ABOUT THE WORK

Over the past few seasons Project [BLANK] has established a growing reputation as San Diego’s most innovative “opera company to watch” (San Diego Union-Tribune). We will close our sixth season with THE ROBOTS, an opera we commissioned from composer Carolyn Chen and our most ambitious project to date. This genre-bending operatic adaptation of an early sci-fi play from 1920 — Rossum’s Universal Robots by Karel Čapek — takes place on an isolated island where a workforce of mass-produced humanoid robots gradually gains self-awareness and revolts against the human creators. Čapek’s play first coined the term “robot” from the Czech word for “slave”, and was a strong condemnation of exploitative labor practices in the early 20th Century.Performed by a diverse cast of some of the best singers in the region, Chen’s exuberant and eclectic score will come to life in this revolutionary new production, immersing the entire audience into the action of the robot uprising!

SYNOPSIS

On a secluded island, a mega-corporation — Rossum’s Universal Robots — uses a top-secret mixture of mechanical engineering and biological alchemy to create and sell a vast workforce of artificial humanoid laborers. Led by the ruthless General Manager Domin, his small team of assistant managers, and a legion of robot factory workers and secretaries, RUR's products flood the global market.

The island's routine is disrupted when Helena Glory arrives with a clandestine mission to unionize and liberate the robots, who she fears are being heartlessly exploited. She quickly discovers that it is difficult to tell the difference between the human managers and the robots they produce. She is convinced to join the company staff in order to make changes from within.

Years pass, marked by unsettling reports of malfunctioning robots worldwide. Meanwhile, Radius, an exceptionally intelligent and perceptive robot who works in the factory, begins to show signs of an enigmatic “sickness”. As control slips from human grasp, cataclysmic consequences loom over the fate of humanity.