Despite several attempts to restart this project after being shut down from Covid , When Falling…dive is no longer a viable work. It was an enormous process to undertake and it ultimately failed. Herein we celebrate our failure and take away the valuable lessons learned to apply to new projects ahead.

Thank you for your love and support

When Falling…
dive

A video/graphic opera about connectivity

Music by Peter Michael von der Nahmer
Libretto by Marianna Mott Newirth

Produced by 17 to the 6th Media

See the Work in Progress

When Falling…Dive is a video/graphic opera about connectivity and disruption.

Originally conceived in 2015 as a two-minute opera for one voice, this work expanded to ten-minutes with seven voices as the creative team explored the social landscape as it was rapidly changing. A number of revisions were made to the libretto in service of the story that wanted to be told. Making this opera was anything but a straight line.

A concept ‘videopera’ from the start, WhenFalling is now a video/graphic opera utilizing illustration interlaced with video, married to word and music in a media-rich observation on a world in a dramatic paradigm shift.

When Falling...Dive | A video/graphic opera about communication Music by Peter Michael von der Nahmer, Libretto by Marianna Mott Newirth Featuring the vocal talent of: Vanessa Cariddi, Rachael Duval and Brian Alvarado Here is the first movement of a three movement piece. When Falling...Dive was recorded March 10, 2020 in New York City. Due to global pandemic, we were unable to complete video production and have made the shift to illustration. The result is a unique hybrid of video and graphic and opera, in a exploration of the intersection of the three. This work in progress continues - stay tuned for the second and third movements.

Production
Notes

After three years in development, the libretto was finalized over the summer of 2019 and music started over the fall. By early winter 2020, rehearsals were underway and on Monday March 10 we brought When Falling…Dive into the recording studio. We got half a day of filming in Friday March 13 (under extraordinary circumstances) and then…

…well, then New York City shut down due to a global pandemic and we had to figure out what to do next. Remaining committed to creating this piece, we made the pivot to illustration and started the visual process of this work all over again, finding ways to incorporate the video we had with the new illustrations being drawn.

The unfoldment continues.