L'Indipendente

On September 24^th, Second Life is going to host a virtual performance of the Italian musical «Draculea - Nel Sangue e nell'Amore». In the real life the show is made of two parts and it is directed by Riccardo Giannini, soundtrack by Tiziano Barvafiera, script by Diego Ribechini, and choreographies by Anna Grunwald. It will play in real life on October 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th at the Rifredi Theater in Florence (Italy), during the celebrations of the Florence's Music Festival, the first event of its kind dedicated to the world of musicals.

The musical «Draculea - Nel Sangue e nell'Amore» has already won the first prize for the best unpublished Italian musical during the Musical Day 2007 event. Few months ago, AVIS decided to sponsor it and to select it as the official ambassador of the its regional section in Tuscany.

Since the slogan of show is «Blood is Life», it was considered a perfect linkage between AVIS and the Virtual Vampire world of Second Life. Therefore, the same team that produced «Odissea the Musical» and «Jesus Christ Superstar» in Second Life, enhanced with the addition of new professionals, has completely generated a brand new 3D Virtual Draculea with avatars and scenery specifically realized for this event. As in the previous shows, it will be a live show. In fact, while the singers will broadcast from studio, the avatars will be driven in real-time by the team. It was a huge effort that required months of practicing and rehearsals to obtain a perfect synchronization between moves and musics.

Cast is comprised by seven musical singers who will live perform thirteen pieces, as well as twenty professionals among actors, builders, scripters, and technical support persons. Hosting lands are Living in Tuscany for the stalls and welcome point, and Treasure of Tuscany for the stage. These are the numbers of a shows that promises to be a great event!

The Second Life musical was carried out from an idea of Anna Grunwald (aka Lioranne Flanagan) and Claudio Crocetti (aka KlaudeC Korobase). Scenery in Second Life were created by Arch. Alessandro La Sorte (aka Lamosseth Beck) with the collaboration of Mrs. Daniela Rizzi (aka Cristabella Loon). Costumes were produced by Mrs. Franca Olivieri (aka Fanny Douglas), whereas special effects were created by Dr. Dario De Judicibus (aka Eadoin Welles), who directed «Odissea the Musical» few months ago. Dracula's animations and accessories were provided by Valentina Ferrari (aka Saytona Chemistry).

The Second Life performance of the musical, produced by Senso Unico Alternato (SUA), Arkitris, and Fanny's Dream, is sponsored in the metaverse by Musaico Immaginario, Intoscana.it, AVIS, and the blog «L'Indipendente».

A trailer of the musical is also available on YouTube. The names of all the avatars who participated to the making of the event are listed in its closing titles.

The show will be also streamed to the web on Draculea and AVIS sites.

One of the major limitations of Second Life is the maximum number of avatars that can access the same sim at the same time. For class 5 sims this number is about 100, in theory, but when there are more than 60 avatars in the same island you can experiment severe problems of lag, especially if those avatars have several attachments with running scripts. This restriction is not a problem if you consider Second Life just a place to meet people, face to face or in a small group, but if you are planning to organize an event, a conference, an expo, a live performance as a show or a concert, few dozens of avatars are not an exciting audience.

Nowadays we are used to think to Internet as a simple and cheap channel to reach millions of people in one shot. A podcast, an article posted to a blog, a debate in a forum, or just some content published in a site can easily have thousands of readers and/or participants even if you are not famous at all. If your blog or even you are famous too, a million guests audience is not science fiction.

But what about Second Life? Even if your performance is at the crossing of four sims, a three hundred people audience is a success and you risk not to perform at all because of lag. Of course there is a very good reason for such a limitation. Second Life is a very complicated environment where each avatar and each object can interact in an unpredictable way with any other avatar and object. So, the more the avatars are, the more the possible interactions are. As a consequence, more capacity is needed. Of course Linden Lab could increase the maximum number of avatars per sim by improving its hardware, improving its architecture, improving its software, but it would not be realistic to expect an improvement of an order of magnitude with respect the current situation for the number of avatars allowed in the same sim.

