What a difference interactivity makes.
Take, for example, opera. I'm not an opera guy. I'm still going through what a friend of mine calls "the womp-womp" stage of musical taste, where the sound of a zipper over a bass-drop makes me want to dance around with my fist in the air and break furniture. I figure I'll have plenty of time to learn to appreciate opera when I'm an older gentleman, lounging on my veranda, sipping a martini made from my enemies' tears, watching my pet pandas play in the fields beyond my jungle fortress. (Ok, I have some very specific ideas about what my later years are going to be like.)
Long story short: opera = zzzzzzz. But opera + interactivity + urban exploration = awwwwwesome.
Which brings us to Invisible Cities, a one-of-a-kind musical experience happening now in downtown LA. How it works: buy a ticket, show up at Union Station, and put on a pair of Senheizer headphones. A live orchestra starts up inside the ticketing area, and for the next 70 minutes, the entire train station becomes a mesmerizing wonderland of sights and sounds. A cast of sublimely talented opera singers (some of them dressed in period garb, some of them dressed as civilians) float through the station, body mics transporting their voices into your headphones. Costumed figures promenade through the night-lit gardens outside. Stage-fog fills the towering, opulent cavern of the old ticketing hall, as lithe dancers rise onto the booths in synchronicity.
The best art has the power to make us look twice at our world. To jolt us out of our default mode, and experience life with fresh eyes. Invisible Cities does that in spades. With the symphony pouring through your headphones, what was once just a train station becomes a place fraught with mystery, danger, beauty. Those janitors aren't mopping the floor, they're engaged in a dance. That grungy guy in the wheelchair you just walked past is now singing an aria in a voice forged by angels.
Coming back into the regular world is like emerging from a dream. I spent the ride home glancing out at my city passing by and wondering to myself: "Who else is in on this beautiful conspiracy?"
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- WHAT: Invisible Cities Opera
- WHERE: Union Station
- WHEN: Check ticket availability here
- $: $40-$60 a ticket