John Cage
«Europeras 1 & 2»

An extensive montage across the breadth of European culture produces a postmodern opera in the age of sampling. Most of the elements (101 different orchestra scores plus independent texts, plots, and stage sets) are chosen through randomizing processes from large archives or encyclopedias and combined using a computer program. The illumination is also controlled by a randomizing program that distributes light and shadow with no regard for what is happening on the stage. Only the arias of the two operas are chosen by the singers themselves and integrated into the sequence on the basis of their length. Cage explained: «The opera is not conducted, but held together by many video monitors; from the beginning of the opera on, a digital clock is depicted on the monitors; beginning at zero minutes and zero seconds, it tells the time until the end of each opera.»