So what? Well, let us consider a performance, for example a show. Most of the interactions is among actors, or between the actors and the director. Of course we expect applause from the audience and comments too, possibly during the interval, but it is really necessary to physically have all the avatars in the same sim?

Well, an avatar is already a virtual representation of an individual, but if we think to Second Life as a real world, we could introduce the concept of a virtual avatar too. Let us call it ghost avatars and refer to that entity by «it». A ghost avatar is simply a spectator, an onlooker, someone who cannot really interact with the other avatars in the sim, and therefore an entity that does not steel capacity, nor contributes to the lag. Of course it cannot goes everywhere without no rule or limitations. It should have the same limitations of the avatar it represents. So, if the corresponding avatar cannot access a land, it cannot access the land too; if the avatar cannot fly, it cannot fly too. In addition it cannot touch or edit object, create prims, interact in any way with any other avatar or object in a sim. It cannot even chat, but of course it can use some remote communication mechanism, as the instant message, exactly like any other avatar in any other sim.

Of course, since it is mostly invisible, it does not represent an obstacle to else's sight. I said «mostly» because someone - for example, the sim's owner - might prefer to be aware of how many ghosts are in the sim. Therefore, some way to identify a ghost avatar is recommended. For example, we could use a small globular light with the name above. If that placeholder is annoying, it should be possible to use a rendering option to remove it too, of course from client side. It will be up to the user to decide if it should be possible to see ghosts!

So, what a ghost avatar can do? What it is good for? Well, it can observe, of course; at least whatever can be observed by the corresponding avatar, and it can move inside the land with the same limitations it would have if it would be present in the sim as a real avatar. By using ghost avatars we could have in a sim, for example, a band of eight musicians and two singers, a small audience of VIP avatars, and thousands ghost avatars who could see the show causing no sim overload.

By allowing ghost avatars to access a sim, it stands to reason that we can organize a show or any other kind of event involving thousands of people. Therefore Second Life would become a much more interesting channel to perform for an artist. The same is true for a company, a writer, an association or even a government agency. A larger audience is surely a good way to revitalize Second Life that in the last few months experienced a shading of the number of premium accounts, a better indicator than the number of registered users to measure the real interest for that virtual world.

The Pæstum theatre of Italia Vera in Second Life
is pleased and proud to present
the first live musical in Second Life,
Odissea The Musical
by Marco and Massimo Grieco

The first night, on May 9th, 2008 at 9.30PM CEST (12.30PM PDT),
will be a charity show to raise funds for AMREF, the African Medical Research Foundation.

Entrance is free.
If you wish to participate, just send an instant message in Second Life to
Roland Igaly or Eulalia Burger.
You will be invited to join the group «Odissea, The Musical».
By accepting you will be granted access to the theatre.

What is Odissea the Musical?

Odissea the Musical is based on the Homer's masterpiece Odyssey. Whereas the musical transformation of the Odyssey has taken into consideration the plot, anyway, it has also emphasised the language to involve the spectator who will feel drawn into the work itself. Odissea the Musical, in its complete version, is made up of three acts of approximately 45 minutes each, with a duration, excluding intervals, of two hours and 25 minutes: Telemachus and the Prologue, the Adventure, the Return, for a total of 23 pieces of music.

As far as the staging is concerned, apart from traditional elements, modern techniques in 3D using polarised lenses will be employed, making it impossible to distinguish the real-life actors from those which — like Polyphemus or the monster Scylla, for example — have been created by the use of 3D computer graphics. The audio will be relayed through Dolby Surround. About 18 singers, 20 dancers and 8 acrobats will be employed in the production.

The musical will be performed in Italian theatres since July 2008.

What is the Second Life version?

