VALIS (opera)

VALIS. Opera by Tod Machover. Based on Philip K. Dick's VALIS. World premiére Pompidou Center, Paris, for the 10th Anniversay of the Center in 1987. American premiére MIT, June 1989.

Part II of opera relevant. VALIS = Vast Active Living Intelligent System; a character in this part of the opera, Sophia, may be a girl, an angel, or a hologram. Sophia is eventually exploded by a pink laser beam, taking with her the climactic scene, which fades into a coda with the hero, Phil, watching his TV set, waiting for a message that we assume would come from VALIS.

Contextualized and discussed briefly in Disappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century, §4.26, pp. 240-41, which see at embedded link.

Cited in Christopher Palmer, "Generation Starships and After."

RDE, initial; finishing, 15Mar22