Artificial intelligence is not a villain, but a tool, in Jala-Smriti-Water Memory, the winner of this year's 96-Hour Opera Festival-an annual event mounted by the Atlanta Opera.
Written by composer Kitty Brazelton and librettist Vaibu Mohan, Jala-Smriti-Water Memory tells the story of Janani (played by mezzo-soprano Xiaohan Chen), a dementia patient who learns to rely on a Memory Processing Operator (played by mezzo-soprano Hanan Davis) as she slowly loses her identity. Erika Tazawa was the music director and collaborating pianist.
Mohan is a writer, musician, dancer, director and producer, with a focus on integrating South Asian forms into Western theater. She is currently a writing consultant for the off-Broadway musical, White Rose.
Launched in 2022, the 96-Hour Opera Festival began as a competition to search for new talent among underrepresented communities. Now in its third iteration, the event has blossomed into a full-blown festival, featuring the world premiere of 2022's winning work, Marcus Norris and Adamma Ebo's Forsyth County is Flooding (with the Joy of Lake Lanier), a workshop on last year's winner, Dave Ragland and Selda Sahin's Stelle Roots, as well as the competition.
This year, the competitors were tasked to create stories exploring the intersection of art and artificial intelligence. The four other entries are set in the bleaker context of impending extinction, or cultural erosion. All, however, explore how artificial intelligence might take on the essence or goodness of humanity.
Brazelton and Mohan will share the $10,000 Antinori Foundation Grand Prize, and will work together on a new piece for the Atlanta Opera.
