# Skyrim: The Opera



## NeverendingOpera (Jan 28, 2012)

I love opera. I love opera so much I've started turning my favourite video-game into it. WAIT, don't go yet...

Good, you're still here. Now, this may sound like an odd decision, the realms of video-games and operas seem to be worlds apart, but if you give me a second, if you hear me out, then maybe, just maybe I can convice you it's a good idea. And if not, well, I can always let the videos themselves do the talking.

Act 1 - Scene 1 - A Fresh Start

Act 1 - Scene 2 - Saved by the Dragon

First off let me tell you my credentials. I studied an undergraduate BMus in Voice and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. With my creative urge overflowing by my last year I composed, directed and conducted my first opera, "Little Red Cap" based on the story of little red riding hood, and put it on at a local school with a cast and instrumentalists from the RNCM. I went on to study composition as a postgraduate where I wrote and put on a second opera based on another Grimm fairy tale called "The Water of Life". Neither of these works were exceptional pieces of music or art, but they were incredible learning processes which I carry through to my current work.

Now, why does a video-game constitute a valid base to build an opera upon?

First off, video-games have gone a long way since their humble origins. While I could talk for days about the advances on the musical and sound-design fronts from the bleeps and bloops top the sweeping orchestral sccores of today, they are not relevent to the choices I made. I did not chose Skyrim because it has an iconic theme (which it does). If anything, that iconic theme gets in the way because people already have a strong association musically with the game and I intend to carve an entirely personal aural journey throughout the experience. Instead I want to focus on the vast improvements that have been made over the story-telling and naratives of video-games.

Games orriginally had very little in the way of narative. It sarted out as a "how long can you survive under increasingly difficult circumstances" affair. Gradually games developed basic motivations for the characters that you maneuvered through their environments (save the princess, Mario). As games became more complicated technically and technology more advanced greater scope was available to create more involved naratives which enabled player choice and player-motivations to be the fuel for the narative. Want to save someone to reunite them with their father? Great! Want to murder that person in order to reap gain the bounty on their head? Also good. The ultimate conclusion (as it currently stands) is where Skyrim is now. While there is a "main" narative to the game (the usual "save the world" scenario), players are free to completely ignore this calling to follow other naratives such as chosing a side in the civil war (either side is valid) and seeing that through to it's conclusion, or becoming the leader of a faction or guild.

The ultimate end to the story which used to be very simple (survive as long as possible untill you die/save the princess/defeat the ultimate evil, etc.) is now purely up to the player. One person may decide their personal narative ends when they complete the "main" quest, while others may climb to the top of every guild and call it a day. Every individual person in Skyrim will have a personal narative that is unique to them and that goes beyond the quests to random events they will encounter which force them on all new adventures that other people may never encounter.

This means that an Opera based on Skyrim can be a story that no one else in the world has experienced before, but be entirely true to the game world. This makes the game's world a fantastic setting for many different kinds of stories.

The other major contributor is the improvements have had in their ability to tell stories. Once upon a time the story-telling in games was incredibly basic. A few text boxes would tell you what your motivations were and then monsters would come at you, teath bared in all their pixilated foulness. Now voice acting is standard for every character, major or minor in a game, environments which were at best impresionistic masses of pixels are now incredibly detailed, giving all sorts of pointers to age, history and culture. This means that as a setting to base the first outing of my ideas, the game engine itself would be a beautiful place to create a visual representation of the story. With a simple game capture appliaction I am able to create a film of my opera from the perspective of the protagonist.

Think about that for a moment. How many operas allow you to actually sit inside the skull of the performer? How many offer you literally that protagonist's viewpoint? In what medium can you effectively convey that? Film may be able to for a few minutes, but film-makers are much more comfortable filming from the third perspective. A first person perspecitve is uncomfortable because it seems to offer a lack of perspective. Who is the character? We are so visually orrientated that without some idea of what a character looks like we feel disconnected from them.

Video-games, especially games like Skyrim, are designed to be viewed from the first person perspective and offer a completely new take on identity. Instead of the protagonist being someone else, you are free to imagine who and what the protagonist is. The protagonist may even be you.

This last concept has informed my creative decisions while making the opera so far. I give the in-game protagonist (who is silent) a voice and let the viewer imagine the rest of the character. By making that protagonist the only one to have a sung part, I internalise that voice, making it personal, yet while I give voice to the character I leave out specifics.

So much is unanswered about the character and much will remain unanswered. What is the protagonist's name, what is his dark past, these are quetions which may never be answered. By giving a few suggestions I may narrow down the character in some ways, but in other ways I spark the immagination. What heresy was he being hunted for? Why did he choose the country of Skyrim as a place of refuge? What has he left behind? These are all details which the viewer is able to fill in themselves and means that, while they are being presented with a story, their immagination and perspective makes that story one that is personal.

While such story-telling may be possible in other formats, I believe that this specific approach is one which is most inclusive and encompasing for an audience. In the second scene the protagonist is to have his head cut off, and you are there, behind his eyes, watching from his perspective as the axe is raised. It makes you think, makes you feel more connected with the character.

At least that is what I hope.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I believe that a videogame can be worthy of an opera.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

An interesting and ambitious idea, so of course I approve.

Good luck!


----------



## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

that was awesome. looks a huge amount of effort put into it.


----------



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Great idea and very well done, though I think the music was better than the libretto. Of course, if this were going to be done at a professional level with the hope of in-person performances, it'd be extremely difficult (because of copyrights) to attach your musical creation to an already existent game. What I think this instead opens up is the notion of an opera accompanied by a first-person CGI film made especially for the piece.


----------



## NeverendingOpera (Jan 28, 2012)

I'm certainly no trained writer of words, not to mention I'm dyslexic, so I am not too ashamed of the libretto. As for the copyright issues, that is definitely something that needs to be discussed with the game developers and their publishers. If the videos become popular enough they may consider even funding a production, though that may just be a pipe dream. However things turn out I'm glad with how people who do watch the scenes are responding. It's suggests that I'm doing something right


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'd be happy to do some work on the libretto; editing, proof reading, whatever. If you want/need anything like that, give me a shout and I'll lend a hand.


----------



## NeverendingOpera (Jan 28, 2012)

Thanks for the offer, but I write it as I write the music, so it's part of an organic process. The words and music feed off each other as I'm writing. I'm always looking for librettists and writers to work with, though, for future projects.


----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

Wow. Good luck. On the train to New York for Gotterdammerung my friend and I were reading some scholarly books I had picked up at the library such as "Wagner and the Romantic Hero" by Simon Williams, detailing Wagnerian drama's relation to Romantic heroism, Epic heroism, and the whole gamut of ancient mythmaking. Anyway, he found TONS of relevance to the Elder Scrolls mythos, and as I now understand they go, simply put, deeper than Campbell.


----------



## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

Neat! Good luck with this, I think it's a swell idea.


----------



## Liss (May 13, 2011)

This is an awesome idea. It's not just because it ties together two of my obsessions - Skyrim and Opera. But it's also the fact that it is actually bringing a new audience to opera through the format of an entirely modern and hugely popular RPG. It works, it really, really works. I love the idea and the music sounds really fantastic. 

I want to try to spread these videos around as much as possible. I'm sure many other people will love this idea as much as I do! 

Good luck and keep up the good work!


----------



## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Please remember to give an aria to a guard so he can sing in detail how exactly he got an arrow to the knee.


----------



## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Sieglinde said:


> Please remember to give an aria to a guard so he can sing in detail how exactly he got an arrow to the knee.


I was just about to say that. 

Also, nice signature.


----------

