the adventure of the opera andrias scheuchzeri began in december 2019, when i decided to write an opera inspired by karel čapek’s novel war with the newts. it tells the story of giant salamanders discovered on a faraway island. in čapek’s tale, they are exploited to find pearls and later to expand continents. in the opera, however, the story is not about pearls, but about climate change, conspiracy theories, and our own times — where social disruption deeply impacts the intimate lives of people. this opera explores decolonialism, feminism, and ecological questions.

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the adventure truly began in 2021 with réseau dédale, an organization with artistic and grassroots aims that i co-created with siam angie guyot. during this period, the idea was to develop a participatory “opera of territory.” i invited my neighborhood to take part in this adventure. the starting point was the flagphone, an instrument i imagined and brought to life with the help of a volunteer who is both a plumber and a poet. i invited 13 people to become flagphonists. they learned to play the instrument and created a raptor as a flagphone through a pictorial protocol. non-musicians, amateur musicians, and professionals worked together to prepare and perform in intermediary shows between 2021 and 2023.

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by 2023, the adventure had brought together more than one hundred people — professionals and volunteers forming an orchestra, lyric and non-lyric singers — for an immersive and moving performance. as composer, visual artist, and stage director, i animated this aesthetic community. after the bankruptcy of réseau dédale at the end of 2023, we continued the opera venture independently.

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in may 2024, we were invited by the french festival inact in strasbourg, and in september 2024 by the london festival tête à tête, where we presented a professional performance of the opera in its final configuration with three instrumentalists and eleven vocal performers. during this show, we presented two of the finest scenes of the opera.

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now i am finishing the full score, which will be published at the end of this year. together with our production office, we are preparing our international tour for 2026–2028. we are very happy to share our crazy opera with you. we are ready to come to your venue or festival — indoors, outdoors, and in theaters.