“Blind men can judge no colours” – this saying is very untrue. One can and should talk about colours with visually impaired persons. We may learn much more from them about colours than from people with perfect eyesight. The experience of collaborating on artistic projects with the visually impaired is primarily conversation-based. Conversations about colours and shapes, with both adults and children, provided the direct impulse for the concept of our opera. The knowledge and experience of blind people collected in this opera as well as the use of binaural sound system are meant to support our auditory perception and encourage attentive listening. They will also hopefully sensitise us to the world and needs of blind and partially sighted people. In this process, special inspiration comes from Marek Reiss, an excellent storyteller and guide to the Invisible Exhibition, whom loss of sight likely led to become an actor. He tells his story from his own experience: of the gradual loss of sight, of the successive colours literally disappearing from the field of vision. This provided the direct impulse for our opera, which is largely an acoustic and musical form. Though the show is about colours, it is no coincidence that it speaks through music. Colour is, after all, a category of both our sight and hearing. 

Optical colour phenomena are parallel to sound colour, and we know that loss of sight leads to other senses (frequently the hearing sense) taking over certain perceptual functions. This has inspired us to bring the worlds of hearing and seeing together by means of music, theatre, and the visual arts, and to create an operatic spectacle that uses sounds and words to tell the story of the interplay of colours, shapes, and light. The result is a kind of audio description which makes use of words, names of colours, shapes, and their mutual relations. Conceived as a visual impairment-friendly event, the spectacle can also broaden the understanding of visually abled persons. We use a language that is natural and familiar to children. 

Talking of Colours is a simple tale about colours and abstract shapes which start to disappear one day – a sad but fairly universal experience. As in life, sadness frequently mingles with humour, irony, joy, and play. Distance helps as usual, as also do a sense of humour, art, and relationships. There is a way out of even the most difficult situations. In this case, the world of sound and music starts playing a major role. Improvised music and small contemporary vocal forms (serious and light songs, improvisations) take pride of place in the opera’s musical world. Instrumental music and dialogues are likewise improvised. Though originally fixed as a text, they are spoken or sung freely and flexibly by the actors and soloists. A graphic score is one of our protagonists. 

Part of the sound material is performed live, part – played back from a recording. These two levels interact and interpenetrate. What the audience should expect is thus a spectacle with elements of an audio drama. Hence the subheading “binaural opera.” The binaural technology (from the Latin bi – dual and auris – ear) is frequently used as an educational aid when working with visually impaired persons. This technology allows listeners precisely to locate acoustic signals in space, which creates an illusion of being inside the recording studio. Binaural sound systems allow for a very sensitive and attentive sound management, so that each sound is heard very clearly and selectively, allowing the audience to focus entirely on the sound event and musical experience, and to experience them in all their fullness. 

Anna Kierkosz