By Sujoy Dhar
As an Indian who musically wants to go back in a time machine to the Bollywood songs of 1950s and 1960s churned out by a genius Indian composer named Salil Chowdhury, Mozart found passage to our ears and hearts rather unknowingly through its Indianized versions (a blend of Mozart’s Fortieth Symphony with classical Indian music) created by this musician. 
So it was like revisiting some of our own Bollywood numbers’ origin too when I decided to step inside Mozart Immersive in Chicago and explore one of the greatest of all musical minds.
Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius opened at Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago in March 2023. It is from the creators of Chicago’s Immersive Van Gogh.
For the very first time, Massimiliano Siccardi, the immersive art installation pioneer, uses state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence as inspiration to craft astonishing visuals – inspired by the 18th-century destinations of Mozart’s world.
With video direction by Vittorio Guidotti, legendary dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov’s tortured portrayal of Leopold, Mozart’s father, the whole experience is enthralling.
For this audio-centric immersive experience, Luca Longobardi re-arranged and recomposed 17 selected works from Mozart’s repertoire.
The eclectic soundtrack, also featuring exclusive music from the Italian composer, was recorded by a 45-piece symphonic orchestra and conducted by four-time Grammy-nominated Constantine Orbelian.
As a famous reviewer writes in the Chicago Tribune: “Proceeding chronologically, creator Massimiliano Siccardi’s latest creation begins with a dreamy prologue, scored to Mozartian themes floating in a dreamy, high-end-massage soundscape. We see artifacts of an impish genius’s childhood projected on the 35-foot walls all around the largest of the gallery’s rooms: a slingshot, soap bubbles resembling Pandora’s life forms, a wooden puppet leaping through the air.”
It adds: “Moving through his life and environs, ‘Mozart Immersive’ depicts the composer as a boy genius marionette, struggling to break free from the expectations of court life, his father Leopold’s shadow and his own mortality. Strains of his ‘Don Giovanni,’ ‘The Magic Flute’ and other greatest-hits glories fill the room…”
This indeed was a captivating, surreal journey into the mind of one of history’s most legendary composers. This is “experience culture” at its best celebrating classical music.
Where:
Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago
Carl Sandburg Village Condominium
108 W Germania Pl, Chicago, IL 60610
IBNS/TWF
