that search?
Edward: Sally is looking for a connection, but even more essentially, she’s hoping for the survival of the human race. She wants Orgo to connect to her, because by doing so, he becomes incorporated into the human race. She is trying to demonstrate what it is to be human, and a large part of that is emotional connection.
Pedro: I see Sally as a person divided between her duty towards humanity, but at the same side thrilled to finally meet a new human, even if a genetically engineered one. Just like Kingo has an agenda, so does she. However, she gets attached to this fascinating and eccentric child, which is probably why (SPOILER ALERT AGAIN), in the end, she lets Orgo get transformed, at the cost of her completely loosing hope on humanity’s salvation. She is the character that suffers and looses the most in this opera, as she has witnessed the fall of humanity (or at the very least has been living its consequences), and then, when she was finally given hope (through Orgo, even if he had this childish dream of becoming a robot himself), she ultimately fails on changing his mind and preventing the robots transforming him. She not only seeks connection, but in a way, salvation. That is what Orgo means to her.
Even though the end of the opera is (in humanity’s perspective) sad and/or nihilistic, because we are following Orgo’s perspective (which is, as any normal child his age, self centered), it is functionally a happy ending. Orgo doesn’t get exactly what he wanted, but gets close to it (as he is turned into a cyborg instead of a “full robot”), and by accepting it he is finally able to feel happiness and a genuine connection to both Sally and the robots. In the original puppet play, because he is actually turned into a robot, I don’t think that in the end he is happy. I would say that he just… is.
Edward Einhorn is a playwright, director, translator, librettist, and novelist. His work has been performed in New York venues such as La MaMa, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HERE Arts Center, The New Ohio, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Walter Bruno Theater at Lincoln Center, and the Bohemian National Hall. Outside of New York, his work has been done at Peckham Asylum Chapel (London), Wigmore Hall (London), Milton Court at the Barbican (London), Forth Worth Opera (Fort Worth, Texas), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles), and the Czech Embassy (Washington, DC). He is the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company No. 61: A Theater of Ideas – a New York independent theater company.
Recent shows include The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, a comic farce about the lives of Stein and Toklas, which received a Critic’s Pick from the co-chief reviewer of The New York Times, Jesse Green; The Neurology of the Soul, which examined the nexus between neuroscience, marketing, art, and love; The Iron Heel, an adaptation of Jack London’s socialist dystopic novel from 1908; City of Glass, an adaptation of the neo-noir novel by Paul Auster; Money Lab, an economic vaudeville combining multiple performance disciplines (dance, opera, puppetry, cabaret, clowning, and interactive games); The Velvet Oratorio, an opera/theater piece commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution; The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig, an adaptation of Havel’s final theatrical work; Rudolf II, a play about the 16th Century Holy Roman Emperor in Prague; The God Projekt, a puppet play about the origin of monotheism; and a stage adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The New York Times has called his work “exquisitely ingenious”, “dramatically shrewd,” and “almost unbearably funny”; Time Out has called it “challenging, thought-provoking,” “mesmerizing,” and “startlingly intense”; and The Village Voice has called it “hilarious, provocative,” and “Inspired absurdist comedy”. He has received a Sloan Grant, SEED Magazine’s Revolutionary Mind Award, The NY Innovative Theater Award for Best Performance Art Production of the Year, NYTheater.com’s Person of the Year Award and placement in their Indie Theater Hall of Fame, 2nd Prize from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundations Playwriting Competition, a fellowship from American Opera Projects, and Critic’s Picks in Time Out, The Village Voice, and The New York Times.
He has a BA in Writing from Johns Hopkins and an MA in Opera Writing – Librettos from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. www.edwardeinhorn.com
Born in 1994, Lisbon, Portugal, Pedro Finisterra studied Guitar, Piano, Singing, Double Bass and Composition (with Jorge Pereira) at Conservatório de Música de Santarém, having concluded his secondary studies on Musical Theory in 2013. He did his Undergraduate in Composition at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (2013-16), studying under Carlos Marecos, Carlos Caires and Luís Tinoco. He also had classes with António Pinho Vargas, Sérgio Azevedo, João Madureira and José Luís Ferreira. In 2018 he finished his MA on Opera Making & Writing – Composition Path, at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London, United Kingdom, having studied under Julian Philips. He also had compositions workshops and masterclass with Luigi Abbate, Achim Bornhöft, Guilhermo Klein, Ivan Moody, Apostolos Paraskevas, Ansgar Beste, Julian Anderson, Stephen McNeff, Tapio Tuomela, Ofer Ben-Amots and Jan Jirásek.
He studied Jazz at Hot Club de Portugal (Electric Bass and Combo, with Massimo Cavalli and Gonçalo Marques, respectively) and was a member of Big Band Júnior (2010-14), conducted by Claus Nymark. His composition “Hora de Ponta”, written for this ensemble, is part of their album “Pegadas Azuis”. Since 2017 he has been working with the Portuguese A Capella ensemble “The Spell”, writing arrangements of popular songs for them.
His works have been performed in Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Australia. Some of his most relevant pieces are: “Prjkt.Hrp” (2015, for Harp and Live Electronics), “¡¿Lamento?!”, (2016, for small ensemble, based on Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas”), “Contos da Criação: Lilith” (2016, an oratorio for Narrador, Soprano, Baritone and Small Wind Orchestra, with libretto by Nuno Cruz, based on the relationship between Adam and Lilith according to the Talmud and the Alfabet of Ben Sirach), “@ctb.exp#1” (2017, for solo double bass, comissioned by the Portuguese state radio and television Antena 2/RTP for the 31st edition of the “Prémio Jovens Músicos” music festival), “Multidão – I. Primeiro” (2017, first act of a monodrama for countertenor and ensemble about a person that suffers from multiple personality disorder, with libretto by Nuno Cruz), “Nymphus – Mithraic Initiation Rite Number Two” (2017, short opera scene for Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Baritone and Piano, based on the second iniciation ritual of the cult of the god Mithras, with libretto by Edward Einhorn) and “La vojaĝo” (2019, for mixed ensemble, written for the Ensemble Offspring during the Noosa ISAM in Australia). He is also one of the producers of the festival “Peças Frescas – Edição Açores” (Fresh Pieces – Azores Edition), a festival of Portuguese contemporary music that happens since 2014 in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Azores. www.pedroffinisterra.com