Lighthouse Immersive today announced that its newest immersive exhibition is extending its Chicago run through July 9. Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago (108 W. Germania Pl.) hosted the world premiere of Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius in March of 2023 after Immersive Van Gogh concluded a two-year run in February. Immersive Van Gogh is now running in the space again, however, having been brought back by popular demand to play alongside Mozart Immersive starting May 1. The two shows will continue running in unison, both accessible with a single ticket purchase, through July 9. Two-for-one tickets for dual showings of Immersive Van Gogh and Mozart Immersive start at $27 and are on sale now at mozartimmersive.com.
Created by the same pioneering Italian creative team that assembled the acclaimed Immersive Van Gogh, Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius was called “astonishing” by ABC Chicago, “absolutely beautiful” by WGN and “a fresh spin on classical music” by WTTW, with Time Out Chicago saying the experience “brings the famous classical composer’s brilliant works to life.”
“From the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Civic Opera House to the wonderful annual performances at the Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago has a storied history of classical music, and a robust appreciation for the art form,” said Irina Shabshis, producer at Lighthouse Immersive. “As one of the most popular Lighthouse ArtSpace venues of the 20+ that we have opened across North America, we’d like to extend our warmest thanks to Chicago audiences for their enthusiasm towards our immersive offerings, particularly Mozart Immersive, which is currently a Chicago exclusive that no one has experienced outside of the city so far. We are proud to announce that it will continue its run this summer alongside the Original Immersive Van Gogh.”
Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius takes the immersive medium in a new and exciting direction utilizing the latest technology to amplify timeless music. Mozart Immersivestands out from previous Lighthouse Immersive productions in that Mozart’s ingenious compositions are the primary focus; with captivating visuals built around the auditory experience. The creative team used AI image generation as inspiration to design original dream-like visuals inspired by 18th century destinations that Mozart experienced. Audiences will be surrounded by bustling city streets, ornate royal auditoriums and lavish paintings, in addition to otherworldly dreamscapes featuring fantastical lucid imagery, all accompanied by some of Mozart’s most beloved melodies performed by the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra under the baton of world-renowned Maestro Constantine Orbelian: a four-time Grammy Award nominee in his own right who is also the music director and principal conductor for the New York City Opera. The internationally acclaimed creative team of Massimiliano Siccardi (Artistic Creator), Luca Longobardi (Composer and Arranger) and Vittorio Guidotti (Artistic Director) will take us on a whimsically surreal journey into the mind and soul of a genius.
“With this piece, we wanted to represent every part of Mozart’s life, from his happy times as a child prodigy and throughout his amazingly prolific career, creating some of the best music ever composed,” said Creator Massimiliano Siccardi. “We want the audience to see the world through Mozart’s eyes, both humanizing him and celebrating his genius and incredible body of work.”
Also setting Mozart Immersive apart from previous Lighthouse offerings is recorded footage of actors presented alongside the animation. The legendary dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov assumes the heart-rending role of Mozart’s father, Leopold, who would launch Mozart’s early career but became estranged from his son later in life.
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to portray one of the most obvious, albeit controversial, figures in Mozart’s life in this truly distinctive immersive presentation,” said Baryshnikov. “Leopold Mozart took his young son to the heights of stardom, only to become a contentious influence on Mozart in his adulthood. Since this exhibition is an exploration of Mozart’s soul, Leopold is a character to be paid attention to.”
“In order to fully capture the genius of Mozart’s oeuvre of work, we brought together top-level talent from the world of classical music for the score, but we also wanted to use groundbreaking AI technology to help create the projection’s beautiful and inventive imagery” said Svetlana Dvoretsky, co-founder of Lighthouse Immersive and producer of Mozart Immersive. “With the help of Maestro Constantine Orbelian, we have created a magnificent, melodic soundscape to accompany the visuals crafted by our creative team. The resulting piece is a highly sophisticated and thrilling confluence of brilliant music and stunning visuals that is elevated by Mikhail Baryshnikov’s portrayal of Mozart’s father.”
Featured in the work are some of Mozart’s best loved compositions, including Symphony No. 40, Requiem, Turkish March, Ave Verum Corpus and a selection of works from Mozart’s acclaimed operas, The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, among other pieces.
Immersive Van Gogh invites audiences to “step inside” the iconic works of post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, evoking his highly emotional and chaotic inner consciousness through art, light, music, movement and imagination. With more than 50 projectors casting 500,000+ square feet of imagery, visitors to Immersive Van Gogh are encircled from head-to-toe in Van Gogh’s brushstrokes and colors, including animated details from works such as Self Portrait with Felt Hat (1888), The Bedroom in Arles (1889), Irises (1889) and The Starry Night (1889).
For more information on Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago’s programs and offerings, follow @lighthouseartspacechicago on Facebook and Instagram.
