La Passion de Simone

Sydney Chamber Opera

Media Scenography

Opera stage with a figure surrounded by falling white particles on a large screen

“Video artist Mike Daly has achieved something truly powerful, representing Weil’s physical and mental burdens with economy but haunting beauty.”

Limelight Magazine

La Passion de Simone is a collaboration with the Sydney Chamber Opera and serves as a meditation on the life of French philosopher, political activist and mystic Simone Weil. As Video Artist on the production, I worked closely with Imara Savage (Theatre Director) and Elizabeth Gadsby (Production Designer).

Throughout her life Weil had a profound empathy and sought to endure pain and hardship in order to better understand the suffering of others. At the age of 34 she starved herself to death in solidarity with the victims of World War II.

The video work takes form as an evolving visual gesture - the enduring image of rice falling. It’s an image that embodies a multitude of narratives and meanings, from her endurance of suffering as a means to knowledge and transcendence, to her metaphysical philosophies of gravity and grace.

To create the work’s principal image, soprano Jane Sheldon endured three tonnes of rice being dropped on her for over half an hour. The final 4K projected image was massive, at over 20 meters wide and 10 meters high. Ultimately the production received excellent reviews, including 4.5 stars from the Sydney Morning Herald.

A stream of rice falls on a woman standing in a black void. The rice is piling up around her.
A woman, wearing a dress, stands on stage in front of a large image of herself with a stream of rice falling onto her.
A conductor performs on stage in from of a projected image of rice falling onto a woman.
Streams of rice fall from high above onto a woman.
The silhouette of a female singer standing in front of a projected video image of her standing in a pile of rice as more rice falls on top of her.
A stage with a performer, an orchestra, a large pile of rice and very large projection screen, which depicts an image of rice falling on a woman.
Close-up of a woman's face as rice falls onto her from above.
A woman stands on stage in front of a massive projection screen, displaying a close-up image of the same woman with rice falling onto her.
A stage with a massive screen, on which there is an image of thousands of particles of rice that looks like white noise.