Mimi Xu | A Strange Odyssey

During the residency, Xu will develop the dramaturgy of “A Strange Odyssey,” a contemporary techno opera for orchestra, voices, and pre-recorded material, derived from her electronic album of the same title. The work is loosely inspired by the myth of Phaethon and the Sun-Chariot—a young man who demands the right to steer an overwhelming force and triggers catastrophe when he cannot control it. In Xu’s adaptation, Phaethon’s ambition becomes an allegory for contemporary acceleration and extraction and the illusion that we can drive planetary systems without consequence.

The residency will be used to build the opera’s underlying structure: scene architecture, libretto approach, chorus function, and sonic dramaturgy—determining what remains live and acoustic, what is amplified, and what stays fixed-media. Working in Athens, close to the myth’s living source, Xu will explore how techno-derived structures can become operatic forms, and what emerges when acoustic presence carries intimacy and fragility while electronic sound constructs environment, fate, and scale.