How the Finnish National Opera used VR to stage a century-old production

As audiences come to see the Finnish National Opera’s staging of Puccini’s Turandot, they may not realize that this latest iteration of the century-old production was created with the help of some very modern technology: virtual reality.
About two years ago, the opera company began working with Helsinki VR tech company Varjo on a project to build what’s called a “digital twin” of the performance hall. This was to allow the many people involved in the opera’s production to see a highly detailed simulation of the space and the performance, including set designs, performer placement, and lighting. The opera company estimates that the digital twin, which enabled design elements to be visualized and perfected before labor and materials were committed, saved 75,000 euros (more than $80,000) and 1,500 hours of work.
“Just purely going from first drafts forward, we were presented with various examples in this XR tool where we could say this is too acoustically claustrophobic, or here we cannot move large choruses in this way,” says Lilli Paasikivi, artistic director of the Finnish National Opera. “It’s a very concrete dialogue.”

The VR system lets users view the performance hall from any number of vantage points, including the stage and audience seats, helping visualize everything from where performers will stand for solos to how the theater can quickly be evacuated in an emergency. 


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