Die Fernweh Oper

When visiting a stage performance there is this awkward feeling when you accidentally make eye contact with a performer on stage. During this brief and intimate moment the distance between you and the performer completely disappears. Die Fernweh Oper has such a distance as a premisse. The distance between a star and a human, the distance between performer and audience, between real and virtual and the distance between memory and present.

In Die Fernweh Oper you will visit a perpetual opera performed by a star in the form of a 50 ft tall opera singer named Asteria, who sings especially for you and about your foolish love for her. Just as with the stars you see at night, she has already died light years ago and what you see of her is her last light that reaches your eyes. It wouldn’t be an opera without a tragic story of course.

Die Fernweh Oper consists of three scenes. Scene 1 will allow you to listen to Asteria sing for you. In scene 2 you will visit Asteria's abandoned dressing room in which small porcelain statues will sing a chorale for you. In scene 3 you will visit the the custodian whose job it is to replace the stars who have died, among which is Asteria.

Die Fernweh Oper is the 4th entry in the virtual reality series The Shoebox Diorama by interactive illustrator Daniel Ernst.