Diana Farah

DUBAI: Android Opera®︎ MIRROR premiered at Expo 2020 Dubai’s stage on Wednesday, giving the audience a unique performance featuring a robotic android performer orchestrating a symphony.

Presented by the Japan Pavilion at Expo, Alter 3, the Android performer, was surrounded by Keiichiro Shibuya’s piano and computer, monks chanting led by Eizen Fujiwara, a performer of the 1200-year-old Buddhist music called Shomyo and a 45-member NSO Symphony Orchestra.

Alter 3 sang AI-generated texts accompanied by Nanzan Shinryu Shomyo, the voices of Koyasan’s Buddhist music.

Speaking exclusively to Arab News Japan, Shibuya said he chose Expo 2020 Dubai for Android Opera®︎ MIRROR’s world premiere because the event was very “futuristic.”

“The UAE and its people are very concentrated on the future. I also focus on the future, especially with Android, so I think it is a very fitting match,” the Japanese musician said.

He explained that the performance included Buddhist chants that have a 1200-year history. Along with the Android’s AI generated lyrics, Shibuya said the combination of those two melodies fascinated him.

“This mixture is very exciting for me,” he told Arab News Japan. “The main message of the performance is world peace and happiness.”

Shibuya said that with the hard times the world is going through nowadays, he wanted the message to widely focus on world peace, with subtitles about global harmony on the big screen in the background displayed throughout the performance.

The Japanese composer said he started creating non-human operas after he felt an emptiness when his wife passed away in 2008.

“I wanted to perform this feeling via opera,” Shibuya said. “My idea was no human beings, but in opera format.”

He explained he had read a lot about grief and simply wanted to convey that feeling of an empty void through his art. Shibuya created Alter 3, which was empty on the inside but was given its own mind and movements.

Shibuya said his next project is scheduled for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai in three years. He told Arab News Japan the performance will include three of the android performers orchestrating an opera together.