The Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) presents the first-ever "laptopera". The Furies: A Laptopera is a retelling of the Greek tragedy Electra. Blending a number of versions of the Electra story including works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Jean Paul Sartre, this retelling explores central questions regarding how communities escape from cycles of violence, the role of guilt and shame in community identity, personal responsibility, how justice interfaces with cycles of violence, and redemption. The artistic medium of the laptop orchestra both serves to recast the traditional instrumental role in a new kind of operatic medium (the “laptopera”) that reimagines the potential of instrument building to support dramatic elements and character relationships—while simultaneously positing critical questions about technology in our lives presently, both in its promise to help us flourish and in its perils to perpetuate and amplify the existing cycles of violence in our world today.

---

PROGRAM

---

Creator, Librettist, Composer, Co-producer
Anne Hege

Live Visuals Design, SLOrk Director, Co-producer
Ge Wang

Instrument System Design
Curtis Ullerich

Instrument Design Contributors
Camille Noufi, Elena Georgieva, Curtis Ullerich, Anne Hege, Matt Wright

CCRMA Technical Director, SLOrk Co-director
Matt Wright

Lighting, Audio Capture, Livestream, Documentation
Constantin Basica, Jenessa Joffe

Choreography & Stage Direction
Carrie Ahern (2022 Premiere), Catie Cuan (2019-2020)

Conductor
Cole Thomason-Redus

Cast
Electra — Shauna Fallihee
Aegisthus — Sidney Chen
Orestia — Anne Hege
Clytemnestra — Alice Del Simone
Maids & Interlude — Elena G. & Camille N.
Tutor & Agamemnon's ghost — Seth Arnopole
Iphigenia’s ghost — Elena Georgieva
Soldiers — Camille N. & Nette W.

The Furies • SLOrk Ensemble
Seth Arnopole, Elena Georgieva, Camille Noufi, Curtis Ullerich, Nette Worthey, Matt Wright

Acknowledgements
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, Dave Kerr, Jay Ryan, Christopher Hung Nguyen; and to all who have contributed to The Furies along the way, including Brendan Larkin, Monica Covitt, Amy Foote, Andrea Baldioceda, Kunwoo Kim, Madeline Huberth, Mike Mulshine, Raul Altosaar, Jack Atherton, Hassan Estakhrian, Hillary Hermawan, Mark Sabini, Ryan Smith, Cara Turnbull, and Trijeet Mukhopadhyay.

A personal thank-you from Anne
Mi Chun, Mary Elyn Bahlert, Liza and Chris Klein, Joell Jones, and my husband Grant Tompkins and children Dorothea, Vera, and Johnnie. This project is dedicated to the memory of my brother, John R. Hege, and father, John S. Hege.

MORE INFORMATION