The Second Life version is a live performance of 10 out of the 25 musical scenes of the original musical. It will last more than one hour and the singers will be the same of the "real life" show. This performance has two objectives: to promote the original musical, and to raise funds for AMREF, the African Medical Research Foundation. The Second Life project involved over fifthy people for about six months. Most of building and scripting was expressly developed for the musical. Only few objects and animations have been purchased in world. Most avatars, skins, shapes, clothes, accessories, scenes, gestures, and animations have been specially designed according to researches about the culture and habits of Ancient Greece.

The preparation of the virtual version of the show was a huge effort since Second Life was not designed for this kind of events. The production team had to solve many technical problems and to test several alternatives in order to develop a solution to the desired level of quality. The final result is not as good as the original musical, of course, which takes advantage of the best available technologies on the marketplace, but it is surely outstanding for Second Life. Just an example: the Pæstum theatre is probably the bigger lift ever built in Second Life; raised at the crossing of four islands, it may host over 300 avatars.

The production team and the cast

Music by Marco Grieco [MusicalMarco Greggan], lyrics by Marco Grieco and Massimo Grieco [Ulyx Gregan], produced by Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia [Basil Coage], and directed by Dario de Judicibus [Eadoin Welles]. The production team is made by Claudio Crocetti [KlaudeC Korobase] (Sound Director), Franca Olivieri [Fanny Douglas] (Avatar Designer), Rolando Ferri [Roland Igaly] (Public Relations), Eulalia Ciccolella [Eulalia Burger] (Production Secretary), Bob Lopp [Medhue Simoni] (Animation Designer), Jeremy R. Cooper (Lyric translation). Singers are Tommaso Fichele (Ulysses), Flavio Capasso (Telemachus), Brunella Platania (Penelope), Alfina Scorza (Athena), Maria Massa (Euryclea), Raffaele Di Gregorio (Polyphemus), Concetta De Luisa (Calypso), Roberta Andreozzi (Circe), Vito Pepe (Antinous), Domenico Prezioso (Eurymachus and Medont), and Carmine De Luca (Eurylochus). Cast is made by Lino Di Gianni [Lino Morigi], Valentina Ferrari [Saytona Chemistry], Emanuele Franceschini [Emanuele Dench], Martino Sturaro [Montolio Paine], Eliana De Vita [Eliana Iuga], and Paolo Catoni [Poll Wuyts].

What is AMREF?

AMREF Italia ONLUS⁽¹⁾ is the main private medical no-profit organization in East Africa, employing more than 700 people, 97% from Africa, and managing 140 development projects in 22 countries. AMREF is committed to prophylaxis, health education, and medical professional training. See http://www.amref.it for further info (site is in Italian language). 90% of funds come from private citizens, charity events and shows, as well as collaborations with selected companies. AMREF supporters in Italy are more than 120,000. Most arts, sports, and show personalities, as well as famous people in the cultural life, support AMREF as testimonials and collaborators.

Please, support AMREF by making a donation and by sharing this message among your friends. When you donate, please specify as reason for payment «ODISSEA», so that we can estimate the contributes related to the show. Thank you in advance. To support AMREF you can send your donation by bank transfer to IBAN IT19H0103003202000001007932 (AMREF Italia Onlus account, at Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, Rome Agency #2), or by credit card (Sì Cards, i.e. Visa and Master Card, American Express, prepaid cards) from AMREF web site or calling them by phone to number +39.06.99704650.

⁽¹⁾ ONLUS stands for Organizzazione non lucrativa di utilità sociale, that is, a no-profit organization with social and humanitarian aims which is acknowledged by the Italian government.

Often, during my presentations concerning Second Life, the metaverses, and 3D Internet in general, I stated that in the future the interaction with virtual worlds will not require any complicated wearable tool, as helmets and big gloves, but light devices or no device at all, taking advantage of technologies like the one used by Nintendo for Wii (ENG|ITA). It looks like that future is closer than I thought. Just give a look at this video.

If you want to see more projects by Johnny Lee, just visit his projects' page. This guy has a future.