You Gotta Smell This: ScentOpera Opens in New York

I knew I smelled something creative…

Reading this New York Magazine article, I learned that over the weekend in New York at the Guggenhiem a new kind of opera opened: a ScentOpera.  And since I’ve pondered on many posts about the 5 senses, I just about fell of my chair when I read this story about ScentOpera’s creators, Stewart Matthew and Christophe Laudamiel, experiment with the sense of smell at an opera. I thought that rock n roll might be the first to really explore this type of thing. But, as the article explains, the opera crowd has beat rock n roll to the punch, (or to the smell.) 

In the arts, smell is the unloved sense. Whether your point of reference is Wagner’sGesamtkunstwerk or John Waters’s scratch-and-sniff Odorama, your nose will be ignored or disappointed: Even those artists who say they want to embrace all the senses come up short with scent. SoGreen Aria, a ScentOpera, which makes its debut on May 31 and June 1 at the Guggenheim, has an especially audacious air to it. This is an experimental performance piece in which fragrance takes center stage.

And in this Wall Street Journal article, also about the ScentOpera, a reader makes a comment about his explorations with Scent Events.  

I think we’re on to something.  

Now, only if the rock n roll concert community would catch on. I guess we’ll just have to do something about this.

If you attended the ScentOpera this weekend, I’d love to hear about your experience.

Take a whiff of these other links that the NYM article points out about the creator’s scientific explorations of sense and smell. 

SenseLab 

PerfumeShrine