As Madelyn Starbuck, impresaria of the "cyberopera" Honoria in Ciberspazio, puts it, the 1999 South by Southwest Interactive Festival, which officially opened Sunday in Austin, "has an opera thing going on this year."
The pre-opening party Saturday night featured the world premiere of the first ten minutes -- Act One, Scene One -- of the "tele-collaborative Internet opera", and the festival will wrap up on Tuesday night with Monsters of Grace, the 3-D digital opera by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass.
When several hundred Web designers, programmers, and content providers crammed into the offices of the GSD&M advertising agency on Saturday for the invitation-only schmoozefest, most were more concerned with the free munchies and conversation than they were with the drama unfolding above them in the atrium.
Those who cared to listen were treated to Bruce Cain's rich baritone intoning, "When life dawns on a glowing screen ... Ciberspazio, so close you are at hand!"
The four professional performers borrowed from the Austin Lyric Opera weren't fazed in the least by the crowd noise. But as Starbuck, Honaria herself, recalls, the artists were initially hesitant. Scanning the score, one singer blurted, "Do you mean I'm actually supposed to sing, 'Hopeless geek'?"
Once Honoria explained the origins of the opera scored by George Oldziey (who also scored the locally produced film Wing Commander) with a liberetto written collaboratively by contributors around the world via the Net, they readily agreed to perform for free.
"They said, 'Oh, this is just what Wagner was all about!" Honoria beams. "Wagner, too, utilized state-of-the-art technology when he staged his works in Bayreuth."
After the performance, Hugh Forrest, event director for SXSW Interactive, and his crew of presenters got down to the business of announcing the winners of the SXSW Web site competition and the Texas Interactive Media Awards.
Attendees were grateful for the lack of acceptance speeches, but later in the evening, Jason Kottke, who won Best Personal Site for 0sil8, quipped, "I'm just glad I was here to pick up my award. I'd hate to see it auctioned off on eBay."
Maura Johnston, who won Best Online Drama/Narrative, was relieved "None of the above" didn't beat her out -- her bittersweets.org was the only site competing in the category.
Austin's companion SXSW festivals, Film and Music, have witnessed nothing but explosive growth over the years, but the Interactive Festival has grown by fits and starts as Forrest and his team have struggled to define its identity and purpose.
Forrest said he was pleased with this year's turnout, however. "It's up by about 20 percent to over 2,000 attendees."
The number is a fraction of the 24,000 expected for the three festivals combined. But with Film, Music, and Interactive festival attendees gathered at the Convention Center, and with Interactive panels on Hollywood graphics and the MP3 digital music format, the cross-pollination of ideas may lead to the realization of another Wagnerian concept: the Gesamtkunstwerk, the complete and total work of art. Something, perhaps, like a cyberopera.