About the Creative Teams
MASSIMILIANO SICCARDI, Artistic Creator – Mozart Immersive + Immersive Van Gogh:
Massimiliano studied at the London School of Contemporary Dance of London. But in 1990, he left the world of dance to begin a new journey in the world of video art. Massimiliano quickly became the artistic force behind several visual mise-en-scène for choreographers around the world. He also created video scenographies for numerous prestigious festivals and galas around the world. He also re-constructed the video mapping of the Basilica di Giotto and for the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari, where one of his permanent installation’s virtually reconstruct the frescoes of the Cupola. Massimiliano is also a celebrated photographer and has had photo exhibitions in Spoleto and Rome, to name a few. He is professor of digital image elaboration at the Accademia di Comunicazione e Immagine of Rome. In 2012 Massimiliano received the prestigious International Award “Romaindanza” for his talent in the visual work of dance theatre. Since 2012, he has been artist in residence at the Carrières de Lumières - Atelier des Lumières where he authored the mise-en-scène of numerous immersive shows. He is currently creating projects within Italy as well as New York, Berlin, Leipzig and Rome.
VITTORIO GUIDOTTI, Artistic Director, Mozart Immersive + Immersive Van Gogh:
Vittorio graduated in Film Direction and Production from the European Institute of Design of Rome in 2007. In 2012 he created his first video-projected scenography for the show “Di Me in Me”, written and choreographed by Adriana Boriello, which premiered at the Dance Biennale of Venice in 2012. He then began collaborating with artist Massimiliano Siccardi, creating several pieces of video scenography for the National Dance Academy of Rome. In 2016 the two of them designed a permanent installation for the Dancing Satyr Museum in Mazzara del Vallo and the following year, they both took part in an exhibition for the International Museum of Perfume in Grasse, France. Vittorio then moved to London, where he kept working as director and visual artist. In 2018 his microbudget short film “Almost Sunny” won the Assurdo Film Festival and the Los Angeles Cinefest. The following year, his short film “Is this Life?” starring Himesh Patel, debuted at the showcase of That Film! in Cannes 2019 and was selected at the London Lift-Off festival. Throughout all this, he continued collaborating with Massimiliano Siccardi and became Creative Director of Animations, as well as co-author, of all his exhibitions.
LUCA LONGOBARDI, Composer and Arranger, Mozart Immersive + Immersive Van Gogh:
Italian composer and pianist Luca Longobardi is a classically trained musician who incorporates the contemporary electronic music into his pieces. Born in 1976, Longobardi studied classical music in Italy and New York and went on to earn his doctorate in digital audio restoration in Rome in 2011. His works reveal a strong interaction between classical and contemporary music. The experience he has gained as a theatre musician has increased his interest in the relationship between sounds and spectacle; he has composed music for ballets and films and accompanied installations and experimental art productions (Atelier de Lumières - Paris, Carrière des Lumières - Baux-de-Provence, Kunstkraftwerk - Leipzig). At his multimedia performances and in his recordings, strong experimental electronic music meets pure, ethereal and simple-seeming piano playing that nevertheless relays deep emotions.
CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN, Conductor, Mozart Immersive:
Four-time Grammy-nominated conductor Constantine Orbelian has been called “the singer’s dream collaborator” by Opera News, which hailed him for conducting vocal repertoire “with the sensitivity of a lieder pianist.” He has toured and recorded with some of the world’s greatest singers, such as American stars Renée Fleming, Sondra Radvanovsky and Lawrence Brownlee. Maestro Orbelian’s accomplishments include being Music Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia of Russia, founder of the annual Palaces of St. Petersburg International Music Festival, Chief Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania, and Artistic Director of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan, Armenia. Maestro Orbelian has recorded over 60 CDs for the DELOS Label and has additional DVDs and CDs which have been released on Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Chandos, Philips and Warner labels.
MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV, Performer, Mozart Immersive:
Born in Riga, Latvia and living in New York City, Mikhail Baryshnikov has distinguished himself as an extraordinary dancer and performer in theater, television and film. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and many other illustrious choreographers and directors. From 1979-1989 he was artistic director of American Ballet Theater where, for the next decade, he introduced a new generation of dancers and choreographers. From 1990-2002, Mr. Baryshnikov was director and principal dancer of the White Oak Dance Project, co-founded with choreographer Mark Morris. In 2005, he opened the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), a creative space designed to support multidisciplinary artists from around the globe. Mr. Baryshnikov’s many awards include the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor of France, Japan’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award in Theatre/Film, and most recently the Royal Academy of Dance ‘s Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award.
About Lighthouse Immersive, Producer, Mozart Immersive + Immersive Van Gogh
Lighthouse Immersive creates, produces and distributes innovative digital immersive art experiences through its experiential multiplex digital art galleries, aiming to cultivate community and creativity through large-scale events and exhibitions of all art forms. Lighthouse Immersive has produced the world premieres of Immersive Van Gogh, Immersive Monet & The Impressionists, Immersive Frida Kahlo, Immersive King Tut and Immersive Klimt: Revolution in 23 North American cities, including Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Boston and Denver, and is currently expanding into additional markets. To date, they have sold over 6 million tickets to Immersive Van Gogh across North America, with Artnet calling it “one of the largest coordinated art phenomena of all time.”