I went to the Tokyo performance of "The End," an unmanned opera featuring the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, at my own expense. I got an S-seat for 7,500 yen.
For more details, please Google it, or read my previous interview with Keiichiro Shibuya or the PRESS blog. Here, I'll simply share my impressions.
To be honest, I didn't really understand the content. And I don't think this production is opera.
First of all, Hatsune Miku's voice was hard to hear, so I couldn't understand what she was saying. There were Japanese subtitles on the side of the screen and English subtitles at the bottom, but I was distracted by reading them and couldn't get into the performance. As a result, I ended the 90 minutes without understanding anything at all.
Perhaps because it was a classical music hall, the digital sound and the voices mixed together, creating a very discordant sound. I had hoped to believe the composer and hear a very popular and upbeat aria, but that wasn't the case. My first impression was harsh. Shibuya himself must have been aware of this, since he had previously released the full aria on his blog.

The most concerning aspect is the opera's "passion." Since this work is entirely pre-programmed and digitally controlled, it's essentially a movie with elaborate visuals. It lacks the unique pleasures of a live performance, such as the atmosphere of the moment and the interactive dialogue with the audience. The excitement between the soloist and the audience after finishing a truly beautiful aria is so intense that the play is interrupted for applause. It's a shame that we can't experience that live feeling. I think that's the biggest problem.

The visuals are certainly excellent. They use projection mapping, and they're beautiful. But after seeing Perfume's holographic live performance, it's hard to deny that it feels a little dated. If they were going to use Hatsune Miku, if they were going to create a new opera, it would have been more captivating to have a live singer interact with a real-time rendered hologram, or even have Hatsune Miku appear and perform a duet. That's exactly what happened with Miku's live performances.
It was so close to being like Sheryl Nome's live performance in Macross F.
The only interesting thing was when Hatsune Miku responded to the curtain call on screen after the curtain closed. Well, that was also programmed.
★☆☆☆☆ (one star)