I happen to like opera. And I happen to like yoga. But putting them together, for me,,is like sprinkling chocolate chips on your cheeseburger. Separately - they are great. Mixed together? Maybe not so great.
But if you are much more experimental than I, check out the first ever ‘Mindfulness Opera’ which features 4 Hours of Silence, Meditation and Yoga. Here are the details from yogadork.com :
Silent music to your ears? The Gods of yoga and opera have joined together for a match made in “an inner journey of mindfulness, with periods of meditation, rest, communal eating and a gentle yoga session” heaven.
As part of the four-hour long performance (note: that’s really long, even for an opera) audience members will be required to stay absolutely silent while mezzo-soprano Lore Lixenberg accompanied by seven musicians play around with the relationship between sound and silence.
The interactive show is called Lost in Thought, and it’s part of the London Barbican’s recently announced Fall 2015 programming aimed at challenging traditional boundaries with “ground breaking cross-arts collaborations.” We’ll say.
Lost in Thought is a Buddhism-inspired “inner journey of mindfulness” with the concept and music by composer Rolf Hind. It’s based on “the classic structure of an extended meditation,” a spokesman for the Barbican said. Hind is also involved in the research of mindfulness meditation and its relationship to the performing arts at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
“Exploring the points of contact between sound and silence in music and meditation, Lost in Thought will be an immersive musical performance in which the boundaries evaporate between performer and audience, between time and experience,” said Hind.
LSO St Luke’s – London Symphony Orchestra where Lost in Thought will be performed | via www.sophiemutevelian.com
Ohh. Sounds beautiful and surreal. (Side thought #1: Is this what neo-arts-loving-intellectual fancy hippies are into now? Side thought #2: is marijuana legal in London?)
Mindfulness, meditation and a meal at the opera. Actually, that sounds like a great preparation for a four-hour nap! Oh, we kid. It’s certainly an interesting high-art concept, and while tickets will probably be out of our price range (besides the whole flight to London thing), we’re pretty sure we’d pay to see the lady and gentleman opera-goers experience this sort of hands-on event. After all of the meditation, yoga, listening to opera and eating vegan food, audience members will then have to clean their own dishes in a “communal performance,” which we imagine will be exceedingly difficult and fabulously entertaining with all of those white gloves everyone will be wearing.*
*We assume everyone in London still wears white gloves to the opera and sticks their pinky fingers out when sipping tea. Don’t ruin our dream.