Physics and the new Ig Nobel opera (and pills, and lotsa microbes)

The Harvard Physics Department is, again this year, kindly letting us use their SciBox as rehearsal space for the new Ig Nobel mini-opera. This photo, by David Kessler, shows part of the cast, at the first full rehearsal.

The opera, called “What’s Eating You“, will premiere as part of the 24th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, this Thursday night, September 18, at Sanders Theatre. You can watch the entire ceremony (including the opera) on the live webcast. It begins at 6:00 pm, US eastern time.

“What’s Eating You” is about people who stop eating food, and instead nourish themselves exclusively with pills. Here are some details:

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, story and words by Marc Abrahams
Directed by Maria Ferrante, with assistance by Robin Abrahams
Arranged by Henry Akona
Conducted by Paul Glenn
Costumed by Catherine Quick Spingler
Starring Maria Ferrante, Scott Taylor
Co-starring The Microbe Choir (Kelsey Calhoun, Delphine Gabbay, Paul Goodwin, Clia Goodwin, Erika Hutchinson, Andrew B. Jones, Julia Lunetta, Sylvia Rosenberg, Daniel Rosenberg, Abby Schiff, Ted Sharp, Patrick Yacono, and some special guest microbes)
Backed by the Concentrated Forces of Nature, a distilled orchestra composed entirely of biomedical researchers Patrick Yacono and Thomas Michel

BONUS: If you’re of a mind to, poke through the Ig Nobel archives and see some of the librettos, and bits of video, from previous Ig Nobel mini-operas. We’ve done a new opera every year, beginning in 1996, when “The Cockroach Opera” debuted as part of the 6th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

BONUS: Here’s video of the first performance of the song “The Big Bank Theory”, in “The Big Bank Opera”, a featured part of the 19th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, in 2009.