Google Glass meets Italian opera

(ANSA) - Cagliari, July 31 - The great Italian composer Giacomo Puccini could never have imagined his final operatic work Turandot being shown to the world through the eyes of Google Glass.
    Yet that is just what happened at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari on the island of Sardinia, as the technology designed by California's Internet giant was put into service for one of the first times in a live opera performance Wednesday.
    Three members of the Teatro Lirico cast donned headsets containing the tiny computer devices to provide viewers with an insight into what opera looks like through the eyes of those who bring it to life.
    The idea grew from the opera company's Research and Technology Centre and general manager Mauro Meli, who has made innovation his focus.
    His goal was to bring the experience of opera to those who may not normally experience it and to an audience far beyond the seating capacity of a theatre.
    "In the end, this is the real challenge," said Meli, who spoke to ANSA between the second and third act of Turandot.
    "We have 300,000 people connected online; the opera house holds 1,200," he said.
    Online users were able to view almost real-time photos and videos that were automatically pushed to the opera house's social networks through an app created in a partnership between the opera house's MediaLab and TSC Labs.
    Meli said that Turandot seemed to be the perfect fit for an interactive experiment of this kind.
    "With Turandot, opera enters the future, melodically and harmonically speaking," he said.