Black Hole Micro Opera

I had the chance to do a lyrical creation project with Marie-Annick Beliveau, Katrine Grarup Elbo and Rodrigo Panosso Macedo from the Center of Gravity in conjunction with the industry days at the Copenhagen Opera Festival inspired by BLACK HOLES

When a massive star dies, a black hole is born. On August 17, at Aveny-T, black holes found a new language: Black Hole Aria — a lyrical micro opera in creation — brought together librettist Cecil Castellucci, mezzo-soprano and Chants Libres artistic director Marie-Annick Béliveau, violinist-composer Katrine Grarup Elbo, and Center of Gravity assistant professor Rodrigo Panosso Macedo for a three-day brainstorm and rehearsal workshop, culminating in a work-in-progress performance of "Requiem for a Dying Star" at the professional seminar of Copenhagen Opera Week.

The project traces back further, to an earlier collaboration between Castellucci and Panosso Macedo: a black hole comic book created with students from the graphic storytelling program at TAW/VIA University Viborg, bridging comic art and black hole physics. That partnership planted the seed for translating spacetime geometry into a new artistic language — this time, opera.

Over three intensive days, the team moved between rehearsal room and research desk, shaping text, voice, and violin around the collapse of a star as it merges with another black hole — part requiem, part physics, sung rather than lectured. With this initial vision, the team joined Copenhagen Opera Week's Industry Day as panelists on "How do we bring the art form into dialogue with other disciplines?," discussing the mutual benefit of art-science collaborative projects.

The piece was presented as a satellite event of Black Hole Week 2026. You can watch the work-in-progress performance here.